The Sit Down with Ashley Cooke
Raised between the coasts of California and Florida, Ashley Cooke is an up-and-coming country artist who is bringing authentic and honest storytelling to her music. She released her debut 8 track project “Already Drank That Beer” in August last year and has been on the road with BRELAND, Spencer Crandall, Brett Young, Jordan Davis and Cole Swindell who she will be back on the road with in Autumn on his Back Down To The Bar Tour.
Releasing new music via Big Loud Records / Back Blocks Music, Cooke is following up her current Brett Young duet and radio single “Never Til Now” with brand new track “getting into”. This opens the door for what is next for Ashley who we recently caught up with to hear all about it.
Reading through your bio, you see both coasts mentioned, spending a bit of time in Australia and moving to Nashville as you started college but as an initial introduction where exactly does Ashley Cooke call home?
“OK. To walk you through the whole timeline, I was born in Wisconsin then moved to California when I was seven, moved to Florida when I was fifteen and Nashville when I was eighteen. I say Florida is home because it feels more natural and that’s where I was before I was here as everybody is from somewhere but honestly, I have spent the most time in Nashville and I’d say that it is home now more than anywhere else.”
You moved to Nashville initially to go to college at Belmont which is obviously one of the biggest and most prolific music schools in the country but what specifically was the draw to move and study there?
“Oddly enough, I didn’t even study music at Belmont. I have been doing music since I was eleven, I wrote my first song and played my first show in LA when I was eleven. I always had this connection to it, both of my parents were not musical people but my sister and I both caught the bug really young. My sister is in acting and started off in acting so that is kind of how we got dragged out to LA where I was quickly surrounded by entertainment, all of my friends were in the young Disney crowd and I just got thrown into it and fell in love with it from the beginning. I decided to go to Belmont because my sister and I had been doing some music stuff together, travelling the country doing shows and I thought I go to Nashville all the time. I had been writing on Music Row since I was a kid with number one songwriters from when I was thirteen or fourteen and the thing with college was, I could go to other big city schools and study music or I could go somewhere like Belmont and study something that is not music. This would give me some other perspective as I have been doing it since I was a kid and it would give me something different to study, but I would still be in Music City, be around people that I have grown up with and be able to go to shows on weeknights and still do the young new artist thing but also be in college.”
Releasing new music via Big Loud Records / Back Blocks Music, Cooke is following up her current Brett Young duet and radio single “Never Til Now” with brand new track “getting into”. This opens the door for what is next for Ashley who we recently caught up with to hear all about it.
Reading through your bio, you see both coasts mentioned, spending a bit of time in Australia and moving to Nashville as you started college but as an initial introduction where exactly does Ashley Cooke call home?
“OK. To walk you through the whole timeline, I was born in Wisconsin then moved to California when I was seven, moved to Florida when I was fifteen and Nashville when I was eighteen. I say Florida is home because it feels more natural and that’s where I was before I was here as everybody is from somewhere but honestly, I have spent the most time in Nashville and I’d say that it is home now more than anywhere else.”
You moved to Nashville initially to go to college at Belmont which is obviously one of the biggest and most prolific music schools in the country but what specifically was the draw to move and study there?
“Oddly enough, I didn’t even study music at Belmont. I have been doing music since I was eleven, I wrote my first song and played my first show in LA when I was eleven. I always had this connection to it, both of my parents were not musical people but my sister and I both caught the bug really young. My sister is in acting and started off in acting so that is kind of how we got dragged out to LA where I was quickly surrounded by entertainment, all of my friends were in the young Disney crowd and I just got thrown into it and fell in love with it from the beginning. I decided to go to Belmont because my sister and I had been doing some music stuff together, travelling the country doing shows and I thought I go to Nashville all the time. I had been writing on Music Row since I was a kid with number one songwriters from when I was thirteen or fourteen and the thing with college was, I could go to other big city schools and study music or I could go somewhere like Belmont and study something that is not music. This would give me some other perspective as I have been doing it since I was a kid and it would give me something different to study, but I would still be in Music City, be around people that I have grown up with and be able to go to shows on weeknights and still do the young new artist thing but also be in college.”
“I did Marketing & Communications and fell in love with that major and nearly went into that field post grad but last minute in my senior year I had always heard of this thing called the Country Showcase Series. Belmont is traditionally a music school, so the students put on a massive student ran showcase in the basketball arena and I knew that Tyler Hubbard from Florida Georgia Line and Brad Paisley had won these showcases so I thought I’ve just got to do it. I had done it since I was a kid, I hadn’t really touched it in four years and thought I would apply and see what happens then I applied, got in, made the top four and I won the competition. All of the panel of judges said I needed to give this a shot and give this at least a year to see what happens so the rest is history.”
That must have been really cool as an entertainer to have a college life in Nashville but not be married to music.
“It was just the best. I joined a sorority, and it was just normal because I was kind of thrown into entertainment as a kid. All of my friends were home-schooled for it and now they are on major tv shows or in movies or touring the world and we have all kind of developed into these entertainment kids that are now adults. I spent so much of my life not going to proms, not going to Homecomings or not really experiencing the young normal things to do so college was my time to experience that. Belmont was the perfect middle ground where I wasn’t too far away from what I want to do but was also able to have friends that are nowhere near music and normal people, so it was a fun time.”
I saw through your Instagram that you were in Alabama last night playing a show with Luke Bryan and how that was a real full circle moment as he was one of the first people you saw after you moved to Florida almost ten year to the day.
“I couldn’t believe that the timeline lined up like that and I honestly only found out two days ago. Moving to Florida when I was fourteen or fifteen, I felt like I was going so far away from the entertainment business as back then everything revolved around LA. It was just so normal, and I went to the West Palm Amphitheatre, which is now my dream venue as I went there every weekend when I was growing up. Luke Bryan was playing that night and Jason Aldean, I just remember being on that lawn. I got drunk for the first time and fell in love for the first time on that lawn so it’s like my spot, but I was watching Luke perform, it was downpour raining and I’ve just never seen a better performer in my life. I could say the same thing about last night too, he is just such a good performer and I remember sitting in that crowd thinking man! I want to do that! The way that he makes everybody in this crowd feel the way that I feel, every single moment I am just watching him and wanting to know what he does next, it’s just the most amazing show and I wouldn’t shut up about it for weeks after that. Literally ten years and a week to the day that I opened up for him.”
Things are starting moving for you right now as you’ve recently signed your label deal and “Never Til Now” is really reaching people in a big way. You’ve got Brett Young on this track with you, and he is obviously the king of ballads so absolutely perfect for this track, but you put it out before on your last project where it wasn’t a duet so, what was it about reimagining this song and how Brett come to be a part of it?
“I wrote “Never Til Now” with my friend Matt Roy and it was kind of full circle with that because we were friends at Belmont and that was one of the first songs that we had written together. I recorded that song and put it out on the first project but didn’t single it or call any attention to it. I was also independent at the time because I only signed my record deal four months ago, so it’s very new. I thought the song was very special and I’ve always been told as a young female artist that if you’re going to release single, you go tempo. Go with the up-tempo and I shouldn’t have listened to that because in reality it’s just good music that translates but a lot of us based on the radio industry have this natural way to lean towards that. We put a couple of singles out that people seemed to love but people really responded to “Never Til Now” on that project even pre-posting on social media. I posted it on social media as I tried to use all of the different songs off the project to post videos online and the next thing you know it’s viral! Forty something thousand people make videos with the song and it becomes people’s wedding song and people just obsessed over the song. This is like with zero marketing push, zero label behind it or nothing pushing the song to go and do well and nobody behind it except me and my manager. It was crazy, getting top fifty i-Tunes consumption for eight months with no help.”
That must have been really cool as an entertainer to have a college life in Nashville but not be married to music.
“It was just the best. I joined a sorority, and it was just normal because I was kind of thrown into entertainment as a kid. All of my friends were home-schooled for it and now they are on major tv shows or in movies or touring the world and we have all kind of developed into these entertainment kids that are now adults. I spent so much of my life not going to proms, not going to Homecomings or not really experiencing the young normal things to do so college was my time to experience that. Belmont was the perfect middle ground where I wasn’t too far away from what I want to do but was also able to have friends that are nowhere near music and normal people, so it was a fun time.”
I saw through your Instagram that you were in Alabama last night playing a show with Luke Bryan and how that was a real full circle moment as he was one of the first people you saw after you moved to Florida almost ten year to the day.
“I couldn’t believe that the timeline lined up like that and I honestly only found out two days ago. Moving to Florida when I was fourteen or fifteen, I felt like I was going so far away from the entertainment business as back then everything revolved around LA. It was just so normal, and I went to the West Palm Amphitheatre, which is now my dream venue as I went there every weekend when I was growing up. Luke Bryan was playing that night and Jason Aldean, I just remember being on that lawn. I got drunk for the first time and fell in love for the first time on that lawn so it’s like my spot, but I was watching Luke perform, it was downpour raining and I’ve just never seen a better performer in my life. I could say the same thing about last night too, he is just such a good performer and I remember sitting in that crowd thinking man! I want to do that! The way that he makes everybody in this crowd feel the way that I feel, every single moment I am just watching him and wanting to know what he does next, it’s just the most amazing show and I wouldn’t shut up about it for weeks after that. Literally ten years and a week to the day that I opened up for him.”
Things are starting moving for you right now as you’ve recently signed your label deal and “Never Til Now” is really reaching people in a big way. You’ve got Brett Young on this track with you, and he is obviously the king of ballads so absolutely perfect for this track, but you put it out before on your last project where it wasn’t a duet so, what was it about reimagining this song and how Brett come to be a part of it?
“I wrote “Never Til Now” with my friend Matt Roy and it was kind of full circle with that because we were friends at Belmont and that was one of the first songs that we had written together. I recorded that song and put it out on the first project but didn’t single it or call any attention to it. I was also independent at the time because I only signed my record deal four months ago, so it’s very new. I thought the song was very special and I’ve always been told as a young female artist that if you’re going to release single, you go tempo. Go with the up-tempo and I shouldn’t have listened to that because in reality it’s just good music that translates but a lot of us based on the radio industry have this natural way to lean towards that. We put a couple of singles out that people seemed to love but people really responded to “Never Til Now” on that project even pre-posting on social media. I posted it on social media as I tried to use all of the different songs off the project to post videos online and the next thing you know it’s viral! Forty something thousand people make videos with the song and it becomes people’s wedding song and people just obsessed over the song. This is like with zero marketing push, zero label behind it or nothing pushing the song to go and do well and nobody behind it except me and my manager. It was crazy, getting top fifty i-Tunes consumption for eight months with no help.”
“We spoke to my producer Jimmy Robbins who is super talented and super connected around town, saying we think it would be really cool to do “Never Til Now” in a duet sense. All the people that were finding it online are loving the fact that it’s their story so why not give them two people’s perspective on the story. Jimmy then said do you know who would be really great on this song? Brett Young! His vocal range is in that kind of area that it’s cool, it’s a higher vocal range, his tone, he’s a really great harmonizer and you would really crush this. Brett came in, he had the second verse and sang harmonies in the chorus then it just became what it was. Brett had already heard the song before Jimmy even called him which was the crazy thing because he had heard it all over The Highway and all over playlists where I’m thinking what? Brett Young knows who I am? Now we are great friends, but it was so crazy thinking back to that as a young, independent female artist who has no idea of anything, and it ended up being an amazing thing that ended up going number one on Sirius XM The Highway and it’s crazy how the song has really taken off as my first song at radio.”
As well as “Never Til New” we’ve got some brand-new music out which is “getting into” the next chapter. It’s a really nice mid-tempo number but what precisely was it about this song that you felt was the best fit to launch your next project with?
“I wrote this song originally when I was newly seeing somebody, and I walked into the writing room that day and you never know what you’re going to write and what is going to be the song you’re going to go for. We started talking about that idea that you should know what you are getting into kind of thing and thought that was so cool so we should write that, and it just fell out of us that day. When I played the song to my publishers, they said that this song is so you, it’s almost like an autobiography and that’s how we designed it after. All of this happened with my career so quickly, well quickly but not quickly because I have been doing things since I was eleven but since I started focusing on music full time in 2019 all of this has happened very fast and has been very exciting. To me, having this quick social media following, music out, label deal and all of this stuff, I just wanted to give people something that was really just saying here is me in a song and in a nutshell get to know me. The title “getting into” was to clever not to use and it’s saying know what you are getting into with this new project and what is going on with everything musically. It just seemed like the perfect starter of what is coming, this is me and if you want to know more about me and who I am then take a listen to find out more.”
As well as “Never Til New” we’ve got some brand-new music out which is “getting into” the next chapter. It’s a really nice mid-tempo number but what precisely was it about this song that you felt was the best fit to launch your next project with?
“I wrote this song originally when I was newly seeing somebody, and I walked into the writing room that day and you never know what you’re going to write and what is going to be the song you’re going to go for. We started talking about that idea that you should know what you are getting into kind of thing and thought that was so cool so we should write that, and it just fell out of us that day. When I played the song to my publishers, they said that this song is so you, it’s almost like an autobiography and that’s how we designed it after. All of this happened with my career so quickly, well quickly but not quickly because I have been doing things since I was eleven but since I started focusing on music full time in 2019 all of this has happened very fast and has been very exciting. To me, having this quick social media following, music out, label deal and all of this stuff, I just wanted to give people something that was really just saying here is me in a song and in a nutshell get to know me. The title “getting into” was to clever not to use and it’s saying know what you are getting into with this new project and what is going on with everything musically. It just seemed like the perfect starter of what is coming, this is me and if you want to know more about me and who I am then take a listen to find out more.”
Lastly, whilst you are talking to us all over on this side of the pond, what is that interests you about things over here and are you hoping to come and pay us a little visit?
“I really want to come and hang out with you guys. I’m also dating someone from the UK, so I know a little bit about it, but I really want to come over there, I feel like biggest part I want to experience is the history. It sounds super nerdy, but I feel like in America we don’t have a ton of old building like you guys do. The ways you have built those buildings that are so rock solid would be really cool to see and how you can connect to something that is way bigger than you. It’s like being by the ocean and realising you are so small and humble by this, standing by something that is like four hundred years old, I am a speck of dust in this entire world, so I really want to come and experience that as well as play for these audiences that everybody talks about so fondly.”
“I really want to come and hang out with you guys. I’m also dating someone from the UK, so I know a little bit about it, but I really want to come over there, I feel like biggest part I want to experience is the history. It sounds super nerdy, but I feel like in America we don’t have a ton of old building like you guys do. The ways you have built those buildings that are so rock solid would be really cool to see and how you can connect to something that is way bigger than you. It’s like being by the ocean and realising you are so small and humble by this, standing by something that is like four hundred years old, I am a speck of dust in this entire world, so I really want to come and experience that as well as play for these audiences that everybody talks about so fondly.”
