Thank you to Chris Bandi & Monarch Publicity for setting up our interview. Bandi is a favorite around here, so we’re always happy when we can connect! You can listen to the full audio, or read through the highlights below.
Be sure to download & stream his current single, “Would Have Loved Her.”
Got Country: How ARE you? 2020 was crazy
Chris Bandi: I’m doing well! I think we’re on the back end of this thing, so we’ve started booking some shows, still socially distanced. I’m excited to get back out there. I’m going to have a whirlwind of emotions when the first time we step back on that stage because we haven’t done it in forever. It’s gonna be nerve wracking, it’s gonna be exciting… It’s gonna be like stepping out for the first time again!
GC: What are you doing to stay busy & sane while off the road?
CB: Doing a lot of Zoom writes. I’ve been playing a lot of golf. I guess Vitamin D is supposed to be good for fighting or not catching covid. I’ve been getting my Vitamin D playing golf. Really my year was playing golf and writing music.
GC:Was it a hard transition?
CB: The first 2 weeks were great. We were out every week starting 2020. We were gone all the time, so to be able to decompress a little bit, which is rare in this industry, it was nice. It was awesome to be able to be home and relax a little bit. We are missing being out on the road. We are missing playing shows, seeing people, that human interaction… Walking out on stage playing our songs. We’re slowly coming back.
GC: Has anything positive come from the extra time at home? A silver lining…
CB: Just being home and that connection, this is the longest I’ve been home since I moved to Nashville. I was out all the time playing shows. I think the silver lining was getting to know my girlfriend on a more personal level. Being in the house with her as long as we’ve been home has been incredible.
GC: How has the reaction to “Would Have Loved Her” been since going to radio?
CB: It has been incredible. I always knew that it was a special song to me just because of what I wrote it about, who I wrote it about. The fact that people are connecting with it on a different level and sharing their stories, whether it be on YouTube, or Instagram, or TikTok, it has been so great to see that as a songwriter, people are hearing what you’re doing and it’s touching them on a personal level. We got to start our radio tour back up in October of 2020 and made a few people cry. The reaction has been more than I could have ever asked for.
GC: What are your thoughts on how big it got on TikTok?
CB: We released a short little snippet of the video we cut for “Would Have Loved Her” and all of the sudden, overnight we went from like 30 followers to 25,000 followers. It’s crazy how quick it happens on that platform. I probably would not have believed it if it did not happen to us.
GC: B-Dub radio – you’re killing it with the Instagram story daily polls & winning against artists like Tim McGraw & Blake Shelton!
CB: We have, which is incredible! B-Dub is awesome. I met him in Colorado for the first time. He’s been putting us up against some heavy hitters, so the fact that we keep chugging along is blowing my mind. I was joking with someone earlier today that my mom just keeps making fake Instagram accounts and voting for me. It’s been awesome.
GC: What do you hope to see in 2021 for your career?
CB: We’ve got some great songs that we’ve written during the quarantine to get those out is gonna be awesome, but I’m just looking forward to more shows. Last year was supposed to be our year to get out… We dropped my debut EP, and we didn’t get to tour on it. We didn’t get to play those songs. I’m really excited to see how people have digested the music when we come to play it live and see if they’re singing along with us.
(photo credit: Midtown Motion)
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