McAlister Kemp have had an explosive couple of years. Going from virtual unknowns to festival main stage players, they're fast becoming one of Australia's favourite country acts.

We talked to Drew McAlister about playing CMC Rocks The Hunter, what his highlights from the road have been from the last couple of years and why he thinks country fans identify so well with the duo's music.  

You guys are playing CMC Rocks The Hunter again next year – are you guys psyched for that? 

What would you say is your favourite part about playing at CMC Rocks?

Well, we played there last year and I remember this vividly – this was a turning point for us – we went on stage and we started playing our songs and... everyone knew the words! We were absolutely both blown away. It meant that all the work we’d done before was starting to pay off. Next year we’ll be on the Main Stage and I can’t even imagine what that’s gonna be like.

Are you nervous to be debuting the new record, Country Proud, live on stage or are you confident with what you’ve got?

Nah mate, we should be alright. We’re gonna do plenty of rehearsals and make sure we don’t screw up any notes or any chords or lyrics. It seems to be the perfect place to do it so we’re looking forward to that.

What can you tell us about the new album, Country Proud?

The new album is probably a little bit bigger sounding than (debut record) All Kinds Of Tough. We’ve tried to put a few more rockier songs on the album than we did on All Kinds Of Tough, which I guess has just lead a natural progression from our live show. This album kind of reflects where our live show is at.

You wrote your first album while you guys were largely on the road – did you use the same formula for this album or did you do a bit more in the studio?

It was similar. We wrote a few in Nashville and we wrote a few back here but it varied. We both co-wrote a lot of the songs together and sometimes I’d go off and write with other people and Troy would go off and write with other people and come back and meet in the middle sort of thing. But, yeah, much the same way as we did the first album.

Cool! What was your time in Nashville like?

Awesome mate. We did two weeks there and wrote about 14 songs. And the very last song we wrote was ‘Country Proud,’ which is the first single. But it was great mate, too much chicken wings and too much beer but it was a really good experience and hopefully we can go back again next year.

You guys have had a pretty solid rise over the last few years – what do you think it is about your music that country fans identify with?

Mate, we hope that it’s the stuff that we write about. We just try to write about real stuff, the things people can relate to. That’s what we hope it is anyway.

I think also that there aren’t to many other duos going around and probably not to many other dups that are as tall as we are. A talking point every time we do a gig is always people who come and get photos with us because we’re quite tall.

But I think the core of it has to be that the songs somehow relate to people and that’s what we’ve tried to do on the next album as well – not move too far way from those core issues. 

You’ve toured pretty heavily over the last year or two – what have some of the highlights been from your time on the road?

Mate, have to be Alan Jackson. That was insane. That was just amazing. We were talking about it afterwards that we got to stand there on a stage that we literally had dreamed about since we were kids – playing your songs to that many people. It was amazing and we’re still getting people coming up to us after gigs saying “We saw you at Alan Jackson.” It was an amazing opportunity and that we got to do that was pretty cool.

I’m sure most of the CMC audience have heard and love the latest single ‘Country Proud’ but if you had to, how would you describe it?

I’d say that’s anthemic, which is what we were shooting for when we wrote it. And it’s about two things really – it’s about celebrating the fact that you’re a country fan but you’re also celebrating the fact that you’re proud to be Australian. Those are the two things that we tried to touch on. And making a mention of Slim Dusty in the song, we wanted to sort of pay homage to people that have come before us I guess. And you know, Slim’s the King. So, hopefully it will be something that people will take on board as being something that they can identify with and not be ashamed to say “I’m a country music fan,” because it’s never been more popular than it is now and it’s only going to get out there to more people.

What would you say is your favourite song off the new record?

They’re all my favourites at the moment. But ‘Country Proud’ is definitely one that we’re very, very proud of. Also, there’s another song on there, ‘Finish What You Started,’ which is the opposite of ‘Country Proud.’ It’s a slower song and it tells a bit of a story. So, there’s lots on the album that will cater to what people liked on All Kinds Of Tough that they’ll find on this album too.

Running on from that, do you have a song from Country Proud or All Kinds Of Tough that you particularly enjoy playing live?

Well off the first album ‘Hell Yeah’ and ‘All Kinds of Tough’ are great band songs and I think on this next album a song called ‘Cold Beer and Hot Women,’ which is a pretty up tempo, rocking song. And ‘Feed My Tractor’ - that’s another up tempo one that I think's gonna be a lot of fun to play too.

The CMT website has been doing a series on what country stars did before they were famous, so I thought I’d ask you the same question – what’s the worst job you’ve had?

Mate, I’ve had so many jobs over the years. I remember working in an abbattoir when I was in Dubbo during the school holidays. That was pretty intense. But I’ve done all sorts of labouring and any labouring job is hard. 

You guys got started playing Jonny Cash covers but your sound has definitely a newer school of country sound – do you think you’ll ever be tempted to record in a more classic country style?

I think there will always be elements in there. The stuff that we listen to and have listened to for a long time is definitely more the contemporary stuff and definitely the direction we thought we were most comfortable going in. But I think no matter how the music evolves, you have to keep the integrity of the lyric in there. That’s what makes country music what it is. You can put all sorts of stuff around a song but, for us anyway, it’s important to keep the integrity of the lyric. We’ve still got pedal steel and all that sort of stuff – there’s probably just a few more guitars on this album than there was on the last album. 

Finally, what are your plans for the rest of 2012?

Mate, more touring and obviously releasing the album on March 16 and mate – more touring! There’ll be more videos released and singles and we’ve just got to keep building our brand, get in front of more people. The reality is we feel like we’ve done a lot but we’ve barely scratched the surface. There’re a lot of people who don’t know who we are and we’ve just got lots more hard work coming up really. 

Nathan Wood

The McAlister Kemp will launch their new album Country Proud on the main stage at the 2012 CMC Rocks The Hunter festival. You can find more info at the McAlister Kemp website and on the CMC Tour page.