Whitney Duncan first appeared on the national scene as part of a Kenny Rogers duet that she co-wrote. While “My World Is Over” didn’t chart too well, Whitney was able to tour with Kenny (read about that here) and gain invaluable experiences which propelled her to try out for Nashville Star in 2007. Shortly after she left the show she was signed to Warner Brothers Records Nashville and went to work on her first album Right Road Now with producers Mark Bright and John Shanks. As a co-writer on the entire project, Whitney certainly is more than just a pretty face. In this interview we discuss the album and her recent trip to the Middle East to play for the troops.
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Matt: Since we last talked you saw your single “Skinny Dippin’” become a nice hit for you. How did it feel to finally have a song gain a bit of an audience both with radio and video airplay?
Whitney Duncan: It was really awesome and more than anything the response from my fans was the best. Because I definitely noticed when I went out and played shows that people knew it and there was that nice feeling when they were singing it back to me and knew it all. That was the best, when I found out that so many people were buying it from iTunes. It’s just a great feeling because when you write a song, that’s what you want is audience reaction and radio response was great as well. I think it got into the Top 20 on the Music Row charts, which was very cool. So it was great but when it came time for the holidays, the song kinda went down because it wasn’t the kind of song for the holiday season. And now that the weather is getting warmer again, I am noticing comments about buying the single and video.
Matt: Your album is now finished. What can you tell me about the changes you’ve made to it?
Whitney: Well, the album has basically been done a couple years ago in April but I overcut it by a few songs and we went in last year and cut “Skinny Dippin’” so obviously it will be part of the record and because we had more tracks than needed, we did this competition online for my fans to vote for the final track to be added to the record. Because I co-wrote all of the songs on the record, it was hard for me to choose a favorite. So we put up three tracks for them to pick from and the other ones will be hidden away or saved for the next record, or somethin’.
Matt: So what would you think if your label came to you with the idea to do a SixPak?
Whitney: I’d be all about it. I think it’s a great idea.
Matt: You probably have six songs ready, already…
Whitney: Yes, Absolutely. And sometimes it takes so long to make a full record and I think that the more music you can get to the fans and get it to them quicker, the better. And in less time because I got lots of questions from the fans about “When’s the album coming out?” If it was a SixPak or something, I think that we’d be able to get it out quickly. So I think that getting as much music out to the fans as possible is nothing but a good thing.
Matt: What’s funny about the SixPak idea is that some people don’t like it too much, which I don’t understand because they are actually getting more music than they would be in a traditional sense…
Whitney: Yeah and you get double the amount of records as well in the same two year time frame, with six songs coming out twice or three times a year…
Matt: And who really knows why these people don’t like the idea…
Whitney: Yeah and some people probably don’t like change. I know some people misunderstood our [press] release about my album because I explained on my website that they could get the digital copy online or order the physical copy from my website. Some threw a big fit about not getting a CD but I tried to explain that it’s gonna be harder and harder to get a CD…
Matt: Yeah, and things are changing anyway…
Whitney: And we can fight the changes or go with them. And I’ve got to be honest, it sucks for the quality of the recording with mp3s (compression of audio files into mp3 creates fidelity loss)…
Matt: Yeah and while you and I notice this kind of difference, the average fan isn’t going to care about that one way or another….
Whitney: Yeah, you’re totally right.
Matt: How cool is it for you to finally have a record coming out for fans to purchase?
Whitney: It’s so cool and I’ve been singing these same songs out on the road and the fans just want a recording of them, the CD in the car or on their iPod. And as much as love the singles we picked, I love other songs on the record just as much.
Matt: Are you going to release any singles from the record or will you move onto a new record?
Whitney: No new singles from the album. The way I understand it, when we get ready for a new single, it will be something new.
Matt: What is the best way to describe a Whitney Duncan live show?
Whitney: Well, my band rocks, they are the best. We have a lot of fun. I like to think it’s high energy and it depends on how far I can get away from the monitors at times…
Matt: What about in ear monitors?
Whitney: That’s right, when I can use my in-ear monitors, it’s awesome but sometimes when you’re glued to a monitor you can’t really move around too much because you c an’t hear if you get away from it. I’d say we have high energy shows with me playing my Lake Placid blue ’66 Strat (her guitar).
Matt: How often have you been able to get out and on the road?
Whitney: I got to play in Kuwait and Iraq.
Matt: That’s right, how did that go?
Whitney: It was awesome. It was a life-changing experience. We did five shows but traveling over there takes a little while to get where you’re going. We played one show in Kuwait and four in Bagdad. It was the best tour I’ve ever done. I’m so glad I did it. We went nonstop and got to see so many things, we got to shoot the guns with them, drive the Bradley and a tank with them, and other kinds of things. They were so great.
Matt: Talk about a place where you need to be up-tempo, energetic and happy as a performer...
Whitney: Yeah and it was easy for me because I was having a blast. We were so excited to be over there playing for them and some of those guys have been there for a year or more so they weren’t as happy as we were to be there but…
Matt: Well I bet they were happy to have the entertainment. I know I would’ve been because I’ve lived overseas outside of the military and I was excited to go see a festival when it happened where I was…
Whitney: Yeah, They were excited to see us there and were happy that we cared enough to go there and perform for them.
Matt: And I don’t think people really understand what soldiers give up to serve for the USA overseas…
Whitney: Yeah, and I think if people had the chance to go over there and see what we did, I don’t think there’d be any way they wouldn’t support our troops because the troops really give up a lot and miss a lot of stuff, like their children growing up. They give up a lot and put their familes through a lot because of what they go over there to do and they’re such unselfish people…
Matt: It really takes a special person to go and do that…
Whitney: It really does, and whether you support the war or not you have to support the troops…
Matt: I think most people do, even those who don’t like the war and perhaps there are idiots out there who would say they didn’t support the troops, they are just that idiots...
Whitney: Yeah, and they’d probably get their butt kicked if they said that to the wrong people. One thing I noticed over there was how much those guys felt like family when I was there so I don’t know how people could not support the troops.
Matt: How has the internet kept you in contact with the fans? I’m sure you’ve already gotten some comments from the folks 
overseas…
Whitney: Oh yeah, You have also have seen how much I tweet, I’m always on twitter. It’s also all on my phone so I’ve gotten to update my Facebook and twitter as much as possible because I didn’t really talk to anybody but my mother. It’s a great way to keep the fans involved and see a little bit behind the scene.
Matt: And the fans become like a family in a way…
Whitney: They do and I know these people and when I get comments from them, I know the people and I think it’s really cool that they become friends more than fans…
Matt: Right and I’ve talked with a few artists that weren’t on twitter and I asked why they weren’t on there and they just weren’t that into technology. But it’s so easy to tweet from a phone…
Whitney: And I was really ignorant to the stuff too but I gotta give Warner Brothers credit for that because I didn’t know how to do it but once they showed me, I fell in love with it. I also like to give them stuff that’s me more than ‘news’ because that’s what fans want, more than just news your label has for news.
Matt: Well, that’s about all we have today. Thanks for talking with us!
Whitney: It was great talking with you and have a great day!
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