When Chris Bandi was in high school, his band performed at Blueberry Hill and Cicero’s. On September 9, Bandi comes home to perform at LouFest. His country singles, “Man Enough Now,” and “Gone Girl” have reached millions of streams on Spotify. We caught up with Bandi as he spent a weekend writing songs with Florida Georgia Line in Nashville.
So, are you excited to be performing at a music festival in your hometown?
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I’m extremely excited. For the last few years, I’ve seen all these cool bands getting to play LouFest, and I always wanted to be one of them, so I’m very excited to be coming back to town to play LouFest this summer.
How did growing up in St. Louis influence your music?
St. Louis is awesome. Growing up, you had so many different genres, and all these different genres were so accessible to you. We had a huge country music station, 92.3, and 93.7 The Bull. We had a huge R&B and rap station, a huge rock station, and a huge pop station all within a radio dial away from one another. All that accessibility is awesome for musicians like myself, who grew up listening to everything, and having it all accessible in a big city like St. Louis was amazing and very instrumental in the way I play music today.
You were in a band in high school…
I was. Back to our huge musical city of St. Louis: We used to play at a place called the Creepy Crawl. We never made Mississippi Nights, because unfortunately it was shut down by the time we were playing, but I’ve played little bars in St. Louis—Cicero’s, Blueberry Hill, all these awesome places that are so iconic for St. Louis music—I’ve gotten to play all of them, and now crossing LouFest off the list is really, really cool.
Where do you draw inspiration for your music?
Everywhere! As musicians, and as touring musicians, we have the opportunity to see so many things in a different light than just traveling around the states. We get to see so many things in this country—the beauty—and we get to see people interact in bars and stuff, and I always get inspiration being on stage and seeing how people interact or things like that. I didn’t grow up riding around backroads and things like that, but I was always drawn to songs that meant something, and lyrics that actually spoke and told stories. That was what my first love for country music was—in the lyrics, and the storytelling. I love to write songs that have a meaning and tell stories.
I write things that I know, like being a stupid guy in a relationship with our first single, “Man Enough Now,” and being in love and finding this girl you can’t get enough of in our second single, “Gone Girl.” I like to write about things that I’ve experienced and that I know fairly well.
Your single “Man Enough Now” has gotten over 17 million streams on Spotify. How does it feel?
It feels amazing—waking up everyday and just seeing that number grow has been insane. We kind of put it out as an introduction. We were playing all these live shows and really had nowhere to point anybody, so when we got off stage, within hours, they’d forgot who just played. We knew that we needed something tangible to give the crowd and audience, so we put that out last November, and if we would have hit 1,000,000 streams, I would have been so excited. The fact that we hit 1,000,000 and it just kept going is completely unbelievable. I’m really happy that people are connecting to it, and liking it enough that they wanna keep it on repeat and keep listening to it. There’s no better feeling than that.
Favorite Nelly song?
Probably “Ride Wit Me,” but I knew every single word to every single song on that first album. I actually just got to see Nelly this weekend out with Florida Georgia Line, and see him live and I was going crazy all three nights. I had to wear Air Force Ones too.
Have you ever met him?
I’ve never met him! I felt like this was my best opportunity…I was actually out this past weekend writing with the guys from Florida Georgia Line and them all being on tour, I felt like I would run into Nelly somewhere, but unfortunately I didn’t, so it’s still on the bucket list.
Are you writing a song with FGL?
They own a publishing company in Nashville, and I was out writing songs—that’s my day job, to write songs, and we collaborated with a couple of their writers. It was fun, and we wrote four songs out there.
What can fans expect from your performance at LouFest?
Some energy, some throwbacks. We do a lot of fun crowd sing-along stuff at the shows—try to get them up on their feet dancing a little bit. We play at noon, so it might be a little early to get people up and dancing, but we’re going to try our hardest.
Are you more of a Cards or Blues fan, or both?
I’m a die-hard Cards fan. I am a huge Blues fan. I played hockey growing up. You can’t make me pick! I have Cardinals jerseys, and Blues jerseys hanging up in my closet right now. I was so happy—I went to one of the playoff games when the Blues played the Predators here in Nashville.
What’s your favorite spot in St. Louis?
It’s gotta be barbeque, and it’s between Sugarfire or Pappy’s. They are both up there on my list.
Do you have any advice for young aspiring musicians in St. Louis?
Work hard, keep your head down, and keep trying. If you outwork everybody in the room, and you outwork everybody else that’s trying to do the same thing as you, your chances are going to be good. That’s always been my philosophy. When I moved to Nashville, I wanted to outwork everyone else that was here trying to do the same thing.
How’s life on tour?
It’s fun. It’s awesome. We get to see so many different parts of this country. There’s nothing else I’d rather do. You get to wake up in a cool new city every morning, and I get to call it work. I miss my girlfriend and my dogs when I’m away, but other than that there’s nothing else I’d rather do.
You graduated from Ole Miss, and then decided to pursue music. What would you say to someone who is wanting to go a different direction like that after graduating?
You mean like, get a degree in something that’s useful and then do something absolutely crazy with their life? I would say do it. You’re only young once, but if you do it, put 110 percent into it. Don’t go do it and give it only half of your heart. You’ve got to go in and really try to dig your roots and dig your cleats in and make it work. If it’s what you love and what you’re passionate about, chances are you will find a way to make it work.
How does it feel to be on Spotify’s Hot Country playlist?
It is amazing. It was all a pipe dream to get all this stuff. I knew that all these playlists existed, but I always thought they were so out of reach for us. If people weren’t listening to it and it wasn’t getting streams, Spotify would have never picked it up or even added it to any of their playlists. It’s all the people loving it and enjoying it and that’s the best part, I think—that people actually want to hear the words we’re singing and sing the songs back to us. It’s been a really awesome year so far in that transition of playing four hour cover gigs to being able to play our own songs at shows and people actually knowing our songs. It’s the craziest feeling in the world.
Your Instagram bio says you’re a Mountain Dew, Fresh Prince, and Yankee Candle enthusiast. What’s the best Yankee Candle scent?
I think I might have to switch that up a little bit…I cut back on soda. I don’t think I’ve had a Mountain Dew in a year or so now, but I still love Fresh Prince and actually I made the switch from Yankee Candle to Bath & Body candles. So, my bio is all a lie. I’m just lying to people unfortunately. My favorite Bath & Body candle is Mahogany Teakwood, but my favorite Yankee Candle is Apple Pumpkin? Or Pumpkin Apple? It’s very fall-inspired, and it makes your house smell amazing.
Best concert you’ve ever been to?
That is a tough, tough question. My first concert ever was Garth Brooks, and I was 5 years old. I feel like that set the bar pretty high for me with concerts for the rest of my life. This new Florida Georgia Line tour this summer with Backstreet Boys, Chris Lane, and Nelly was awesome. My two bucket list concerts are Bruno Mars, and Ed Sheeran.
What other artists are you most excited to see at LouFest?
Snoop. Definitely Snoop.
Chris Bandi performs at 12 p.m. at LouFest‘s BMI-Tunespeak Stage on September 9. He also will be headlining a show in St. Louis in December 2017. Visit chrisbandi.com for more information.
