Country duo reflects on motherhood, music evolution and growth

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We have gotten knocked down a lot like everybody every human person does in the world. Oh yeah. Florida Georgia line. I feel they were pissed. No, dudes are sick. And drunk girls in bathrooms is probably the most like funky soulful like very Silk Sonic inspired uh song disco vibes. And we played a show in Chicago last week and our fans knew every single word already. Yeah, that's how our fans are the freaking best ever. And so I was so surprised that they already knew all the words to that one. Well, and being moms, uh, when's the last time you guys were drunk in a bathroom? That's a good three or four years ago. Yeah. And it we probably hurt for like 5 days after. That's just the way it is now. The hangovers just aren't worth it anymore. Like, you know, like tonight I'm probably going to have a glass of champagne and I'm going I'm going crazy. We're two drink gals now. It's just like it hurts too bad. But back in our I mean, let me tell you, when we were like touring in our like early 20s, we tow it up, but nobody knew. We kept it on the DL. We wanted to still set a good example for Little Girls, but still go sell some wild oats, you know? Oh, that's nice. When When did you feel like you you broke out of that and you were able to like tell everybody like, "Hey, I actually like get down." Oh, my album. Yeah, I do feel like there was sort this like image especially since Maddie and I came out on the scene when we were 18 and we were so green and young and everyone like saw us as these babies and we were on Disney Channel and it was like the whole thing. Um, and so we sort of feel like we've had to teach people that we're grown up now and especially with this record we talk about like smoking and drinking and I think people are going to be like, "Oh wait, what the heck? We'd like to relax." Okay. Okay. So it's like almost like um like when like Jojo Siwa or whatever like when you have to transition over into like adulthood per se it's hard to take some fans but it's gentle. It's gentle though cuz it's like you know we're we're not like getting too crazy or anything and we have kids so it is important for us to like make music. But it was so funny y'all. I was I was in Texas with my family last week and my my little niece, she's five. She's like, "Auntie Ma, do you say bad words in your songs?" And I was like, "Actually, there are a couple songs that I say bad words in." And she's like, like what? And I like would whisper them in her ear and she was laughing like, "Oh." And I and she's like, "Why do you say bad words?" And I was like, "I don't know. Just cuz it's fun." And she was like, "Just words." And she goes, "When I turn 14, I'm going to sing with the bad words." And I was like, "Okay, 14." Yeah, that's her word. Yeah, the 14 is bad wording. Yeah. It's been uh 10 years since Girl in a Country Song. Um, how do you feel like uh you guys have progressed? Like what would you say to to if I'm like, "Oh, you guys, let's say we're 10 years right now. Oh, you guys just came out with a new song." Like, h how would what would you say to you guys? Oh, I feel like we've progressed exponentially. I think the people that we are now compared to the people that we were when we started are just, you know, we're confident and we've matured and we still don't have any of the answers. But, you know, I think we have more of a piece about it, more of like this like just kind of confidence settling feeling of knowing who we are and what we bring to the table that we definitely didn't have when we were 18 trying to prove ourselves, you know. And I think, you know, being best friends for 15 years and then coming onto the scene, you know, 10 years ago, we have gotten knocked down a lot, like everybody, every human person does in the world. But for our journey, there's been a lot of times we're like, is this it? Like, do we call it? But there's just this like unbreakable hope and unbreakable resilience that we've built over the last 15 years. Um, where like getting knocked down to us is like a regular Tuesday and we're like, "Okay, Wednesday's tomorrow. get back up. Let's roll. So, we've learned how to like really like, you know, just like put our bootstraps on and not get discouraged when things don't, you know, work out. Have you guys ever had like a Dan and Shay moment where they like recently had like their come to Jesus? They had to have like some counseling and talk to each other and like figure out if they were going to keep going forward, if it was worth it. You know what? I went through a really hard time in 2022, but it was like a me. It wasn't really like us. I was having a really hard time like going through some serious like just mental issues and struggles and she just loved me through that and you know times when she's had a hard time we just love each other through it. I think it's you know we weren't really like we will always be best friends whether we you know do music you know that our friendship is number one. So but I think with dudes and no offense but with dudes I feel like egos get involved. Oh yeah and there's no ego here. It's like it's just love and friendship and family at the same time. Yeah. It's never been that serious for us where we've had to like sit down and Okay. talk about Yeah. There's no mediator. We just we just talk and and that's we're girls. We're good at that, you know? We're like our feelings. But it's like we're best friends. So, I know how she likes to be communicated to when it's a hard conversation and she knows how I like to be communicated to. And it was like we always say it was like marriage practice. Like before we got married, it was like we already kind of had our own marriage. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And with Girl with the Country Song, it kind of stirred the pot back then. Were there any artists that you don't have to give any names, but were there people that that maybe you guys are cool with now, but in the beginning, they were like, "What are y'all doing?" Oh, yeah. Florida Georgia Line. I think they actually did a couple interviews where they said, "I don't know anyone who wouldn't want to be the girl in a country song." I was like, "Well, you're a dude, so you don't know." But we love But we love BK. We love Tyler. Like, we have relationships with them separately and absolutely love them. ad we kind of made and I think that they took it really like personal when it was supposed to be more like lighthearted. Um, but I adore both of those humans. Yes. Okay. How have This is a This is a hard hitter. How have women in country music progressed in those 10 years? Oh my gosh. I think there's still so much work to do, but the fact that like we've got Megan and Ella and Laney and like so many incredible women. There's newer female artists that I'm obsessed with. Carter Faith, Emily Anne Roberts, like Casey Tindle. There's all these just incredible bold women. And I think there's been way more pro. I mean, it was us and Kelsey Ballerini, Miranda and Carrie, and that was kind of about it on the radio 10 years ago. Women have definitely crafted their like messaging. And I think you see a lot of different women in different lanes like you have Laney and Ella um covering that like and Haley Witter is like really country and then you have like Kelsey doing the pop sort of thing. And so I think it's cool to see all the the women finding their like lane within country music and just being so bold about it. Yeah. So, like what advice would you guys give like let's say Elany or like an Ella Langley? Like I mean they're newer artists than you guys. Well, Laney I mean I feel like I wouldn't give her any advice because she's been around as long as we have. It's just it took her longer to like pop off which but I think the stars align perfectly. But I think um like Ella and Megan maybe cuz they are newish. Not really. They've like put their years in but just since they've like popped up. But I would say like don't forget to have fun. Like I know it is like your dream and because I forgot to have fun for a lot of years and just felt like my soul was just like being sucked out of me because I was just giving giving giving and not I was just like too serious about it. And it's like at the end of the day we're making music and doing what we love and if you miss the fun it's like what's what's the point? But they those girls seem like they're having so much fun. So that makes me happy. They're doing it right. They are. What's it like uh having your husband produce this record? Such a dream. Oh my goodness. Getting to like work in the studio with him all day and write songs with him and then go home at night and like just live life together was like literally a dream. Are you just like a fly on the wall the whole time or do you get do they ever argue while they're producing like put this guitar here, put this guitar here? No, but she will roast him sometimes like give me the juice. Give me in the writing room. I have to be like t you are being so and Josh was like Maddie is she like harsh on me in a writing room. I'm like yes I can be a little mean. Yeah but not mean. It's like I think she's just like do better like you know because he can and then it kind of like juices him up a little bit and he's like and then amazing stuff comes out and she's like see you just had you just needed a little push. But I will say Josh does the same thing to T where he's like there's a better he'll be like there's a better vocal thing and I love it because I just think that energy just keeps everyone like on their toes and no one's like bowing down to anybody. But I have wanted to work with Josh as a producer for so long, but T was really like, hey, I don't want to like, you know, like what do they say? I don't want to crap where I eat like kind of thing, you know? And then it just felt right. Like we wrote like basically half of this record with Josh and his demos were exactly what we wanted and we're like, dude, let's just do the dang thing. Um, and now I don't think we'll ever go back. He's stuck forever. So, what um what song would you say expresses motherhood the most on this record? Our favorite. Our favorite. Chasing babies, raising dreams. Taye says it backwards. She's because it's a play on like raising. Yeah. Chasing dreams and raising babies. But we flipped it and it is it's literally the first verse is like it's a third cup of coffee, another night of no sleep, a baby on my head. This is my second cup of coffee. Yeah. Same. Very real. And it's like tripping over toys in the living room. Got a list a mile long of my to-dos. Like things that parents really are gonna put themselves in. Okay. Um but motherhood has just really like enriched our perspective on life and like made us so grateful for every breath we take, every moment that we get. Um, and also really holding ourselves accountable for like growing and evolving and healing and doing hard things so that our kids have a better life and stable homes and loving homes and um and so Chasing Babies, Raising Dreams is like we wanted to kind of share with our fans what our lives look like every day and that song will tell you exactly what every day is looking like. It's the sweetest season. What's backstage requirements nowadays? Good vibes. Yeah, good vibes. good attitudes. We every before the show we even though we've played the set a bajillion times, we sit with our band and crew and talk through every single song before every It's like kind of our ritual where we just get in that headsp space. We talk through every single even though we've talked through it a thousand times. It's just like a making sure that you feel comfortable and saying it out loud. Um and then we used to take shots, but now we just drink tea because we'll we'll party after the show. We take deep breaths. We deep We do deep breathing. Shots to deep breaths. We center our soul. We center now after the show. That's a whole other party, baby. Yeah. Yeah. Um I recently had the ladies of Runaway June here and they were saying they're so cool. Yeah. They were saying that um a guy once threw tidy whies on stage. Have y'all ever had any male underwear? No underwear. But we did have uh peanut butter pretzels. Oh yeah. Someone threw a peanut butter pretzel at my eye at a festival. And that's the only time I've said the f- word on stage. I didn't mean to, but it hurt so bad. I was like, "What the beep?" And it was so loud. And our front of house guy was like, "I tried to turn you down, but the f- word just blared me." I'm confused about the tidy whies. Did he take them off? Cuz that's my question. Are they used? Natalie picked it up with her fiddle bow and twe that's a brave woman. No, I would be like, "Sakura, get this dude out." Someone freeballing in the offense. And I don't know if there's skddies on that underwear. I do not want that on my stage, dude. Dudes are sick. And yeah, no, dudes are gross. Yeah. Do you have Do you can you not eat those pretzels now? No. Peanut butter pretzels. It's too traumatic. I can't do it. I can't do it. Let me tell you, a peanut butter pretzel to the eye hurts like a mother because the salt, like the big chunks of salt. It scratched my cornea. It was all jacked up. Did you have to go to the doctor? I mean, I think like I eventually went like a week. I'm a very We're both like, "Don't go to the doctor unless it's emergency." Scratched your cornea. What an injury. It was so messed up. I was like, and it was just some jerk in the audience that was drunk and feeling crazy and had really good aim. And I was like, apparently we looked hungry. I was like, "Dang, that is wrong, man. Why did you do that?" Well, we love you guys and I've officially asked every question I have. Oh, I love it. Thank you for all your time. Our conversations always I feel like I just smile so much and like laugh so hard. Oh, thank you. But almost cry as well. So, that's what I'm here for. I love you guys. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming by.