Sugarland has been attending summer school -- courtesy of Kenny Chesney. The group's Kristian Bush tells Billboard.com that he and partner Jennifer Nettles, who are preparing for their first major headlining tour in the fall, have been learning quite a bit on their jaunt opening for Chesney and his crew.
"They have knowledge that you just can't get anywhere else about how to do it," Bush says. "To just watch all the logistics of it is really amazing. This is a wonderful man to learn from."
And, Bush acknowledges, he and Nettles hope to be working at the same stadium-filling scale at some point. "I think we do more than sit around and dream about it -- we actually talk about it every morning," he says with a laugh. "We want this, and we think it'll likely happen. It'll just take a while to get there."
Bush says Sugarland is working on production ideas for the headline tour. And with its third single, "Everyday America," riding the charts, the group is also contemplating the next single from its platinum sophomore album, "Enjoying the Ride." Bush is personally rooting for the relatively stripped-down "Stay," which Sugarland performed on the CMT Music Awards.
Bush and Nettles hope to have some brand new music to play this fall, too. He says that they're about "six or seven songs in" on their third album, and after recording "Enjoying the Ride" "very quickly and under touring duress," Bush said they hope to "over-write" this time. "My dream is to have 25 songs ready and then pick 10 of them for the album."
Bush describes the songs so far as "really emotional, which bodes well for country music," and he adds that the duo has been applying the lessons it's learning with Chesney to the new material.
"I think we're simplifying a little bit," he explains. "From playing these large venues with (Chesney), we're discovering that to communicate with 20,000-plus people a night, you have to really simplify your message without pandering. You have to write something that is visceral and deliver it in a way that's intelligent but doesn't insult anybody. That is a feat, and I'm aware of the people who do it and do it well."
"They have knowledge that you just can't get anywhere else about how to do it," Bush says. "To just watch all the logistics of it is really amazing. This is a wonderful man to learn from."
And, Bush acknowledges, he and Nettles hope to be working at the same stadium-filling scale at some point. "I think we do more than sit around and dream about it -- we actually talk about it every morning," he says with a laugh. "We want this, and we think it'll likely happen. It'll just take a while to get there."
Bush says Sugarland is working on production ideas for the headline tour. And with its third single, "Everyday America," riding the charts, the group is also contemplating the next single from its platinum sophomore album, "Enjoying the Ride." Bush is personally rooting for the relatively stripped-down "Stay," which Sugarland performed on the CMT Music Awards.
Bush and Nettles hope to have some brand new music to play this fall, too. He says that they're about "six or seven songs in" on their third album, and after recording "Enjoying the Ride" "very quickly and under touring duress," Bush said they hope to "over-write" this time. "My dream is to have 25 songs ready and then pick 10 of them for the album."
Bush describes the songs so far as "really emotional, which bodes well for country music," and he adds that the duo has been applying the lessons it's learning with Chesney to the new material.
"I think we're simplifying a little bit," he explains. "From playing these large venues with (Chesney), we're discovering that to communicate with 20,000-plus people a night, you have to really simplify your message without pandering. You have to write something that is visceral and deliver it in a way that's intelligent but doesn't insult anybody. That is a feat, and I'm aware of the people who do it and do it well."
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