BillBoard Magazine : Herrick Try a 'New Dance'

"We worked really hard, we actually cut the album four times," she related to Billboard. "We just kept growing musically, and we just wanted it to be the best it could be for the fans. We didn't want to cut any corners and say 'Well, that's good enough.' As an artist, it's never going to be 'good enough,' so we kept mutating and changing. The fans have really responded to it, and we're excited because they have been so excited about it. It just means so much for us to have them come up to us and say that 'This is such a deep album.' That's what we want - and long for - is for someone to tell us that. We spent four years on it. It was a labor of love."
Bass player Kerry Herrick agrees, saying "We spent a lot of time writing, rewriting, replacing songs, recording tracks almost constantly, changing studios. We finally found the right sound, and the right melodic aspect to go with the lyrics. We didn't put any boundaries on it, especially when Michael Bonagura (Bailee & The Boys) got involved. He co-produced ten of the cuts, and Buddy Cannon produced four. He has this 70s feel to whatever he's doing and he's such a guitar player. He just made it so much fun, and put such a whole new breath of life into the music when he got involved. We'd look up at the clock, and it would be three in the morning. I'd never seen a man so into the guitar all my life."

Herrick is comprised of Donna, Kerry, steel / banjo player Jefferson Rogers, and drummer Zach Ballard. They are very diverse, as the music on "New Dance" is very much a melting pot. There's some traditional stylings mixed in with contemporary sounds, and some blues-drenched numbers that really seem to accentuate Donna's range. She says making an album that was varied was a goal from the beginning.

"We wanted it to be like a book, where you turn the page and there's a new chapter," she stressed. "But, we didn't want any song to sound like the next one, we wanted them to all stand alone. We really worked hard on that. We first write the melody, because if you don't like the music, you're not going to care what we're talking about. We wanted it to be like a book that you can't put down. Every song except for two are ones we've written, and they are true to life songs. They're about things we've gone through - except one that we made up, 'Cry Memphis."

There is no bigger advocate for Donna's prowess as a vocalist than Kerry. "Donna has so much passion," he says. "She can match anyone easily, but she's so genuine. It makes harmony and everything easier. She makes you believe what she's saying."

You might have noticed that Donna and Kerry share the last name. That's not a coincidence. The two are married. How do they make it work on the road?

"We have boxing matches out in the parking lot," she says, laughing. "No, we're very business oriented when it comes to the music, but yet we are very much in love. I always need my alone time, but that's the case with all of us. We've been doing this since we were little kids, it's like we grew up with each other. We do know how to push each others' buttons, though. We're there for the fans. It's not about me, or us...it's about them."

The band is currently on the road, as well as all over The Country Network with their video for "Do You Love Me," the latest single from their album.

http://www.billboard.com/column/the-615#/column/the-615/615-spotlight-herrick-try-a-new-dance-1007953902.story

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