March 3, 2023, 09:30
Ward Thomas has established himself as one of Britain’s leading country artists of the past decade.
The British duo – made up of twin sisters Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas – hail from Petersfield, Hampshire, and are back with their fifth studio album in 2023.
music in madness is released on March 10 and includes the singles “Loved by You”, “Next to You” and the album’s title track.
Catherine got married last year and is now pregnant with her first child. The duo spoke to Smooth Country’s Eamonn Kelly about how such changes have inspired their new music.
Watch the full interview above.
Speaking about the last track of the album “Flower Crowns”, Catherine said, “We always save the last track of the album for a very sentimental moment. And this song, I got married in May…
“And especially when you have a really close relationship with your sister and one of them gets married, it’s a huge transition.
“I mean, it really didn’t change anything, really, looking back, but before the preparation was very similar, we’re going to have a different surname. Now everything is very different. And obviously we’ve been to many times bridesmaids at other people’s weddings, like the two adorable little girls in little white dresses.”
Lizzy added, “And as twin sisters, you just have your whole life, like, from when you’re just born into this world. You’re literally bonded from day one. So that song was about the genre of transition period.
“Make the album music in madness has actually been one of our favorite processes, because the world is going crazy and a lot has happened in the last three years. A lot. And that’s why we named this album music in madnessbecause a lot of the songs were following a similar theme and it was just about finding the light and the music in the chaos, and so that’s what it’s about.”
The duo also opened up about how they discovered their love of country music as two sisters growing up in rural Hampshire.
Lizzy explained, “We grew up in a very rural setting, so I think we were kind of naturally surrounded by country animals or random farm animals, and that sat naturally with us.”
“It’s also a story of storytelling,” Catherine added. “We’d like to go to the pub and bring a guitar and force all the locals to listen to us, so it’s always nice to sing those kinds of songs that promote authenticity and participation.
“Like the number of times we’ve had a drunken country road singing in the pub. So it just became a natural. It became natural from a very young age and we didn’t really consciously know that was where that we wanted to go in. It was just when we started writing, they sounded very country and we felt like we belonged there.
Ward Thomas will be touring in March in support of their new album. Get tickets here.