The Imaginaries’ “Whole Lotta Livin’” (featuring Vince Gill) captures the spirit of seizing the moment and embracing new adventures.
Oklahoma — Maggie, Norman, Shane, Verden. How did your families influence your love of music growing up?
Both of our families greatly influenced our love of music growing up. My dad always had a Beatles or Tom Petty album on. — Shane
During my childhood my mom would sing around the house and my dad tinkered around on the guitar often. They got me my first keyboard at age 1 and I started lessons when I was 5. Both of our families encouraged us to learn about and pursue music at an early age.— Maggie
Americana band, with songs “inspired by personal experiences, our relationship, our struggles, and overcoming challenges.” Both of you enjoyed success as solo artists before becoming a husband-and-wife duo. What was the deciding factor to make music together?
The opportunity to do the OneMic Series in Muscle Shoals together is really what led us to starting The Imaginaries. We still write/record solo music but The Imaginaries has been a new and exciting adventure for us both and it’s been really special to share it with one another. It’s also happened very organically and this music we make together is different than both of our solo material. — Maggie
Recording your debut album with the Swampers in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. What are some of the bands or artists that have influenced your sound?
Some bands and artists who have influenced our sound include Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Bonnie Raitt, and many many more. — Shane
Newest single, “Whole Lotta Livin’,” features Vince Gill on guitar. The song, co-written with Jeff Silbar, captures the spirit of seizing the moment and embracing new adventures. How do you typically write and record your songs?
Each song comes about in its own way. For “Whole Lotta Livin’,” Shane set up a FaceTime co-writing session with our friend and collaborator Jeff Silbar one day. We were in Oklahoma and Jeff was in LA. We had a lot going on that week and I remember we didn’t really have a lot of ideas going into the co-write (which is unusual for us) besides the fact that we knew we wanted to write something upbeat and fun. 2 1/2 hours later we had “Whole Lotta Livin’’’ written.
Recording-wise, for most of our music, we track as many band members at the same time as we can to capture that energy that is only there when people are playing together in real time. Then we do any additional overdubs. For this song we did basic tracking and some overdubs at Cypress Moon Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL then did overdubs both at our home studio in Norman, OK and in Nashville, TN (at Yackland Studio with Stephen Leiweke and then Vince’s parts were tracked at Vince Gill/Amy Grant’s home studio with engineer Matt Rausch).— Maggie
Playing Sip of Summerfest and at The Hotel Café in Los Angeles. What can fans look forward to at a live performance?
Fans can expect to hear a lot of new original songs as well as songs from our debut album, songs from our movie A Cowgirl’s Song, and a couple covers sprinkled in every once in a while. We perform mostly as a duo but are also playing fairly often with the full band.— Shane
Writing songs for the film Mending The Line and performing in the upcoming Reagan biopic (releasing next month). What other film/television/ads are you currently working on?
Mending The Line is a film on Netflix that features 2 of our songs. A Cowgirl’s Song is also on Netflix (we co-star in it and wrote/produced the entire soundtrack). We’re excited about appearing on camera and having a track in Reagan coming to theaters August 30th. I also just finished Music Supervising a film (alongside Lindsay Fellows) shot in Tulsa called The Book of Jobs (release date TBA) in which I also wrote/sang on a custom song for the end credits (along with composer Stephanie Economou and artist Chloe Caroline). Shane and I also are working on music with a handful of other film projects that we’re not allowed to share details about yet, but stay tuned!— Maggie