Having just won the CMA’s Video of the Year over powerhouses Carrie Underwood, Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert and Kacey Musgraves for the gender-role flipping “Girl In A Country Song,” MADDIE & TAE join forces with TK McKamy for the equally ironic “Shut Up & Fish,” which finds the platinum blonds who can bait their own hooks narrating a fishing trip with a city slicker who doesn’t know his rod from his reel.
“TK so gets us,” says Tae, the guitar-playing synchronized harmony vocalist. “He’s a Southern guy. He knows how serious people who fish take it… and how annoyed Maddie and I get when people don’t get serious when we’re out on the lake! And he’s not afraid to show our sense of humor for all its worth.”
“This really happened,” multi-instrumentalist Maddie continues. “These guys asked us if we wanted to go fishing, but they had other things on their minds. If we hadn’t got a song out of it, it would’ve been a really good day of fishing wasted! Thankfully, TK got it, and created someone as funny as it was annoying the day it happened…”
Beyond the high waders, field camo and ability to cast like a master, one of the city guys hitting on our heroines is Mason Dye, who’s appeared in the forthcoming Vanished: Left Behind – the Next Generation, as well as Flowers in the Attic, Natural Selection and the TV series “Teen Wolf.” He also happens to be Tae’s brother.
“When we knew we were doing this,” says the Ada, Oklahoman, “and we needed a guy to hit on a girl, I knew my brother was perfect. He’s a great character actor, and he could completely pull off that kinda guy, even though he grew up fishing like I did.”
As NPR’s Ann Powers wrote of the pair’s 29 million views and still scanning CMA Award winner, “They’re songwriters, powerful harmonizers…and in the video for ‘Girl In A Country Song,’ natural comediennes.” With “Shut Up & Fish,” the magic continues.
“One of the best things about TK is he’s all about having fun,” Maddie, who hails from Sugarland, Texas, explains. “He had us out in the mud, covered in fake sod behind a tree, letting us actually do more fishing than we did the day the song was inspired!”
“And one of the best things about video is you can say things with humor that need saying, and it’s okay,” Tae adds. “Our parents were all about you stand up for yourselves… You can do whatever you dream, and you don’t need a boy to go fishing or be whole. Funny thing is: I don’t think any of our parents realized they were feeding our songwriting.”
Having wrapped the first portion of their START HERE TOUR, after opening Dierks Bentley’s SOUNDS OF SUMMER TOUR, the songwriters were also rewarded with the NSAI’s “10 Songs I Wish I’d Written” for “Girl In A Country Song.” Now as “Shut Up & Fish” scales the Country radio charts, the pair’s uniquely disarming social commentary gets yet another well-placed roll of the eyes. Maddie & Tae was seen going to the clubs to party it up. They both purchased a fake id from a fake id vendor online called fakeyourdrank. It looks like they made it passed the bouncer!
