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10 Questions with ... Ashley McBryde
March 25, 2018
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/AshleyMcBryde Twitter: www.Twitter.com/AshleyMcBryde
Warner Bros./WAR artist Ashley McBryde may just be the best thing you didn't see coming. Her debut single, "A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega," made big waves at SiriusXM and is moving up the charts at terrestrial radio just as her major label debut album, "Girl Going Nowhere," prepares to drop. McBryde is an Arkansas native who grew up with a stringed instrument in her hand and a fiery passion for songwriting. Before setting out for Nashville, McBryde explored the more traditional route of college and the ideas of becoming a band director, but the music in her soul was something much different than the music she was playing on her French Horn. McBryde's road-warrior attitude, honest storytelling sensibilities, and raw talent caught the eyes of Q Prime, Jay Joyce, and Warner Music Nashville, leading her on a whirlwind 2017 that included taking the stage alongside Eric Church, making her Grand Ole Opry debut, texting with Garth Brooks, and setting even bigger goals for the coming year. On the heels of her album release, McBryde sat down with All Access to talk about her life, the road she traveled to get here, and the experiences that have culminated in the most honest album she could muster.
1. Ashley, thank you for taking time to sit down and talk with us today. You've had so much going on during the lead up to the release of your major label debut, "Girl Going Nowhere." Music was always a passion, and you planned to make it a career - as an educator, correct? How did you go from studying music to become a music educator to moving to Nashville to pursue becoming a Country recording artist?
Yeah, band directing. That's what you do where I'm from. Well, if you were good at your instrument, anyway. I loved studying that in college. I was a terrible student, but I never missed a music class. In fact, I don't even think I attended most of my gen-ed classes, but I never missed a single music class. Still, I knew I couldn't be a band director! I just knew. But, I wanted to get a degree and have that under my belt - I don't have that, now, actually, because I left. I had moved to Jonesboro, Arkansas to go to school, and then I moved to Memphis. I was still in school in Jonesboro, but I was playing and gigging four or five nights a week by then, and I started missing classes. I was in a pedagogy class - which is a class teaching you how to teach - and I was sitting there one-on-one with the instructor. He was my mentor, and he was also my boss, because I was the drum major for the marching band and the conductor for the pep band. He looked at me and closed his binder, and he said, "I think you need to drop out of school. You're missing a lot of class. Your heart is in this other kind of music that you do." For me, the two never crossed paths; playing the guitar and writing songs is really nothing like reading music and playing the French Horn, even though both are skills that are beautiful. But, anyway, he said to me, "You're skinny, you're pretty, and things are going to happen for you. In five years, you'll be fat, and nobody is going to care." And, you know what? If there had been subtitles in the room, I would have read: "Bless you, my child. Go forth and make Country music." That's probably what that meant. That day, I went to the Dean of Fine Arts and told him that I was leaving. He gave me his blessing, also, and told me, "Even though we're going to miss you, I think you might be making the right choice here." From there, I went right over to the Administration building, and I dropped out of school. That day. Really, by the time that conversation happened, I had already started driving to Nashville. I would get out of class on Friday at around 3p, and I would just haul ass to Nashville. I would see music and meet writers, and I'd try to write with people and network. I'd do all of that full-speed until Monday morning, and I'd leave Nashville at 2a to head back to Jonesboro.
2. From the start, music has been big part of your life. I would imagine your family wasn't shocked that you decided to pursue music as a career. Can you tell us about when the love of music started, and how it evolved for you as you grew up playing?
I was little, teeny-tiny. My mother has VHS tape after VHS tape of me singing whatever it was I had written that day. Even as I got older, the only way to get me to do my math homework was to let me sing it at the table. It drove my brother, Daniel, crazy that I was singing my times tables. I'd sing about walking to the mailbox or about a bird I had just seen; I'd sing about whatever Bible story I had just heard that week. When I was 12, I wrote a legit song - about having my heart broken, of course, because I was 12 years old going on 40. I sang the song for my mom, and she asked, "Where did you get that song?" I told her I wrote it, and she said, "Really?!" She looked at my grandparents and just said, "Oh, boy." I grew up playing Bluegrass and going to Bluegrass festivals. So, writing original songs happened all the time; that wasn't foreign to me at all. It's just that no one ever told me to stop doing it, so I kept doing it. My brother, Dan, used to throw things at me. Our rooms were across the hall from each other, and when I was playing guitar, I'd hear [a whooshing noise], and then a boot would come flying through the room as he yelled, "Shut your door!" I was the youngest of six, and no one else wanted to play with me! They were all too old to mess with the little sister. It made me so sad when I was little, but I'm so happy now that it happened, because I had a guitar, and it was my best friend. It's still my best friend! I was pretty self-taught. I started playing mandolin when I was three or four years old, because I was too small to be playing guitar. As I got older and more responsible with holding instruments, I was allowed to play my mom's guitar that she had. I got a three-quarter sized guitar when I was nine years old, and it became my best friend. Even today, driving in to town, I realized I hadn't put a guitar in the truck. I texted [band mate] Andrew [Sovine] and said, "Hey, can you bring me the Martin today?" I don't do anything without one of those guys with me. Even right now, sitting here talking to you, there's a jacket in my lap, because I'm used to having a guitar in my lap. I even watch TV with a guitar in my lap; they're hanging on the wall above my couch so that I can just reach up and grab one and play during commercials. It's such a body part to me and such an identity. So, I'm thankful that my siblings didn't want to play with me!
3. You mentioned Bluegrass and starting with learning to play mandolin, but that's not where your sound is now. What other music inspired you, and how did that morph into the official Ashley McBryde signature sound?
It was always Country in my house. There was Kris Kristofferson and John Denver, and there was Ronnie Milsap and Dolly Parton music in my house. Always. It was there, along with all the Bluegrass stuff. There was also an "Oldies" station where I grew up, so I got a good dose of actual Rock 'n' Roll, in its purest form, before discovering other types of Rock 'n' Roll. I even listened to some Pop stuff; I listened to a lot of No Doubt stuff when I was in high school - or maybe it was middle school...I don't want to age myself too much! When I got to Memphis and started playing those bars, I was playing Barbara Mandrell covers and Pam Tillis Covers - anything I could think of. But, it didn't always go over well - they didn't want to hear "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool." I thought, "Well, since I'm here in Memphis, I should really take this city in." And, you know what? I did. I let it get in to my bones, and the muddy Mississippi gets in to you, and the Blues and the Rock 'n' Roll thing gets into your bone marrow and comes out your throat. The longer I stayed, and the more I surrendered to that city, the sound that would end up being the sound of my band - this Rock/Blues/Country thing - developed. I didn't fight it; I just completely embraced it and invited it in.
4. So, you've moved from Memphis to Nashville, and you've crafted your own sound. But, like every great artist, you were a 10-plus year "overnight success" story. What were you doing during those early years in Nashville, and how did you earn your "10,000 hours" on the road while keeping a roof over your head?
I have played every bar from Louisville, Kentucky to Tulsa, Oklahoma. I've played every joint that ends in "Burger" or "Pizza." I have been the jukebox in front of a TV when they didn't even turn the sound off during a ballgame. I did all of that! I also had a day job, too, for a little while; I worked at Guitar Center for a couple of years. That was a really good way to find out what you don't want to do for a living. Working in retail is beautiful, and as wonderful of a company as Guitar Center is, that just wasn't for me. I am NOT your best customer service representative! I will tell you...I was the Operations Manager, so my job was to enforce policy and procedure. I'm a huge rule breaker, but if you give me the rules to make other people follow, I will absolutely be making sure they follow them - including the customers. You do not want me to put out customer fires, because I make them so much worse! But, I started playing five or six nights a week, four hours per night, and I created my own route. I'd drive up to Louisville, and I'd play all the way through Tennessee and Arkansas, then up to Rogers, which is in the Northwest corner of Arkansas close to the Oklahoma line. When I finished, I'd go back the other direction and swoop down to Little Rock before coming up to get Jonesboro on the way back to and through Memphis. I'd play everywhere that didn't tell me to stop playing when I plugged in. That's how I fed myself for 11 years.
5. After all those years of traveling and gigging, you landed at Q Prime, thusly really launching this chapter of your career. How did the partnership with Q Prime come about, and how did you know it was the right direction for you?
First, the publishing deal happened at Song Factory. About a year and a half later, Q Prime happened. I was playing a show at 3rd and Lindsley - it was a showcase, but I hate that term - and we were in the green room. There's always so much going on in a green room, you know? It's like the whole band, and there's the crew back there, and it looks like a beehive - people and cases and guitars and photography. All these people are buzzing around doing their thing and talking to everyone else. People will be telling you what a great show you had, and that feels amazing. Then, you'll hear stuff going down like, "Man, that was a great show! You should work with me, because I own a leprechaun!" or "Hey, do you wanna pet a Pegasus?! I have a dinosaur you can borrow!" Why are these things being said? At that moment, in walks this guy - he's got this awesome silver hair with still a lot of black in it, and he walks directly up to me, sticks his hand out, and just says, "Hi, I'm John Peets. I like what you do, and I know what to do with it. I'm really looking forward to talking to you." Then...he walked out. It was like everything else in the room stopped and was silent - it all parted like the Red Sea - and, as I watched him walk out, I knew...I just knew...that was my guy. I knew he was coming to the show, because someone had told me, "Hey, John Peets is going to be at the show tonight." I didn't know who that was, though. After talking to him that night, though, I did Google him. When I looked him up, I thought, "Oh my God! Marty Stuart?! Eric Church?! Brothers Osborne, and Rhiannon Giddens, and The Wildfeathers?! That guy likes my music?!" It didn't take me long to decide that this was my family, and this was my community.
6. Signing your management deal with Q Prime also led to working with producer Jay Joyce on the "Girl Going Nowhere" album. Can you walk us through that creative process and tell us about your experience cutting the album?
I met Jay Joyce in the kitchen in the downstairs part of his studio. I was there to write with Jeremy Spillman, and I went to make myself a cup of coffee. Here's this guy wearing black jeans, black sneakers, black hoodie, black leather jacket, hood up with a black beanie over it; I was standing there making coffee and said, "How are you today?" He was smoking a cigarette and said, "I'm fine. I'm Jay Joyce; how are you?" I was like, "Oh, hi! I'm Ashley!" He said, "Oh! We're making a record together in a couple of weeks." I was just blown away. Then, Jay tells me, "Ya know, I know you and your band have been together and playing in bars for a long time. I'd kind of like to record it that way. Let's go in late at night, stay really late and into the early morning, and do it that way so that your body and the creativity flow just the way it normally would." We did exactly that. We rehearsed for three days. Jay would come in twice per day, and then - on the fourth and fifth day, God created the album! We went at 6p, had a slice of pizza and a shot of whiskey, and then we chose four or five songs and played them six or seven times each. That's how we laid it down. There's not a lot of comps; there are a couple of guitar parts we had to add, and of course we had to sing a couple of harmony spots all together, but there's no auto-tune or anything on this record. I know I'll probably get some crap for that. I know some people will point out, "Oh, she's flat on that!" But, I'm okay with missed notes, because sometimes it's the right thing to do. Trying to perfect that note might have made the whole line, the whole chorus, or God forbid even the entire song, feel disingenuous. I think that's the right word, but I also dropped out of college, so what do I know?
7. You walked away from the recording session with a completed album and no record deal, which isn't always the case. It wasn't until later in the year that you landed at Warner Music Nashville on the WAR team. What does Warner Music Nashville mean to you, and how did you find each other?
Home. Warner means home. All of the options were there, except one label, I believe. I went to meet with Warner, and we were not in a conference room. We were in an office that was adorably decorated, and the entire staff was in the room, on stools, sitting elbow to elbow. I walked in, and they started clapping, and when I panic, I just do the first thing I can think of - so I ran around the room giving everyone high-fives. Naturally. But, it was just such a warm environment, and everybody was so passionate that there was just no denying that. We were there for probably an hour and a half, but it took me ten minutes to know that this was going to be my team. Honestly, it was [Warner Music Nashville/WAR Coord./Promotion] Taylor [Aretz] who, at the end of her spiel, said, "I just want you to know that I've lost sleep about this meeting. It's going to be a tragedy if I don't get to work with you." That's big; those were some really big words coming out of her mouth, and I knew they all meant it. So, when we finally committed, John Peets called me. He said, "Hey, I wanted you to know that we are committing to Warner today," and it was just like - YES! I called [Warner Music Nashville Chairman/CEO] John Esposito, and I'd been out on a run and was actually at a co-write when I called him. I said, "You know what, I'm just really tired and frazzled, and I'm at a write right now, and really all I want to do is go home." Espo said, "Well, I understand that." And, I said, "So, let me come home to Warner. We're with you." He and I just gushed over each other for about three minutes after that. It has been such a great family to be with already, and I have a ton of great label mates to get to know, too.
8. Besides a new label team, you have also spent the last year getting to know another group of people - radio. What was radio tour like for you? What did you love - and hate - about the process, and what would you share with other young artists getting ready to embark on a radio tour?
Radio tour, man. There should be a manual for radio tour! But, honestly, there's nothing that is going to prepare you for it. A little bit of a head's up would be nice, though...someone should tell you that it doesn't matter how much water you drink or how much vitamin C you put in to your body, your immune system is just going to give it up, and you are eventually going to be the sickest you've ever been during radio tour. You'll have to be on at all times; you need to be able to take a three-minute nap in the car, then wake up, fluff your hair, and go in to the next stop and be brilliant. You're in a plane, in a car, in a bar - and repeat. There are all these germs, and they will wait - those germs will hang out and wait until the holidays, or the first time you get any real down time - and they will all jump on you together and take you completely down. [Brothers Osborne's] John Osborne saw me right as I got better after radio tour, and he said that he and TJ [Osborne] had gotten really sick, too. John said, "Don't worry. After you've gotten past this little illness, you're a tank; your immune system is just beefy." I could lick a door handle in a truck stop and probably not get sick. I mean, I don't want to, but I'm betting that I wouldn't get sick. But, on radio tour, you're walking in to these stations - sometimes it's a conference room, sometimes it's an office, and sometimes you're in the studio. There are none of those situations that I hated, honestly. The travel is what gets you. But, the people at the station's you're visiting have a lot of visits; they have a lot of people come through, and it's not easy on them, either. But, they've all been so good to us. They even give me food sometimes...or wine, sometimes! What I learned is that it doesn't matter if you're writing the song, promoting the music, or spinning the record - we are all fingers on the same hand and limbs on the same body. We are the music industry, together, because I don't have a job without you, and you don't have a job without me. It's a really nice, symbiotic relationship. Anybody who really bitches about their radio brethren just doesn't get it, because I love it. I'd heard a lot about radio tour - "Oh, it'll be bad, and it'll be so hard." No! You just go hang out with great people who love music. That's not hard. You just have to convince them that you're worth listening to, and that's it! I wish I had time to go see every single person at every single station. There's a station in Ft. Smith, Arkansas that's playing the single right now, and my mom is so excited, because she lives over in that direction. So, the next time I go home, even though it's not like a radio tour visit, we're going to make them muffins and cookies, and we're just going to take them over to the station. My mom's like, "Oh, we'll just make them some sweets!" It's the best. They'll be like, "We expected her to bring booze, but look at these muffins!"
9. You've gone from playing the bar scene to opening for some of the best and brightest in our format in short order. We had the opportunity to see you perform at the Ryman Auditorium the weekend before CRS this year, and the crowd reaction was amazing. How is it that you have built this fan base of people who can sing along to album cuts from a record that hasn't yet been released? Can you tell us about these road experiences over the past year?
Yes! I've been out with Luke Combs this year, and also with Miranda Lambert. I just got back from London, which is crazy. I got to meet [BBC2 radio host] Bob Harris! Now I know what God's voice sounded like. All this time, I thought it was Morgan Freeman, but...Bob Harris...! This has been a really cool thing traveling with Luke and Miranda, and I get to go back out with Luke in April. Luke and I met shortly after Tortuga last year. I hadn't seen him live, and I went to his show at Tortuga and thought, "Man! That's it. This is how you do it. Good people playing good songs while wearing t-shirts. This is awesome!" We met at Tin Roof when I found out I was on the short list to go out with him, and then when the decision was made, he shot me a text that said, "Are you ready to ride?" Him being the headliner, he's so easy to support. That truly is our job, to support him, so we need to get the crowd ready for what they're about to experience; I think this is just a really good pairing. It also worked really well with Miranda Lambert and Jon Pardi, too. These fans are just fans of good songs, and that's easy to entertain. People like to come to the shows. Some of the songs that are on this album are things that we've been playing out for years, but they just got a fresh new pair of shoes with Jay Joyce. New life was breathed in to them. My fans - and Luke's fans, too - they don't just listen to the singles. They dive really deep in there, and they find the embarrassing drunk covers of "Jolene" from Beale Street. They really dive in, and I think that's why Country music fans are the best in the world.
10. We'd be remiss if we didn't discuss your debut album, "Girl Going Nowhere," which is set to release on Friday, March 30th. If there are people out there who have not yet heard your music and maybe have not had a chance to meet you yet, what do you hope they learn from this collection of songs?
Listening to this record will give you a really good overview of me as a human being, and collectively, where we are as a band and as people in this industry. I've had my whole life to live, and these songs have been written in the process. Selecting these was really hard, but thank God I had the wisdom of John Peets and Jay Joyce to help with that. It's a really, really good Polaroid of us, and it does give us room to grow, also. There were some things we considered putting on the record that we thought maybe it would be best to wait so that we had room to grow. We didn't want to show up with all of the balloon animals at once, but we did want to give you a solid look at who we are and what we sound like. The way I was willing to be honest changed a few years ago when I was introduced to Travis Meadows' music. He is willing to rip open his chest every single night and let you look at all the little cogs and wheels. I think it's not only cool to be that honest, but it's imperative. It's your duty to do that; if you write songs, you better be willing to be that honest. So, the songwriting aspect is the most important to me. It's also how I keep from stabbing people. It's much cheaper than therapy. In fact, it is therapy.
Bonus Questions
1. To say 2017 changed your life would be an understatement, I'd imagine, but can we hit on some of the highlights? I'm going to throw out three names, and I want you to tell me what they meant to you and what happened in 2017 to change your life. Ready? Eric Church, Garth Brooks, and the Grand Ole Opry.
Joining Eric [Church] on stage? Terrified. I'd never used in-ears before. I had never been on a stage in an arena. But, we are both managed by Q Prime, and he told John Peets, "I'd like Ashley to come in April to Chicago. I think she will love the format of the show, and I'd love for her to see it." I was like, "Yes! Of course!" So, we go. I'm in catering getting a bite to eat before the show, and they come up and say, "Hey, you're singing with Eric tonight." I thought that would be easy enough, I guess, because I know every word to every one of his songs, so that shouldn't be a problem. They said, "Nope. He wants to do [my song] 'Bible And A .44' with you." That's when I was like, "Watch me forget the words now that it's my own song." But, it was really cool. They let me go in to the arena by myself with just the sound guys so that I could get used to being on that stage. There's really no getting used to that, but at least I had the opportunity to get up there so that it wasn't a brand-new experience - and so that I wouldn't get up there and fall. I think about that all the time when I'm on stage; I'm constantly saying to myself, "Don't fall down, don't fall down, don't fall down." Then, there's new experiences like getting a text from Garth Brooks. Seriously, that happened. I get this text that says, "Hi, this is Garth Brooks. Is this the correct contact information for Ashley McBryde?" And, I'm like, "Yeah, okay. It's Garth Brooks. Sure. And, I'm Batman!" But, no, it was legit Garth Brooks. He called me the next day. We talked, and he wanted to know about "Girl Going Nowhere" and "Bible And A .44," then he started covering "Girl Going Nowhere." That happened. Now, we're talking about maybe trying to get together - possibly in April - and writing something together. He's a really, really, REALLY nice man, and I know that everybody in radio knows that. But, it hasn't changed, even though this is how many years now that he's been doing this in this business? It hasn't changed, and he is just the kindest individual ever. That is just crazy right?! And, talking about another crazy thing that has happened to me - The Opry...everybody got to see me cry. I'm the whiskey-drinking badass, but I still tear up when I watch that. I do love that it was captured on film, because it was such a huge moment. You get so many people telling you no - and every no is closer to a yes - but THAT yes...you wouldn't be standing in that circle if you didn't deserve to be there. That's a hard concept to process and believe, because you want to keep yourself in check all the time. I ask myself, "Am I getting too big for my britches? Do I really deserve this gig? Do I deserve this time slot?" But, that night, I thought, "If I didn't deserve to be standing here, they wouldn't have called." That's a struggle for me to process after struggling and fighting for every inch I've gotten over the years. I couldn't believe I was standing there and I had earned it. "Girl Going Nowhere" isn't just a song, and it's not just an album title - that's me. It's a lifestyle. It's a stance as the underdog and for the underdog. I really should thank that awful teacher someday. She's no longer an educator - imagine that. I should thank her, though, for lighting such a fire under me and for giving me my first taste of the word "no." I think everyone needs to hear that before they get to town. I was told by people - people who would be embarrassed if I said their names and then mentioned the things they said to me - some bad things. And, that doesn't mean they were wrong! I needed to hear those things so that I kept my nose to the grindstone. I mentioned earlier skipping gen-ed classes; I was a terrible student, but I was never a terrible student at this. I have always been willing to work for it, and to keep pushing and working hard. Always. "Girl Going Nowhere" could be a girl with a camera, or a girl with a paintbrush, or a girl with a pottery wheel. I've noticed it in other people now, who are bringing me their daughters when I'm at the record table. People are saying, "Thank you for wearing t-shirts and having tattoos and being from the middle of nowhere and going out there and singing, because my kid thinks you're awesome." That's what is so cool to me. And, maybe someday, we can have a thing called "Girls Going Somewhere" where we can support other young women.
2. You've had a lot going on in the past 18 to 24 months, and so much has been a buildup and countdown to this album release. Have you looked ahead at all, and if so, what are you most looking forward to in the coming 6 to 9 months?
We're going to keep getting on these big tours, which is going to be fun. I heard a little rumor about maybe doing a Kip Moore thing in the Fall, which would be a lot of fun. Then, for the very first time, we will headline a club tour. I know that is small potatoes, but not to us! That also means we will have the opportunity to work with some opening acts and be as kind to them as Miranda and Luke and Jon Pardi have been to us. The first person over the wall gets to reach over and grab the next person, so I can't wait to do some headlining stuff and be really kind to openers the way they have been to us.
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