Your Country's Right Here: Thompson Square Stay Cool as Their Popularity Heats Up
Thompson Square really can’t help reliving their first kiss.
After all, their biggest hit to date is “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not,” inspired when the duo began dating and Shayna wondered if Keifer would ever go for the big moment. Of course with the excitement around the song comes expectations to see the duo recreate it which is likely one reason they did the lip lock earlier this month at the Country Music Association Awards, winning all kinds of awws from the audience and media.
“Keifer and I just don’t very well apart from each other,” said Shawna of her husband of twelve year s. “We [co-wrote] the song ‘Got You’ just talking about that, comparing how certain things have to have certain things to work.”
The partnership between this couple certainly is a sterling example of things that belong together. As they head toward the December 2 Academy of Country Music Awards with seven nominations, it’s clear that they are among the year’s hottest country break out acts. Not only did “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not” receive extensive radio airplay and all kinds of popular success”including five consecutive weeks on the Country Digital Soundscan Chart”but it has sold more than 1.5 million downloads. Thompson Square is also the only duo to reach No. 1 on CMT’s Top 50 Artist Chart this year.
Although the two were solo performers when they met at a Nashville competition, their chemistry was such that they almost immediately bonded professionally and personally. Both had lifelong dreams of becoming country stars and were doing whatever possible to make those dreams reality.
“You either want to do it or you don’t,” said Keifer. “We never had a plan B.”
For the Thompsons that means writing every single day and night and using that “can do” attitude to create their self-titled debut album that was released this past February.
“We did everything ourselves,” said Keifer. “For our first record we went to fifty basements all over town to [create] our record. No one helped us. We definitely had songwriting friends who allowed us to write with them but nobody really [opened doors].”
That suits the duo just fine, though. Keifer talks about how he has a certain way of writing that “doesn’t make any sense at all. I just mumble until something [intelligible] comes out. We also talk about a lot of stuff in our lives and…I just start banging on the guitar.”
“It’s not ‘Yesterday,'” said Keifer mentioning the Beatles’ iconic hit as he talked about “Got You.” “It just sounds good on the radio and it’s just a lot of fun.”That relaxed attitude, as they struggled to turn their dream into a reality, is what makes their music so accessible.
Just like the duo themselves.
