Oliver Hazard: Finding Their Place at The Long Road and Promising Scotland They’ll Be Back
Written by Lauren Page | @LiveWithLP
Oliver Hazard might not have known exactly where they were, but they certainly knew how to win over The Long Road...
“My name is Nate from Oliver Hazard and we are in Lutterworth, England.”
Good start.
“My name is Mike from Oliver Hazard and we are in… I don’t know where we are.”
.....There it is.
Luckily, Devin was on hand to clear things up. “We are at The Long Road Fest in Lutterworth, England.”
Close enough.
When I caught up with the Ohio trio backstage at The Long Road Festival, they had just delivered one of those sets where you could physically watch a crowd getting bigger.
I had somehow managed to miss Oliver Hazard every time they had previously been in the UK, so this was my first chance to finally see them live.
And WOW.
There are bands you enjoy on Spotify, and then there are bands where seeing them live suddenly makes everything click. Oliver Hazard fall firmly into the latter.
Playing inside The Long Road's Interstate tent, people seemed to keep appearing throughout their set. Wander past, hear what was happening, come inside and stay.
For a band who admitted they perhaps sat slightly outside some of the more traditional country and Americana sounds across the festival, they certainly didn't look out of place once they were on that stage.
“I feel like we are slightly out of place in a way because I think our music is just a little different than a lot of bands here,” they explained.
“A lot of them are traditional country, traditional Americana and ours is a little more on the indie spectrum.”
That difference is exactly what makes Oliver Hazard so interesting. Their music exists somewhere between indie-folk, Americana and roots, and on a festival bill packed with cowboy hats and country music, they brought something completely different.
They were also among the few people at The Long Road who hadn't received the cowboy dress code memo.
“Everyone’s dressed in cowboy outfits except for us,” they laughed.
Mike was instead sporting a thrifted T-shirt which we eventually decided may or may not feature the E.T. logo.
Personally, I respect the commitment.
Despite feeling like musical outliers on parts of the bill, there were plenty of familiar names surrounding them.
“The Felice Brothers, Brothers Comatose, Shakey Graves before he couldn’t make it,” they listed. “There are some amazing artists on this lineup.”
And while Oliver Hazard might sit on the indie end of The Long Road spectrum, the audience certainly understood what they were doing.
British crowds have developed a bit of a reputation among visiting American artists for actually LISTENING.
Not just filming. Not talking through the quiet songs. Actually paying attention. Oliver Hazard have noticed it too.
“I definitely feel like there’s a bit more control or contentment when they’re listening,” they explained. “They’re listening on purpose and not just in a moment, which is nice as the artist.”
“You feel like you’re not being in the way.”
Which I found quite funny, because I've always considered British gig crowds fairly feral, then I went to Nashville... Suddenly, we seem incredibly well behaved.
“Nashville people are pretty wild,” they agreed - glad we've cleared that up.
My relationship with Oliver Hazard's music also comes with a slight problem.
Dandelion.
If I play that song one more time, there is a genuine possibility my housemate will punch me. Sorry, but it's staying in the rotation.
It is also one example of the sound that has made Oliver Hazard stand out within the increasingly blurred lines between folk, Americana, indie and country, and their influence extends beyond their own music.
The band host their own Oliver Hazard Day festival back home in Waterville, Ohio, using it as an opportunity to bring other artists into their tiny hometown and put audiences onto musicians they genuinely love.
When I asked who we should be discovering through them, the recommendations started coming thick and fast.
Sam Burchfield. Illiterate Light. Jeremy Albino. Michigander. Rayland Baxter.
“A lot of good buddies of ours.”
For Oliver Hazard, championing those artists isn't about positioning themselves as musical tastemakers. They just genuinely enjoy sharing a stage and an audience with people whose music they believe in.
“It’s definitely enjoyable to share something with somebody,” they said. “Especially with our own festival. It’s just fun to be able to be a band maybe around the same size-ish and just to be able to have that moment together.”
And there are plenty more moments coming.
Just two days after our conversation at The Long Road, Oliver Hazard were heading to London for their first ever UK headline show.
They had only made their first trip through the capital earlier this year, supporting Trousdale at The Lexington in February.
Six months later? Headliners.
“We’re very excited about it.”
Then it's back across the Atlantic, with a West Coast run planned for later in the year, mixing familiar cities with a few new stops.
But I had driven from Scotland to The Long Road that morning, so naturally I had a slightly more pressing concern.
When are you coming back to Scotland?
Oliver Hazard played Glasgow during that February run and, naturally, it happened to be the show I couldn't make.
“We’ll be back,” they promised. “We’d love to come back. We loved it, it was awesome.”
And apparently Glasgow made a pretty good impression on them too. “Glasgow was a really good crowd for us, so we’d definitely like to be back.”
They even fancy adding another Scottish city to the list.
“Maybe Edinburgh too. That’d be cool. We’d love to see that town.”
I'm absolutely holding them to this, particularly because Glasgow only got around half an hour with them last time.
“We have plenty of songs to play,” they admitted. So next time?
“We’ll play like an hour and a half. We promise.”
I immediately attempted to negotiate that up to two hours. You've got to try.
There is something else they want to bring with them when they return. On their previous tour, Nate, Mike and Devin started stripping things right back during their live show, gathering around one old condenser microphone and performing several songs acoustically as a trio.
It wasn't something they could squeeze into their shorter festival slot at The Long Road, but they reckon British audiences might be perfect for it.
“I think that would do well with the crowds out here,” they said. “Next time we come back for a set, I think that we’d like to incorporate that.”
Considering we'd just established how intently UK crowds listen, I think they're onto something.
Before wrapping up, I had one last playlist-related question.
We had already covered the artists Oliver Hazard think deserve more attention, but what are THEY actually listening to when nobody is asking them to recommend something?
Fleet Foxes had soundtracked their journey to The Long Road.
“We spent like an hour listening to one of their records. We’re big fans.”
Jonah Kagen also got a mention, alongside Evan Honer - another artist whose UK audience has grown considerably through festivals like The Long Road, perhaps what makes this festival so special.
You can arrive desperate to see one artist and leave with five more sitting at the top of your Spotify.
For plenty of people inside that Interstate tent, I have a feeling Oliver Hazard were exactly that band.
I walked in already knowing I loved Dandelion, I walked out wondering why on earth it had taken me this long to see them live.
Now there's only one thing left to sort, that Scotland return...
Ninety minutes minimum, boys... I'm still pushing for two hours.