Temecula Road, a trio of young musicians is taking YouTube by storm with their video of ‘Top Country Hits of 2016 In 3 Minutes.’ The video features sisters Maddie (16) and Emma (17) Salute, and long time friend Dawson Anderson (17). The video is all acoustic and completely rocks 2016’s chart topping songs! Aside from covering songs, the group actually released their own single – ‘What If I Kissed You.’ The trio recently signed to Buena Vista Records and have been revealed as Radio Disney’s multi-genre “Next Big Thing” artists (one of only two breakout country artists since the program’s start). Temecula Road had their first ever interview with NECM to talk about their mashup video, their single and a little about themselves.
Who is Temecula Road? Their sound can be described as a “California country kind of vibe.” They identify with a style similar to stuff by Thomas Rhett and Dan + Shay. Dawson explains that they connect with “a lot of pop country and the newer country stuff.” The group consists of three part harmonies because all three are contributing singers. Two members play instruments as well; Dawson on guitar and Emma accompanying him on mandolin. As for the name of their band, there is a story behind it. Maddie told the story by saying, “Emma and I’s dad came up with it. He said he wanted us to have some type of root, and he came up with Temecula Road and we loved it so it stuck!” They kept the name and began paving the way to creating themselves.
As mentioned before, Temecula Road has a mashup video of the Top 2016 songs. The video is streaming popularly on YouTube and being shared through Facebook. As far as where the idea came from; Dawson said “we’ve seen some pop mashup videos and we thought we should make our own country one!” The group all later agreed that it was a super fun thing that they did. The video brought in well deserved recognition and success. “It was crazy to see how far it went, we weren’t expecting that. It is so awesome and humbling to watch it grow,” Maddie said afterwards.
Social media has played a big role in their success, the group says. They appreciate all of the nice comments and they feed off of them. They even said some artists have recognized them over their cover videos like Carrie Underwood, Brett Eldredge, and Dan + Shay. For streaming, the trio uses “live streams, especially Facebook. There’s YouTube, but it’s not our main source of streaming. We also use Lively, as well as Twitter and Instagram. We’re all over the place!” Emma said between laughing. A trend they use on social media is #TemeculaRoadTuesdays. Dawson shed insight on the hashtag in saying “we were being silly and filming stuff we were doing during rehearsals and our everyday lives, and Radio Disney was like ‘hey we should do #TemeculaRoadTuesdays and that’s how it came about.”
Radio Disney also invited Temecula Road to join in a collaborative song dedicated to humanity and compassion called ‘The Human Race.’ The lineup includes other country artists such as Kelsea Ballerini, Scotty McCreery, Lauren Alaina and LOCASH. Temecula Road thought it was beyond great exposure to be included in the lineup for this song. “It’s super rad,” Emma said, “LOCASH was there and so many others. We look up to all these people and watching them be in the same song we did was awesome. We’re very lucky and fortunate.”
To build off of their success from cover videos and song cameo’s, Temecula Road released their first single, ‘What If I Kissed You,’ this past month – “It’s a love song so it will be perfect for Valentine’s Day!” The trio wasn’t allowed to give anymore details about what’s to follow their single, but hopefully we can expect an EP of some sort! When the thought of other bands and aspiring artists covering their songs came about, they all were thrilled. In a unanimous answer they all agreed in saying “that’d be so awesome!”
Check out Temecula Road on all their social medias, and be sure to watch their mashup video. Their single is available now on iTunes. They are also set to perform at this year’s C2C Country Music festival in London. The group wanted to thank all of their fans from the bottom of their hearts. “We have a huge fan base and we’re not even a huge group yet. It’s so humbling.”
Be sure to check them out on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, their official website and Facebook.