Interview by Holly Gleason
Maddie & Tae impaled country music with their bro-country-skewering “Girl in a Country Song,” the plucky stereotype sendup with the role-reversing video that’s registered over 26 million Vevo views; the song hit #1 and was just certified platinum. They attracted attention from The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly and Letterman.
Coulda been a mere moment, but this pair of songwriters, who got a publishing deal at 15, a record deal to launch Scott Borchetta and Chris Stacey’s Dot Records at 18 and an Academy of Country Music Duo of the Year nomination at 19, are more than one-hit wonders. As the follow-up “Fly” hits the Top 10 and Dierks Bentley’s Sounds of Summer Tour wraps, they launch Start Here this Friday 8/28 with an NPR First Listen, major promotions with every radio chain, a Radio Disney Virtual World Tour flyaway to Epcot and enough street-week activities to drop an 18-year-old. Good thing they’re 19 and just-turned-20; they can do all that and help HITS’ aging Neobilly goddess Holly Gleason cross the road.
