It has been a crazy few months for the guys of Waterloo Revival! George Birge became a dad and Cody Cooper got engaged. As if that wasn’t enough, they released a single and have been writing and working on recording a new album. NECM was able to catch up with the guys to get the lowdown on all the recent excitement.
Their new single ‘What Guy Wouldn’t’ came out just in time for warm weather. The guys describe the song as “upbeat … like feel good make you wanna roll down your windows. It works perfectly for summer. It’s just a feel-good song and it’s something that captures your ear when you first hear it. It’s just a fun one.” The song was written by John King, Jason Massey and David Lee Murphy, who combined have many, many hit songs. Massey produced ‘Dibs,’ ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘Yeah Boy’ for Kelsea Ballerini while King co-wrote ‘We Went’ which went number 1 for Randy Houser last year. Murphy is of course known for his hit which he recorded such as ‘Dust on The Bottle’ but many songs he wrote also became hits for other artists including Jason Aldean (‘Big Green Tractor’), Jake Owen (‘Anywhere With You’) and Kenny Chesney (”Til It’s Gone’, ‘Living In Fast Forward’)!
While out on tour with Toby Keith last summer the guys from Waterloo got to know David Lee Murphy and one day Murphy approached Waterloo and said, “hey guys I got a song that I think is a hit for Waterloo Revival.” So, he sent over a demo and after listening to it with their management they agreed and hit the studio to record it.
Working with producers Jason Massey and Ken Tondre the guys put together an awesome cut taking Murphy’s expert songwriting and adding an up-tempo, infectious groove. Recently they have added it to their show and they say it feels “incredible” to play live.
‘What Guy Wouldn’t’ picks up from their upbeat hit ‘Backwood Bump’ that is still growing and blowing up for the guys. They say at first they were afraid to turn it into their label after they wrote it because it was “so crazy.” Luckily, they did. The song has become a hit, not only in their live shows, but also in dance halls across the country. “We get videos every week of different (dance halls) doing line dances to the song.” The guys also said it is going to be on a workout video soon!
We had to ask Cody about his recent engagement. He gushed describing being able to have his dream proposal on a beach during a recent vacation. “Up until the beginning of this year we were living in separate states. She was in Texas and I was in Nashville, and with all our traveling and all that we were lucky to see each other once a month. So, to be able to orchestrate something where we could be on, you know, picturesque beach, perfect timing, everything like that… I could not be happier about how it turned out, neither could she.” While Cody says the proposal caught his fiancé at least a little by surprise, George says he saw it coming from a mile away and was afraid for the first couple days of the trip that Cody may have dropped the ball. “My wife and I saw Cody had this vacation planned and we knew he was really close to proposing. He had talked to us about like, thinking he’d be doing it soon. So, we’re like he’s taking her to Mexico, he’s for sure gonna propose. So, we’re following them on Instagram, following all their posts on there. They’ve been there for their entire trip, it’s like the day before they’re supposed to leave and we’re like “Cody dammit, don’t screw this up” Then we saw then announcement and we’re like “yes way to go, Cody!””
George himself has had quite a bit of excitement in his life recently with the birth of his son. The proud new dad says he has night duty watching the little guy “whenever I’m home I’m staying up til 3am with him and just watching trash TV and binge watching Netflix and changing dirty diapers and I would not change it for the anything. It’s been pretty awesome!”
In between diaper duty and wedding planning the guys have been writing and recording new music. “Right now, we are writing like crazy. We haven’t decided if it’s gonna be an EP and then an album or if we’re gonna take the time to do the full album first. We have written over 100 songs for it, so now we’re in the process of weeding down the songs and getting into the studio and recording them, but yes, new music coming out soon. In either the form of an EP or an album.”
The guys also are playing shows all over including CMA Fest. While they don’t have any New England shows booked at the moment they say not to worry, “we are working to get back up there to New England because you guys are some of our best supporters and we are really thankful for all our fanbase up there.”
As always, a huge thanks to the guys for being so generous with their time! Be sure to get ‘What Guy Wouldn’t’ on iTunes and keep an eye on their website to stay up to date with all of their shows and everything else Waterloo Revival.