First Rodeo, the collaborative songwriting project of Tim Howe (Vista House, The Great American Commute) and Nathan Tucker (Strange Ranger, Cool Original, Pontiac Flare), return today with a brand new single called “Nothing”. This track is the first piece of new music from the duo since their previous self-titled LP back in 2022, and also the first glimpse at what they have been working on in that time as they also announce their sophomore LP titled Rode Hard and Put Away Wet, out May 16th via Bud Tapes.

Breaking away from the alt-country-fueled blaze that was their first record, “Nothing” is a drum looped escapade into the tricks attuned by years of collaboration from the well-versed duo. With Howe based in Portland, OR and Tucker in Philly, the songs that make up Rode Hard and Put Away Wet were workshopped through months of sending ideas back and forth through the internet. From the gates, there is a fitted extravagance that lives within the two-chord progression, as Tucker and Howe flip-flop on lengthy and rhythmic verses, playing into that inflection of spoken verse that riddled 90’s rock radio and nostalgic sonic remedies. As the chorus finds the grove, alleviating the rhythmic verses with a ruthlessly catchy melody and a wall of large guitars and a harmonica-ladened atmosphere, “Nothing” makes an unexpected outlier in the preconceived notions of their style, yet acts as a marker of the jovial comradery that occurs when making music that is just flat out fun.

We recently got to ask Tucker and Howe a few questions about “Nothing”, diving deep into the track and the collaboration that makes up First Rodeo.

You described this song as an anomaly within your catalog, but now it is one of your favorites. What were your initial feelings as it began to come together? Any hesitations, or did it just feel right?

TH: I think it’s safe to say Nathan and I were both hesitant throughout the process that a song like “Nothing” could work coming from us. In many ways it’s not only a departure from the rest of the album but also from our songwriting comfort zone. We were really nervous that we weren’t going to strike any kind of balance and the song would tip into a rap-rock zone that we weren’t comfortable with. What I love about this song is that I got to see it through with Nathan from gestation, which is rare, since we live on opposite sides of the country, but I saw Nathan come up with the first few chords, the melody, long before there were words, and then see it slowly develop. In that way, it felt like a microcosm of the band itself, in the way we both had an inkling of what we wanted this First Rodeo thing to be, and slowly got to put arms and legs and toes on it. 

NT: Nearly six minutes is also just sort of long for a pop song built around a four second drum loop. That was always the vision but I was worried it would get boring if we weren’t careful with the production. I think when Tim added the acoustic guitar part that happens during the refrain I was like, “OK, we can do a lot of different things with this one basic idea.” 

The concept of radio rock plays such a crucial role in a lot of people’s memories and relationship to music. What sort of aspects of this idea did you want to embrace on “Nothing”? Were there any specific memories you were pulling from to achieve this sound? 

NT: To be honest that wasn’t really the inspiration for the song, just kind of where it happened to end up. The initial germ of the idea was just the two-chord loop that starts the song and the basic vocal pattern that in my mind was lifted from Isaac Brock or something. But then as the recording started coming together, I realized it was as much Third Eye Blind—or even like LFO or something—as it was anything else. I also just can never resist a big chorus. 

TH: The hook feels so quintessentially radio rock to me. I’m always impressed when someone can take a simple phrase that maybe you’ve heard a hundred times in numerous contexts and reorient the listener’s understanding of that phrase. That’s what makes this one feel so big and “radio-y” to me, just the way our verses are long and wordy and specific and the chorus opens up to this arena for everyone. 

Working with a country’s worth of distance, how has your relationship as creatives changed since your debut LP? Especially playing together for over a decade now, were there any sort of things were you bringing out of each other or pushing for on this record?

TH: What I really appreciate about Nathan is how he goes in with a ton of vision. I think we both do this to varying degrees; with First Rodeo we’ve been ruminating on how the sound should change album to album since we started passing demos back and forth. Nathan has always had a pretty specific understanding of what this second album should sound like. The first album was a bit more straight-forward alt-country, this one is a bit more chopped and dismantled, a bit more solemn and vast. When it became clear we were going to be making a lot of this one happen cross-country, we wanted to be able to hear the distance in each song.

NT: It’s funny, I think for a lot of people the challenges of doing a cross country band would be a reason to say, “the stakes are low, we can just mess around.” Unfortunately I’m an annoying try-hard and I like to have a plan. Doesn’t mean you have to stick to it—and in some ways the plan on this one involved a lot of recording ten things and deleting 9—but I wanted to see what we could make by at least setting out to explore a more focused sonic and emotional palette.

You can listen to “Nothing” out everywhere now. Preorder Rode Hard and Put Away Wet as well as a cassette tape out May 16th via Bud Tapes.

Written by Shea Roney | Featured Photo by Sam Wenc