Tonight, Oct. 8, Love and Theft kicks off their “Can’t Wait for the Weekend” tour at Wilmington’s Brooklyn Arts Center. The show begins at 8 p.m.

The band first performed in Wilmington last November at Ziggy’s by the Sea.

“It was a decent crowd,” said Liles, “but our fan base has grown since then. This will be way more fun because we have two other artists with us.”

Artists Joel Crouse and Stevie Monce join Love and Theft on this tour. The tour showcases the band’s latest album, “Whiskey On My Breath”, released in February.

According to Love and Theft’s press release, the album “marks a significant creative statement for Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson, the two singer-songwriter-guitarists, whose resume already includes a long series of career highlights.  Having already established themselves as one of country’s hottest young acts with such memorable hits as the #1 country smash ‘Angel Eyes’ and the Top 10 hit ‘Runaway,’ and their widely acclaimed albums World Wide Open and Love and Theft, the ACM/CMA/CMT-nominated twosome take their music to the next level.”

“Even though it’s older,” said Liles, “[the album is] new to most of the world because it didn’t have that push on the radio – it’s just now getting heard.”

You were dropped by your record label RCA before releasing “Whiskey On My Breath”, are you seeking to join another label in future?

“We co-produced this album and wrote everything on there ourselves,” said Liles “there aren’t any filler songs on this record.”

“If it were the right situation,” said Liles, “we would love to be on a major [label] because politically, you have to be on one to get to the next level, because they have all the connections.”

What are some ways in which you connect with your fans and audiences?

 “We’re very easily accessible on social media,” said Liles, “we are as active as we can be on our Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And it’s us. Sometimes we’ll have our manager post show updates, but everything else – that’s from us.”

What are some challenges of being independent artists?

In country radio, moving up the charts now is way slower. A lot of getting songs played is if someone’s doing a favor or we’re doing a free show. So we’re relying on the fact that we believe in this music and our fan base does too.

Radio is based on the up-tempo music today, so it’s harder for our ballads to get played.

However, some of the greatest songs, like “The House that Built Me“, “I Don’t Dance” and “Whiskey Lullaby”, songs that win awards, are ballads pretty much.

We want to put out songs that are going to be around for a long time. We have the party songs too, but there will always be new ones of those.

We want our songs to say something, for example, “Whiskey on My Breath” is about addiction. We play The Opry as much as we can, and we were there a couple of weeks ago, and two people in the [autograph] signing line came up to me, both in tears, and told me their story of how the song affected them in a positive way, or remind them of a loved one – that’s priceless.

Maybe our songs aren’t getting played across the country as much as we’d like, but the people that are hearing us are being influenced in their hearts, so it’s an honor for us.

What’s your opinion of today’s country music?

Country music today reminds me of rock in the 90s, where there are so many different versions. There’s bro country with Florida Georgia Line, bluesy country like Zac Brown Band and you have the more pop-country like Sam Hunt. The more traditional music, like Tim McGraw, is also still getting played, and that’s awesome. So you have all these different versions getting played on the radio that all work together.

Fans have been noted for saying that your live shows are sonically more impressive than listening to your records– what sets your performances apart from other artists’?

We’re a harmony group, and The Eagles our one of our biggest influences. We barely drink before shows because we want to sound as best as we can. And that’s just who we are – we’re very passionate about the way we sound live.

How do you keep your guard up and respect your romantic relationships while touring?

We just hold each other accountable and don’t put ourselves in situations where we could fail. We still hang out after shows and meet people, you just have to be an adult – be a man – and honor your commitments.

What kind of reactions do you get on your nose hoop? It’s not something most male country artists wear…

Well, I’m the only country artist with a nose ring, as far as I know. It’s not too gaudy, so most people don’t realize I have it until they’ve been talking to me up close for a while. Some people may not like it, but once they hear our live show I hope it corrects any negative opinions.

Is there anything else you’d like to add for readers in Wilmington?

My bandmate Eric is from Charlotte, North Carolina, and we are really excited to kicking off the weekend with ya’ll in Wilmington for our fall tour! We hope everyone comes out and has a good time.