The Cactus Blossoms Talk Touring Overseas, Plans for New Music

With a recent trip Down Under and an upcoming European tour, the Cactus Blossoms are making a name for themselves internationally in the country music and Americana scenes, not to mention picking up steam in North America. The duo, made up of brothers Page Burkum and Jack Torrey, has spent so much time on the road that, as they tell The Boot, they’ve almost completely lost track of their schedule. Where’s their next stop? They can’t always be quite sure.

“It’s a little bit of a whirlwind, honestly. It’s to the point now, now that we’re kind of getting towards the end of the year, where we’re like, ‘Where are we gonna be in two weeks?’" the Cactus Blossoms admit with a laugh. “Like, we’re not sure and can’t remember.

“It’s been really amazing, though,” they're quick to add.

Burkum and Torrey's recent trip to Australia and New Zealand was far from a vacation -- they weren’t able to do much sightseeing in Melbourne or Sydney -- but they enjoyed the experience of playing for a new, international audience nonetheless.

“That was our first time to Australia, visiting or playing, so that was just a cool experience," the brothers say, "and they took good care of us, and the audiences were really great."

In January, the CBs will kick off a European trek, which begins in England and ends in Spain in early February. It'll be their second trip to the continent, but their first as a headliner.

“We went over to Europe one time, almost two years ago ... with JD McPherson; we did, like, two and a half weeks or something. This time, it’ll be interesting because it’ll be our first time doing our own show,” Burkum and Torrey say. "That’ll be really fun to stick to a region a little bit and get to get a real feel for it.”

Earlier this year, the Cactus Blossoms released their newest album, You're Dreaming. They say that the project has opened the door to more musical options for them.

“It’s just kind of pulled us into a broader world, I guess,” the brothers note. “We’ve been lucky enough to have some people come out to our shows. We don’t expect anything, so if there’s 100 people there at some club in the middle of nowhere, it’s fun.”

Although their touring schedule has made it difficult for the pair to do much writing or recording, they're hoping they'll soon be able to put pen to paper. The Cactus Blossoms "[have] some ideas rolling around" and have been "kicking around some new song ideas, maybe trying to brush off and work on some old ideas that we like but never really took where we wanted to."

"We’ve got a couple months off," Burkum and Torrey say, "so maybe we’ll fall into some creative pit and come out with some gems.”

You're Dreaming is available for download via iTunes and Amazon. More information about the Cactus Blossoms, including tour dates, can be found at TheCactusBlossoms.com.

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