Sugarland Have Their Own Olympic Moment

Before sitting down to write the song 'Wide Open' for the 2010 Olympics, Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush took time to reflect on what it must feel like to be an Olympian, tapping deep into specific moments that lead to and follow competing in the games.

"We had a lot of dialogue about what it must be like to be an Olympian," Jennifer tells the Wall Street Journal. "We allowed the verses to be the moments when you're just about to compete -- you're on the platform of the ski jump, and you have worked your entire life to get there, with years and years of training ... and what must that feel like in that moment? And the choruses are a super big release of when you're celebrating, and the joy of what it is you love to do most and do best. So we really explored those two different moments -- right before the go and right after the go."

Having captured those before and after Olympic moments by dipping pen and quill deep into the emotion and exhilaration an athlete must feel, Jennifer likens the feeling to being in the studio, where Sugarland are currently recording a new album.

"It is so fun ... it might be its own Olympic sport!" she says, laughing. "It feels like a combination of bungee jumping and eating chocolate cake, all at the same time! It is both terrifying and extremely gratifying in the same moment.

"Terrifying in that as artists and writers, we are constantly pushing ourselves to grow. And sometimes, however, with the people who sell these pieces of art, you get some resistance to what might be change and growth ... because they want things to sound the same, because they know how to market that. But that's their job and problem. Ours is to make the best record we can, and serve the songs as best we can. And that is extremely gratifying."

Creating an album filled with songs that cannot be labeled or pigeon-holed, that resonate with a broad spectrum of music lovers is most gratifying of all to Sugarland.

"There will be country on it ... and because we're doing it, (that) makes much of it country. It gets so scary nowadays where everyone's trying to define what it is," Jennifer reflects. "Because at the end of the day, we are what I call an iPod nation ... where if you look at someone's iPod, they could have everything from Johnny Cash to Eminem to the Black Eyed Peas to Sugarland to Bruce Springsteen. At least, when I look at my iPod, that's what I see. I think that it's the people who sell it that try to put a label on it, as opposed to the people who listen to it."

'Wide Open' can be heard on the 'AT&T Team USA Soundtrack,' a compilation of songs available now on iTunes. Sugarland kicks off 'The Incredible Machine' tour April 23 in Primm, Nevada, and will be hitting over 55 cities nationwide.

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