Tell us a bit about where you are from and how you got into music?
TRACTOR: We’re from all over the place really, but we think of ourselves as a West Country concoction of folks who are confused about their love for country, folk and rock ‘n’ roll.
SOMERSET BILL: We all met on the acoustic circuit in London about 10 years ago. That was before I moved back to Somerset. Doc moved to Bristol first… 4 years ago?
DOCTOR: We’ve played music pretty much all our lives. I think we all found it through the discovery that we’re essentially outsiders, stumbling across the common comfort in making a wonderful, sometimes tuneful racket. I think that’s roughly how we got into music.
What’s the live music scene like where you live right now?
TRACTOR: The West Country is God’s country, where God has let himself go and accepted the wife ain’t coming back.
DOC: Cider swigging, sweaty hoe-downs – punk and folk, in a sodden field on a humid August night.
TRACTOR: Everyone’s ya pal forever until next time – and the bands are fantastic, but maybe I’m biased.
SOMERSET: Some great new independent venues opening up too. Micro-breweries and grassroots stuff. A lot of DIY community spirit.
Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
TRACTOR: We love Salisbury’s very own – Ribble – if you wanna be heckled by a thumping fiddle duo dressed like a cosplay men in black.
SOMERSET: And London’s loveable, tea sipping gentleman – The Rigmarollers – if you want to step into a time warp taking you to a sort of 21st century speakeasy!
DOC: Pete Robson… KD Rivers… Brandon Ridley… but, honestly, Bristol has also got loads of great folk and country musicians.
TRACTOR: My favourites are A.D. Scruffs, perfect old-time bluegrass, with great moustaches… and The Balers, they make us look like fucking nuns. Honestly, weird fuckers. Great band.
SOMERSET: Are we allowed to swear in this?
TRACTOR: Yeah, they can just bleep it out in the edit, if they like.
Do you think it’s easy to become a victim of our surroundings sometimes?
TRACTOR: You got to fight it haven’t you? Keep swinging like a wrecking ball! The second you become the victim of the times or the circumstances or whatever; you might as well hang up those gloves. Anyway, that’s not what we are about.
SOMERSET: Our ethos has always been to build the community around ourselves. Get family and friends involved.
DOC: And playing places like rural village halls…
SOMERSET: Yeah, those places go wild because nobody else is going to come and do it for you. I guess that DIY attitude is the difference between the music scene in the countryside and the big cities.
What are your ambitions for the band?
TRACTOR: Create music that we adore, that makes us giggle and feel something, travel with our friends, be real, honest and write.
DOC: Keep reaching out to new audiences. Play new stages. Explore new areas. It’s a real buzz when people are buying tickets just to see you!
SOMERSET: I’m just here to get rich quick.
What’s your favourite social media platform to use and why?
TRACTOR: It’d be easy to say I hate them all, but I like Instagram because it’s got some really great videos of trains and cooking.
DOC: We get really good reactions online and it’s great to have that positive feedback, but it can feel like another full-time job.
SOMERSET: I tried Tik-Tok once and have honestly never felt so old in all my life. But then someone will see a video and send a message and it make it feel worthwhile.
We believe it’s essential to have a presence on Facebook, Instagram and X to introduce yourself to all the different types of audiences out there, what’s your thoughts on that?
SOMERSET: A necessary evil?
TRACTOR: But it’s always been that way I think, from sticking ye poster to a lamp post, sketching an illustration in a magazine, to posting a video or trying to find a viral hook, we’re all salesman of our art, whether folks admit it or not, it’s really just where your integrity lays in how you sell it.
DOC: Yeah, exactly, have integrity – don’t let it compromise the soul of what you are doing.
SOMERSET: So much of what we have achieved has been organic. Word of mouth and playing pubs and beer festivals to build real audiences. We’ve just tried to keep that energy online.
TRACTOR: We’re market stall traders when it comes to the socials, I reckon.
What’s your view on the Music industry today?
TRACTOR: The music industry is the clean-cut town from the Truman show, dictating everything bit by bit to fuel a narrative. The real shit is that girl Jim Carey has a fling with who’s trying to expose the lot, waiting outside the studio every day, shouting at how shit the whole thing is. The best bands sail through the pretend storm the industry puts you through; you’ll shit yourself while you’re getting gas-lit and soaked by the fake waves. Finally, you’ll hit the plywood walls, and you’re free. That doesn’t mean you get the glory, but you’re free. The industry is racing and competitive, it’s so confused, but you lead what’s next when you learn to surf those waves and don’t get drowned. The music industry is the what’s-his-face bloke pulling those leavers that makes those waves.
SOMERSET: Wohh
DOCTOR: Bet I can guess what the last film you watched was?!
TRACTOR: “Babe, Pig In The City”
What’s your thoughts on AI generated music?
TRACOTR: Scabs. Music is human connection, the second you touch AI, it is not music. Scabs. Scabs. Scabs.
SOMERSET: I, for one, bow down before our splendid new overlords and welcome their glorious destruction of the human race…
DOC: AI is a tool; the problem isn’t the technology it’s the bastards using it, to profit off other people’s misery.
SOMERSET: You are right, I think there have been similar scares in music throughout history, that some new technology is going to ruin everything. Bob Dylan going electric, autotune and digitally sampled Synth Pop. But people keep coming back to sitting around a campfire picking a banjo.
TRACTOR: Scabs.
What’s the biggest thing you have learned recently as you progress with your music?
DOC: Play sessions with other musicians.
SOMERSET: Love the people you spend time with, work with those people and write about it together.
TRACTOR: Hold your hands up when you’re being an arrogant twat, say sorry and hug the good ones. Listen to the first recording you done as a teenager in a shitty punk band. Aspire to chase that joy, always.
What’s currently in your ears and on rotation at the moment?
TRACTOR: Willie Carlisle, his last album was fantastic.
SOMERSET: We saw him and Jerron Paxton at Red Rooster festival last year. Both were insanely good!
TRACTOR: John Prine, Shane McGowan, but there’s also Johnny Cash, and he owns everything.
DOC: I went to see Psychedelic Porn Crumpets last week! Love me some heavy rock!
TRACTOR: There’s so much great music right now, the Mary Wallopers, Jesse Welles, Josh Quimby, Sturgill Simpson, Les Blackwell, Eddie Burman, Nick Shoulders… really that’s the internet being put to good use; allowing us to hear these people across time and space.
What was your worst experience on stage? Any funny stories to share?
TRACTOR: I’ve shat myself… had an inflatable dick thrown at me… nearly been punched on several occasions… been punched on a few… thrown up in my mouth… I once laid down for a whole show for being too fucked, it’s just been a real wild ride.
SOMERSET: That’s not funny. It’s tragic. You should write a country music album all about it!
TRACTOR: We all have our ghosts between us, I’m not sure what I’ve got consent to tell…
Got any fun stories from life on the road?
TRACTOR: We’ve racked up 10 years of touring, and the wonderful thing about this question is I’m sitting here giggling away at all the wild, weird shit that’s happened, but can’t seem to find a way of explaining any of it without both of us getting cancelled.
SOMERSET: There have been a few fistfights in car parks. And there was that time you got led home by a sheep dog when you got lost on a farm…
TRACTOR: We’ve all had to be rescued with our trousers down at some point or another!
DOC: It’s been so fun, and we still have a really good time – we’re all older now and have wives/partners – but it’s still just such a joy travelling with your friends being loud twats in a van.
SOMERSET: Yeah; admin, logistics and van travel. The real joys of being a professional musician.
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
TRACTOR: We are still building a new album, but our latest single is called “SONGS IN THE KEY OF BLUE” – it’s a kinda rockabilly tune about finding comfort and companionship at a folk session when you’re lonesome.
SOMERSET: It’s an absolute banger.
TRACTOR: Folk sessions are a really welcoming place, especially if you’re a travelling musician and want to find “your people”… they’ve given me so much… I reference my wife’s leopard print coat in it too; that’s a songwriting achievement.
DOC: I like the bit where we howled like wolves.
What was the recording process like?
TRACTOR: Exciting, venting, draining, kind, creative, supportive and loads of port.
DOC: We recorded at my Mum’s house, in the back end of the Yorkshire Dales, and my brother was our sound engineer and producer. We sat around the kitchen table all night, just chatted and jammed…
TRACTOR: Lots of spontaneous things happen when you get together with your pals and make music. I wish I could pack it into a montage with a fun 80s soundtrack to watch back. I don’t know what the process was like in all honesty…
SOMERSET: That’ll be the port. We recorded the main body of the track live, in one session; it just keeps the vibe and the energy raw and authentic. And then added a few extra layers the next day.
TRACTOR: Every time we go there, the experience is beautifully unique, and wonderfully silly.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
TRACTOR: Never, I work with my best friends, and they make sure everything we do is solid. Okay… maybe I’d change my pants and socks.
DOC: The bass drum track got accidentally deleted whilst recording… that was a ball ache. I don’t think I’d choose to repeat that, but it worked out well in the end. It’s all a learning curve.
SOMERSET: I’m really satisfied with it. Lyrically, musically, the energy. The family home recording session… and my wife did all the artwork and so much of the promotion too, so I’m very proud of her for that. It really captures everything we are about, in around 3 minutes and 11 seconds.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
TRACTOR: This machine kills AI.
SOMERSET: Luddite.
DOC: Oh yeah, we are on tour again soon! Please come and have a party with us.
SOMERSET: The amount of support we have for this, from new fans and old is unbelievable. That’s the real, human connection that AI will never replicate.
TRACTOR: Yeah! Love ya pals and the people that support you, even better, make music with them.
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