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10 Questions with ... Lindsay Ell
January 20, 2019
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. The fact that I have been signed to the label now for, I want to say, seven years, it's insane! It's insane that people believed in me enough to know that I'm going to do it. It's a matter of when, not a matter of if, and that's always been my mindset ever since I got to town. But to have a full label group believe in me and stand behind me single after single, and year after year be like, "All right, we've just got to wait for the right song, we've just got to wait for the right time, we've got to wait for the right moment" ... Of course we've caught glimpses of success here and there. But to have them through thick and thin still be there, I'm so grateful and I'm honestly humbled by it
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
Triple-threat singer, songwriter, and guitar whiz Lindsay Ell has been called "one of the most exciting and talented young artists in Country music" by Forbes. Her first full-length album, "The Project," debuted at No. 1 on the Country Album Sales chart in August 2017. She will play the New Faces of Country Music show at Country Radio Seminar in Nashville on Friday, February 15th.
1. Where were you, and how did you react when you got the news that you'd been picked to play the New Faces Show at Country Radio Seminar? And what do you have planned for the video that intros your New Faces set?
I had gotten back into Nashville from a flight [after] a few shows, and I had gotten a call from [BMG/BBR Music Group EVP] Mr. Jon Loba. He was like, "Lindsay, I have some good news for you." When he said that I had been invited to be a part of New Faces, I freaked out. I mean, New Faces has become such a prestigious, respectable thing for artists, and it's sort of the next line of artists that the industry's like, "All right, we believe in these people and we believe they're going to do good things." To have that kind of oath of belief and credibility from all of our friends in radio, it was a huge deal to me.
We just talked about [the video] a few days ago at the label. We were sort of brainstorming, and I ended up coming up this idea, so I wrote the whole script on it. In part, I'm making fun of Jon Loba, of course, because why wouldn't we? [Laughs] I am so excited about it. We have nice things, too, on him directly, and a bunch of the VPs of the label will be involved. I think it'll end up being pretty funny.
2. For radio to have chosen you as a New Faces performer, they obviously believe that you have a bright future. But if you were to look into a crystal ball, and project where you'd like to be professionally by the time CRS 2029 comes around, 10 years from now, where do you hope to be?
I want to be traveling [to] arenas around the world, playing for thousands of amazing fans every night and getting to play my songs in front of them. Over the past year I've had one of the coolest touring years of my whole career to date, and I've gotten to open up for some famous artists that I have looked up to ever since I was a little girl, ever since I started playing guitar. Getting to watch Brad Paisley, to be with Sugarland this past summer, and then Keith Urban, and getting to watch what they do, and just seeing artists like that in their element who it just comes so natural [to,] and it feels [like] such a part of them, that it so inspiring to me. So, 10 years from now, I want to build a business that I can do that ... and be able to travel around the world doing it.
3. Like a lot of female country artists, you have not always been an automatic add at radio with your singles. You haven't had a Luke Combs-type fast-track career, because women hardly ever do. So what has it meant to you to be on a label that just keeps swinging and just believes in you so much?
It is something that I think about every single day. I mean, the fact that I have been signed to the label now for, I want to say, seven years, it's insane! It's insane that people believed in me enough to know that I'm going to do it. It's a matter of when, not a matter of if, and that's always been my mindset ever since I got to town. But to have a full label group believe in me and stand behind me single after single, and year after year be like, "All right, we've just got to wait for the right song, we've just got to wait for the right time, we've got to wait for the right moment" ... Of course we've caught glimpses of success here and there. But to have them through thick and thin still be there, I'm so grateful and I'm honestly humbled by it.
As much as we make fun of Loba, he's been the one who's stood by my side, has been like, "Yes, we do believe in you, and we know you're going to do this and we're going to be there right by your side." It's so, so incredible. I'm really grateful for it.
4. What do you think the key is to getting women integrated back into Country radio?
The ratios are still not even. We can look at a chart and obviously see that there's definitely an imbalance there, but I feel like it's just a matter of time until this starts to even itself out. There's so many talented female artists out there right now doing their thing. I feel grateful to have a group of friends that are predominantly female artists in Nashville, all of us trying to do their thing and doing such a great job at it -- Maren [Morris] and Cassadee [Pope,] and RaeLynn, and Lauren [Alaina], and the list goes on, and on, and on. The fact that there's so many good female artists doing it, it's only a matter of time before it catches on. I truly believe that. Yes, it's slow, but it's leading in a good direction, and as always, amazing female artists keep recording great material. It needs to get out there. Fans want to listen to it, so I truly believe that it's just a matter of time.
5. How did your collaboration with Brantley Gilbert come about for "What Happens In A Small Town," because that is really taking off?
I was so excited from the day we got the call from [Big Machine Label Group Pres./CEO] Scott Borchetta himself. I was truly humbled. Brantley had written that song with Rhett [Akins,] Brock Berryhill, and Josh Dunne, and when they were in the writing room, they were like, "This sounds like a really great duet." They were in the conference room trying to figure out who would be the right duet partner, and the fact that Scott brought up my name and Brantley was like, "Man, she'd be perfect," it was such a cool moment. And then when Scott called us it was like, "Yes, of course, Scott, I would love to be a part of it!" It was amazing the way the whole thing came together. It was really just perfect timing for Brantley and perfect timing for me.
It's been so much fun to get to know Brantley better. I've known him and his wife a little bit just from shows and playing the Opry and things here and there, but to really get to know him -- he's such a good guy with such a good heart. He's a great dad, and it's been, really, a great collaboration.
Any chance Brantley may pop up during your New Faces set?
I would not rule that out of the question. We definitely talked about areas where we could get together and start playing this live. Shooting the music video was obviously so much fun. We did it down in Columbia, Tennessee, in a small town, of course. So we're just looking for more opportunities to play together, and there's rumblings of touring together later this year. I'm so excited to do that if it happens. Then we'll play it every night.
6. What other touring plans do you have for 2019?
The month of March I will be zigzagging around the world. I think I actually will fly around the entire world. We'll be in Berlin, Amsterdam and then fly all the way to Australia to play CMC Music Festival in Sydney. And then I'm doing a concert of CMA Songwriter Series shows and, after Berlin and Amsterdam, will be Australia, and New Zealand, and Japan. This summer we're just doing festivals like crazy and then Brantley and I will be doing the back half of the year together.
7. Not every artist wants to put in the work that's involved in going and playing overseas and playing oftentimes very tiny venues where people maybe aren't that familiar with you. Why is it so important to you to build an international fan base like that?
I'm from Canada, born and raised, so I'm from another country to begin with, and it was always my dream to come to Nashville and to live in Nashville and start my career from here. But the fact that I'm from a different country originally, it makes the world feel so small.
I remember the first time I went to Europe, landing, and getting off the plane, and going to play my first show with The Band Perry. It was probably, I want to say six years ago, and ... it was just such an eye-opening experience, because you're in a completely different place, but music is still the universal language. It's something that brings us all together.
I've done a few shows now, our past four tours over there [in the U.K.,] and the fact that I can slide to the other side of the globe and there is a roomful of fans singing along to my record, and singing along to B-sides with stars in their eyes, and just so excited to be a part of my show, it warms my heart. It's the reason why we wake up and do this every morning. But it's just so crazy that proximity doesn't matter. It's just about recording music that means something, and recording music that speaks to someone, and it can really go around the world.
I've never been an artist who kind of struck luck and all of these things happened at once. I'm kind of, "Well, I'm just going to work harder than everybody else I know and then, hopefully, eventually I'll make something work," so I love playing shows. I love songwriting. I love being in the studio, but the stage is my home. It's where I grew up, and it's always going to be my favorite few minutes of the day. And I love traveling around the world and meeting as many fans as I can, and doing it over, and over, and over again.
8. What surprised you most about how radio works once you really got out there and started interacting with programmers on a regular basis? Any misperceptions that were debunked along the way?
I did two and a half radio tours. Before my first one, everybody would come to me and be like, "Radio tour's awful, you've just got to get through it, and then it's much better after that." But I loved radio tours. I loved getting to travel around the country and meet program directors. I felt like I made 300 new friends by the end of my first radio tour. I loved being able to meet the people who are a part of helping get our music heard.
Now, when I talk to new artists before they're about to go on their radio tour, I'm like, "You're going to love it." Yes, there's not a lot of sleep, and yes, it's a lot of work, but you feel like you have your career in the palm of your hand, and you're doing the groundwork to the next step to get further down the road to where you want to be. That's a really exciting and empowering feeling as an artist. Generally we don't have that in our hands, but it feels like a tangible thing that you are doing to put steps in the right direction for success.
The other thing that was totally debunked was [with] my first single, ["Trippin' On Us"]. I'd been in Nashville a couple years at that point, and I was just about to go out on the road with The Band Perry, and everything was just clicking into gear. I was so excited, and I thought that my first single was going to be the thing to change my life. I remember releasing it and going out on the first radio tour stop, and it was just like, "All right, here we go, mom and dad. This is it." Fast forward a few months later, and reality sets in. You slowly get to understand the journey of it. But it's been so beautiful, and I really learned so much about myself over these past seven years being on the label and getting to release music.
9. After countless radio visits and radio shows, is there anything radio doesn't already know about you that you'd like them to know?
I think a lot of people in radio do know that I'm a hard worker and I don't really take no for an answer, and I will figure out the way to make it happen. Radio's kind of cracked that piece of the puzzle about me. If I was to pick something that radio didn't know, [it's that] this next record, musically, is going to show radio a side that they haven't seen from me yet ... This next record is going to show more of my Country roots, more of where I started, while still being me and still having lots of guitar solos and those groove elements. I think radio's going to be happy to see what this next record's all about.
10. How far along is that next album?
Right now, we're just starting recording it. [Producer] Kristian Bush and I were in the studio a few days before Christmas, and we're kind of talking about crew, production, and things we want to record. We're still so early on in the game. Basically, I'm all things Brantley Gilbert right now, and working that song [is the priority].
Bonus Questions
You just finished your first headlining tour, the "Monster Energy Outbreak Tour." What was that experience like, and why did you choose Adam Hambrick as your support act?
We were playing like tiny little clubs, and it was sort of my first opportunity stepping into that pond, and dipping a toe into the water. It was like, "OK, everybody in this venue has bought a ticket to see me, and this is weird, and also amazing at the same time."
I got to write with Adam a lot of the past couple of years. He's such a talented songwriter/singer, and I just really believe in him as an artist. I think he's destined to do great things. He's such a talent, he's a good guy, and I have a lot of faith in what Adam's going to do.
You're really into health and fitness. With the kind of hard touring that you do, as well as writing and recording, how do you prioritize making the time to work out and to eat healthy?
Everybody has things that de-stress their lives and help them [deal with] all the chaos of our day-to-day, and going 24/7, and the rat race of life. To me, that's working out, and eating healthy is something that just coincides with working out. The two go together, and I create music and write songs so much better when I'm working out and being healthy. I get inspired by going on long runs and listening to new music, or running in new cities. So it's just been something that I've woven into my way of life. If I don't get a workout in every couple of days at the very least, then I'm a different person. I just get so much grounding out of staying healthy and making sure that I can get workouts in on the road ... It's insane the impact it can have on your life.
In your song, "Champagne," you pay actress Jessica Biel a pretty big compliment by using her name to describe the way you feel. What inspired the reference, and have you heard anything from her about being in your song?
I had a huge crush on Justin Timberlake growing up. So I was like, "What better than to write a song about his wife?" Jessica Biel has always been one of those celebrities that has always just been so classy while still being sexy as a woman and saying things that she wants to say, and speaking up for what she believes in [like] most of my female role models have done, like Sheryl Crow and Shania Twain and all of these incredible women. So when we were writing "Champagne," it happened that Jessica Biel rhymed with the word feel, and we were away to the races!
After the ACMs [Academy of Country Music Awards] last year, we went up to the Foundry [at SLS Las Vegas] to congratulate Jason Aldean on his [Entertainer of the Year] win, and Justin and Jessica walk into the bar. Everybody was like, "Lindsay, you need to go up and say hi," and I was like, "No, I'm not going to be that person. That's not my style." So my amazing publicist, Meg Ryan, stepped in and went to talk to Justin's manager, who was also there with him. She explained the situation, and he was like, "Oh, the Jessica Biel song. Yeah, we love that song!" So I got to go up and shake her hand and give her a hug. She was like, "Thank you so much for including my name in your song. That's so cool, and we listen to it at the house." It was a really cool moment.
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