USA Today Talks To Kevn About Producing For F/X's 'Archer'

Kevn Kinney's 'Danger Zone' cover will be heard on FX's hit animated series.

March 3, 2014

by David Oliver for USA Today

About six or seven months ago, Adam Reed, creator of FX's Archer, took Kevn Kinney, lead singer of Drivin' N' Cryin', to lunch to ask him to compose some country songs for a soundtrack (out today) to Reed's cult favorite series.

"I watched all four seasons and got my head wrapped around how country to make it," Kinney says. "I didn't want to go over the top ... and it had to be kind of believable. I was really excited to do it."

Kinney jokes that hearing Kenny Loggins' Danger Zone — the original song was a hit in 1986 — almost brought him to tears.

"I was just kind of having fun, 'I wonder what this would sound like with mandolin.' So we actually listened to the version that (producer and co-writer)Giorgio Moroder did in one earphone and then we recorded it playing along with it, so we kind of had the same tempo, and then we got the key from watching Kenny Loggins' live videos. I thought the version that we came up with was really a lot of fun," he says. Kinney's version premieres exclusively at USA TODAY and will be heard in tonight's episode of Archer (10 p.m. ET/PT).

Kinney says he was excited to "do something interesting and different" after 29 years of being in Drivin' N' Cryin', and adds that fans are "ecstatic" about the group's collaboration with the Archer team.

Hear 'Danger Zone' here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2014/03/03/song-premiere-danger-zone-archer-kevn-kinney/5839331/