The Eli Young Band: "That's All the Power of the Fans"

The Eli Young Band — four college friends from the University of North Texas who have been playing together for nine years — sat down with Premier Guide Miami's Daedrian McNaughton at the Country Throwdown Tour in West Palm Beach. Premier Guide Miami sat down to find out what that means — and what comes next.

The Eli Young Band — Mike Eli, James Young, Jon Jones, and Chris Thompson — formed a dynamic friendship that has helped them survive as a group and succeed where other bands have not. The former students of the University of North Texas at Denton, all college friends, enjoy performing on stage for their fans. Premier Guide Miami's Daedrian McNaughton caught up with the band at the Country Throwdown Tour in West Palm Beach.

PGM: Are you enjoying the tour?

The Eli Young Band: We are. So far it has met every expectation we've had. It's so well organized. Everyone is so well prepared.

PGM: How did you get your start?

The Eli Young Band: We were all students at the University of North Texas. We started jamming, writing, and playing music from there. We are four friends with that same thing in common. We all came to college wanting to play music. Going down the road this far, nine years later, because we were friends first we are able to maintain a good relationship to make it happen.

PGM: Do you have any upcoming projects after this tour?

The Eli Young Band: We just recorded a song for the Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute album — "Gimme Three Steps." And we are out promoting "Guinevere," which is our current single. It all happened because there was a demand for the song. Our fans made it a single instead of some marketing team deciding this song might work.

PGM: How did you promote it?

The Eli Young Band: We made a music video. There were all these indicators to us: at our shows, the fans were singing and screaming every word loudly back at us, and it was selling really well without being on the radio. The four of us decided to make a video without it being a single — just to give the fans something back for loving the song. People posted things online saying how much they love the song and relate to the story. They saw the video on TV and started calling radio stations requesting it. The stations were excited to play it, then it became an official radio single. That's all the power of the fans.

PGM: What's next?

The Eli Young Band: It's hard to see past this tour right now. As soon as we are done we are going right back into the studio. Hopefully you will see a new record coming out at the beginning of next year.

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