{"id":3192,"date":"2011-08-09T01:43:51","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T08:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3192"},"modified":"2011-08-09T01:43:51","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T08:43:51","slug":"sugarland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/sugarland\/","title":{"rendered":"SUGARLAND"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sugarland\"<\/h1>\n

SUGARLAND<\/h1>\n

The country duo turns over another new leaf with its new album\u2019s arena-rocking sound<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If Sugarland\u2019s new album,\u00a0The Incredible Machine<\/em>, sounds grand and full of ambition, that\u2019s because its inspiration was, too. \u201cWe had gotten a call about writing a song for a 2010 Winter Olympics soundtrack,\u201d says guitarist Kristian Bush. \u201cSo we started thinking, \u2018If I were writing a song for a skier or snowboarder to play on their iPod before they competed,\u00a0what would it be?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The result, \u201cWide Open,\u201d appeared on AT&T\u2019s digitally released Team USA Soundtrack<\/em>, and served as the jumping-off point for Bush and bandmate Jennifer Nettles to write much of the rest of The<\/em> Incredible Machine<\/em>. \u201cWe have always been really good at writing for a specific emotion,\u201d Bush says. \u201cWe did \u2018Wide Open,\u2019 it felt good, and we said, \u2018Let\u2019s do that again.\u2019\u201d They also drew on some deeper-rooted inspiration: iconic \u201980s pop culture like John Hughes\u2019 films and U2\u2019s cinematic sound during that era. \u201cWe were teenagers then, and a lot of the pop culture was about archetypes of what it was like to be that age,\u201d Bush says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what really inspired us to become musicians. A lot of the songs came from conversations about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the powerful, anthemic sound of The<\/em> Incredible Machine<\/em> won\u2019t surprise anyone who knows its origins, it might shock country fans used to more\u00a0down-home sounds. But reinvention is almost as much part of Sugarland\u2019s identity as any one genre. The group grew out of the Atlanta singer-songwriter scene but found immediate success in mainstream country music with its 2004 multiplatinum debut, Twice the Speed of Life<\/em>. \u201cWe\u2019ve turned over a whole lot of new leaves since starting this\u00a0band,\u201d says Bush.<\/p>\n

The trio became a duo when\u00a0founding member Kristen Hall abruptly\u00a0quit while Sugarland was still riding high on the first album\u2019s success, and some wondered if the shift would upset the group\u2019s unique chemistry. But Nettles and Bush made the transition seamlessly, and subsequent albums have proved so successful that they\u2019re now headlining arena tours\u2014which comes with\u00a0its own challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur touring and writing cycles have to happen at the same time, and that changes the process a little,\u201d Bush says. \u201cBut you realize you can be just as creative 30 minutes before you go on stage as you can holed up in some mesa in the Southwest. Once you take that superstition away and realize you have the confidence to create\u00a0anywhere, you will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Katie Dodd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUGARLAND The country duo turns over another new leaf with its new album\u2019s arena-rocking sound If Sugarland\u2019s new album,\u00a0The Incredible Machine, sounds grand and full of ambition, that\u2019s because its inspiration was, too. \u201cWe had gotten a call about writing a song for a 2010 Winter Olympics soundtrack,\u201d says guitarist Kristian Bush. \u201cSo we started […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[1175,10156,2325],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3194,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3192\/revisions\/3194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}