NEW YORK – Meet the band that has the country music world abuzz. A Thousand Horses's new song "Smoke" is sitting comfortable in Billboard's Top Five Hot Country Songs chart and the Southern crooners have been dubbed the new Lynyrd Skynyrd. Composed of lead singer Michael Hobby, guitarists Bill Satcher and Zach Brown and bassist Graham Deloach, their gritty sound and skillful songwriting has been tearing up the airwaves. The band sat down with FOX411 Country to talk about their newfound success and upcoming debut album "Southernality," available June 9.
FOX411 Country: Traditional country, bro country, Southern rock -- where do you guys fit?
Graham Deloach: It's hard to label yourself, you know. Better to let other people do it. Maybe we're Southern party rock?
Zach Brown: I've seen the term Southern rockers thrown around a lot lately. Which I like that. It's cool with me.
FOX411 Country: It's been a crazy past couple of years for you guys.
Michael Hobby: Yeah, it's been pretty nuts. Especially the past six months, I'd say really changed since the song ['Smoke'] came out. It's been awesome. We're still taking it in every day.
FOX411 Country: How did A Thousand Horses get started?
Bill Satcher: Michael and I grew up together in a town in South Carolina and we met in a music school there. And after we graduated high school, we moved to Nashville in 2005 and in 2010 we formed a band with my cousin over there [Deloach] and Zach Brown.
FOX411 Country: Not to be confused with Zac Brown of the Zac Brown Band.
Brown: Yeah, I'm the real Zach Brown [laughs].
FOX411 Country: You guys have been praised for your unique sound. Who are your musical influences?
Hobby: Our influences range pretty wide. We all bring something else to the table. Black Crowes, Tom Petty. I think we're all music lovers.
Deloach: I'm on a big Paul Simon kick right now.
FOX411 Country: The name of your album, which hit stores June 9, is called Southernality. What does that mean?
Hobby: Southernality is one of the songs off of the record. Southernality is kind of throwing words together - Southern and personality together. We all grew up in the Georgia, South Carolina lifestyle, you know, that whole sweet tea, yes sir, yes ma'am kind of cliches about the South -- it's kind of what we're all about.
Satcher: Well, you've got to hear the title track. It kind of plays on those stereotypes. So I think when people get the album and get into it, they'll get why we chose that name for the album.
Hobby: It's not all about the South. It's just kind of a made up word.
FOX411 Country: Fellow country singer Chris Stapelton's new album Traveller, which has a traditional country vibe, is receiving a lot of attention. Is the industry moving back towards that?
Hobby: We've played with Chris, I've written songs with him.
Deloach: I think it's just like any other sort of music genre. It always changes and evolves. Chris' record Traveller is great. I just bought it and listened to it the other day.
Brown: There's something pure about going to see someone play who's just naturally talented, has raw talent. You know it's just what you see is really what you get. I think there's definitely a lot of people that want to hear that.
FOX411 Country: If you had to choose one song for people to listen to off of your new album Southernality, what would it be?
Hobby: One of my favorite songs on the album, which is one that we all wrote together, is a song called 'Heaven is Close.'
Deloach: Actually, I was going to pick that song. I think that song represents the band really well. The sound, everything mixed together, the sound and the storytelling -- it’s a pretty good representation of who we are.
Catch A Thousand Horses on Darius Rucker's Southern Style tour.
Follow Sasha Bogursky on Twitter @SashaFB.
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