The Nashville-based singer/songwriter talks about having played live music all summer long, including 12 shows over three weeks across Ireland. She also discusses her new EP, which features a song whose video is on CMT. She gives her view of playing a new song live for the first time, working on a jingle for an NFL team, and more.
“I’m a very firm believer of experimenting musically. I think it’s fun. I think if you sit in the same place it kind of gets boring to not only you but also your fans. So, I love to experiment. I love to surprise my fans.”
“I really believed that I didn’t need to cut a full-length record because no one’s really buying full-length records right now. So instead I just did four songs on an EP and then pumped the rest of the funding into creating a music video.”
“That’s been really what it has been for me. It’s me doing the right thing to others, and then them introducing me to the person that I needed to meet.”
“We went in the studio and I whipped out my little plastic credit card and I told that producer to put it on my credit card because I just believed that God would provide. And sure enough, that record was paid off in less than a month.”
“I hope it’s a message and a testimony for any young artist, because this is a business of No’s. This is a business of no, no, no, no, no. And when you get a Yes, it’s such an addictive thing. You can’t stop. Once you get the Yes, you’re like, ‘Okay, I know the Yes is out there. I know it’s possible.’ And I just think that you just have to keep creating the music that you believe in, songs you believe in, and you can’t let all these people in Nashville who think that they know anything about music influence your creativity and your style. You just have to stand by what you do.”
“The thing is about (song)writing that’s tricky is that you always think it’s great when you’re writing it. You always are like, ‘Awe, man, this is such a great idea, it’s such a great idea.’ And then you write, like, five more and cream rises to the top.”
“I think people want a fresh show. If you play a show in Memphis and you come back three months later and you don’t have any new material, your fans, they’re still gonna believe in you, they’re still gonna support you, they’re still gonna buy the record, but if you do it again and you have no new music again it just starts to kinda get a little stale. The show starts to seem the same, it doesn’t seem like you’re really growing.”
“I live for playing live. I’m not even gonna lie. I’ve announced, I have accepted, I have verbalized the fact that I crave music… I feel like whenever I’m on stage in front of a large group of people, whether it’s 5,000 people or 500 people or whatever, I feel like I’m responsible for the party.”
“The one thing I’ve learned recently is it’s not about networking. It’s about making friends – in the music industry.”
"Trashy Crashed the Party"
"Getaway"