IN CONVERSATION WITH FLATLAND CAVALRY

interview by JANA LETONJA

Described by The Wall Street Journal as a “straightforward, upbeat, electrified country-rock band,” West Texas Hall of Famers Flatland Cavalry have spent more than a decade building their own corner of modern country music, pairing vivid storytelling with the restless energy of the road. Following the March release of their fifth studio album, Work of Heart, the band returns October 2 with Work of Heart – Heartstrings, a deluxe edition featuring five new songs. With more than a billion career streams, major film syncs, an ACM Group of the Year nomination, their single Never Comin’ Back making its way across country radio, and a current run supporting Kacey Musgraves on her Middle of Nowhere Arena Tour, Flatland Cavalry are entering an exciting new chapter while staying rooted in the songwriting and West Texas spirit that started it all.

photography by FERNANDO GARCIA

You’re more than a decade into Flatland Cavalry now. When you look at the band that formed in 2014 versus the band you are today, what feels like the biggest transformation?
We’ve all grown as musicians, songwriters, and performers, but what feels like the biggest transformation of the band we are today versus the one we were ten years ago is obtaining a knowledge that anything is possible. There was no guarantee this would all work out when we booked out first show in 2014 yet through immense effort, luck, persistence, faithfulness, and learning to rebound and rebuild after failure upon failure we’ve found ourselves singing and playing in Madison Square Garden, opening for one of my favorite artists every Kacey Musgraves. Knowing you can manifest your dreams and visions for the future encourages me with a confidence that transcends and abounds from the simple hope I began with all these years ago. 

Your fifth album is called Work of Heart. What does that title mean to you, and at what point in making the record did you realize it captured what these songs were about?
What Work of Heart means to me can be best summed up with a quote I discovered recently, “A man who works with his hands is a laborer. A man who works with his hands and head is a craftsman. A man who works with his hands, head, and heart is an artist.” 

I believe we are all worthy of being called artists when we show up to life, our work, and relationships every day and give it everything we got. Upon examination of all the lyrics to the batch of the “best” songs I had to make a record, I discovered nearly all had the word heart in it. One of those songs, Work Of Heart raised its hand as the title track as it seemed to fit under its umbrella, so to speak. 

You’re now expanding the record with Work of Heart – Heartstrings and five additional songs. What made these five songs feel like the right continuation of the album?
The five additional songs felt like the right continuation of Work of Heart in that they tell a continuous story and expand upon the grander emotions of life. Hard Lessons felt like the perfect song to kick off the EP as it is about re-birth upon ego death which opens the door to the communal love expressed in Cinnamon Sugar (It’s Love). Keeping that love aflame amidst cynics and the hardships relationships face gets the listener ready for Heartstrings. Love is service and gratitude for each moment which is elaborated in Strangers & Angels. At last, One More Song feels like the last love song sung as they turn on the lights and are sweeping the floors.

Were the new songs always part of the Work of Heart world, or did some of them emerge after the original album was finished?
All 17 songs comprising Work of Heart – Heartstrings were selected prior to recording out of a greater batch of around two dozen songs. 

Flatland Cavalry has always balanced melancholy and tenderness with songs that really come alive onstage. How conscious are you of that balance when making a record?
Melancholy and tenderness certainly permeates my songwriting, though I can’t say I'm consciously aiming to balance these elements when making records. I do believe the hardships my family has faced lends towards my scope of life as this amalgamation of beauty, wonder, love and goodness despite trials, tribulations and and unfortunately, at times, tragedy. 

Never Comin’ Back marks your Top 40 debut at country radio. What has it been like hearing a Flatland Cavalry song reaching audiences in that way?
Never Comin’ Back has since become a Top 30 song. As I grew up listening to country radio, it is truly a dream come true to have a song I wrote played to millions of folks who, perhaps just like me, are seeking that song that makes you feel something. 

You’re currently supporting Kacey Musgraves on the Middle of Nowhere Arena Tour. What has been the biggest adjustment in taking Flatland Cavalry’s music into arenas compared with the clubs, theaters and other rooms you came up playing?
The biggest adjustment in taking our music into arenas versus clubs and theatres is that bigger rooms require bigger efforts as a performer to ensure you are getting your music and message to the back of the room. Generally, as the opener you really have to work for every new fan gained and ask yourself “Why should anyone care to listen to Flatland Cavalry?“

Your songs have appeared in films including Twisters and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Is it strange to see a song that began as something personal suddenly become part of somebody else’s cinematic story?
Those songs were intentionally written for those projects so it wasn’t strange as much as it was surreal and, honestly, a lot of fun getting to create something that you could imagine syncing to imagery on the silver screen. 

However, I could’ve never imagined the day I wrote it several years prior that Mountain Song would be featured in its entirety in an opening scene of the hit television show Yellowstone.

After years of touring together, what have you learned about keeping a band both creatively exciting and personally healthy when you spend so much of your lives on the road?
I’ve learned simply, let things and people be what they will be. Keeping an open mind when it comes to bandmates' ideas and opinions in the studio and regarding the live show is essential to maintaining harmony and arriving at a product that’s unique and different than I may have imagined it – which I’ve grown more okay, the longer I do this, with “different.” However, as the chief songwriter for Flatland Cavalry since its inception, I must find the balance between considering everyone’s thoughts, ideas, and opinions and trusting my gut or heart to advocate for the song itself, which come through me, to be what it wants to be. Serving the song itself has always been our primary mode of operation. 

You’ve achieved milestones that probably seemed distant when you started—major tours, film placements, award nominations and a billion streams. What still feels unfinished or unexplored for Flatland Cavalry?
Our first record producer, Scott Faris, likened our band to a flower that continues to dazzle and surprise as it blooms. Allowing myself and bandmates to create freely without restriction will continue to reveal all that’s within us. I have aspirations for a gospel/spiritual album, a Spanish-Spanglish album. It could be interesting too, to hold up in a cabin in the woods one of these days and write and record whatever we come up with as a collective. 

With Work of Heart – Heartstrings just released, what do you hope listeners discover in these five new songs that they might not have heard in the original album?
What I hope listeners discover in these five new songs that they might not have heard in the original album is that there is a new life and love to be explored upon “shucking” the ego and all its regrets, limitations, and false-judgements, that life after death, to self, is beyond worth living, that’s where the good stuff is. Perhaps, upon listening to these songs they’re more inspired to work with their hands, head, and heart.