The Sit Down with Carter Faith
Since we last saw Carter Faith on this side of the pond eighteen months ago at C2C: Country to Country, things have continued to move in a really exciting direction for the North Carolina native. In October last year she released her stunning EP “The Aftermath” before heading to Australia for the first time as she played CMC Rocks, performing inside Nissan Stadium at this summer’s CMA Fest along with spending some time out on the road with Carly Pearce, Ella Langley and Little Big Town before the newest chapter is about to begin. After signing a deal with Jessie Jo Dillon to be the first artist on Gatsby Records, this Friday, Carter will release her eagerly awaited debut album “Cherry Valley” via MCA, which we were very happy to hear all about when we caught up with her earlier this week.
Hey Carter, how are you doing friend?
“I’m good, I remember you!”
Yeah, we had fun in Berlin last year, which seems like a long, long, long, long time ago. That was like the second time that you had made it over to Europe.
“Yes second time but it was my first time in Berlin so that was very special.”
Then you came back to London as well where I saw you very briefly amongst all the chaos and running around at the O2. Is it show day today?
“I'm travelling today and I'm doing good, just prepping for my album to come out which is pretty crazy.”
I know, it's exciting and very exciting to get to talk with you about that. It's been a while coming, obviously you’ve work towards your debut album for a long time and now it's finally coming on Friday when it will be out in the world, there must be a sense of relief when that moment finally hits.
“Oh, for sure, it's like this big breath that you've held in, I imagine it'll feel like releasing that so I'm very looking forward to it.”
You're putting it out through Gatsby Records under MCA, which is like Jessie Jo Dillon’s new imprint at the label. What was it about her that you really liked as a partnership for where you wanted to put this new music out with?
“She's one of my best friends and my closest co-writers. We've written so many songs together and she's someone who I can really be so vulnerable in the room with, which is important, because sometimes you go in there and you write a song that is vulnerable, but you don't go all the way deep. With her, I mean, she's one of my closest friends so I feel comfortable with her, I feel like I trust her, I know her and her art. So, when she got news that she was gonna have this label, we were celebrating, we were so excited and then she was like, "Wait, do you want to be on the label?" I was like, "Yes. I mean, that is a dream team.” We are both so obsessed with music and art, then even though it's been new, it's been such a great working relationship already. I feel like we can tag team so well and I knew that's how it would be, because our personalities are so similar in that way, so it's been very exciting and I'm so excited for the future.”
Hey Carter, how are you doing friend?
“I’m good, I remember you!”
Yeah, we had fun in Berlin last year, which seems like a long, long, long, long time ago. That was like the second time that you had made it over to Europe.
“Yes second time but it was my first time in Berlin so that was very special.”
Then you came back to London as well where I saw you very briefly amongst all the chaos and running around at the O2. Is it show day today?
“I'm travelling today and I'm doing good, just prepping for my album to come out which is pretty crazy.”
I know, it's exciting and very exciting to get to talk with you about that. It's been a while coming, obviously you’ve work towards your debut album for a long time and now it's finally coming on Friday when it will be out in the world, there must be a sense of relief when that moment finally hits.
“Oh, for sure, it's like this big breath that you've held in, I imagine it'll feel like releasing that so I'm very looking forward to it.”
You're putting it out through Gatsby Records under MCA, which is like Jessie Jo Dillon’s new imprint at the label. What was it about her that you really liked as a partnership for where you wanted to put this new music out with?
“She's one of my best friends and my closest co-writers. We've written so many songs together and she's someone who I can really be so vulnerable in the room with, which is important, because sometimes you go in there and you write a song that is vulnerable, but you don't go all the way deep. With her, I mean, she's one of my closest friends so I feel comfortable with her, I feel like I trust her, I know her and her art. So, when she got news that she was gonna have this label, we were celebrating, we were so excited and then she was like, "Wait, do you want to be on the label?" I was like, "Yes. I mean, that is a dream team.” We are both so obsessed with music and art, then even though it's been new, it's been such a great working relationship already. I feel like we can tag team so well and I knew that's how it would be, because our personalities are so similar in that way, so it's been very exciting and I'm so excited for the future.”
Then you've also been working with your mixed tag team partner very heavily again for the album. I think when you first mentioned Tofer last year, you described him as something like your forty year old male best friend that you drink wine with and I’m two months away from literally becoming that to my friends too ha-ha. He produced the record and is your go-to for writing with so apart from being a good person to drink wine with, what makes Tofer Brown the right person for you to work with?
“Ha-ha so true, the thing about Tofer is that he's kind-hearted but still strong willed, which I think can be a hard thing to balance sometimes, especially when you're the leader in a room, which a producer is the leader. Since I'm so close with him, he knows what I want. I'm comfortable telling him that and I feel like he can communicate it in a way to the musicians or whoever that is so accurate to what I was trying to say, even what I sometimes don't know what I'm trying to say, plus he lives and breathes this music just as much as I do, which I'm grateful for. Like, we talk every day dreaming of new things, I mean, we were kind of living in Cherry Valley in our brains while we made this, he was living there with me, you know? I'm grateful for that because sometimes people come in and out of your working relationships but I just know I'll be making records with him for a long time.”
About Cherry Valley itself, like, is it an actual place? Is it somewhere near where you were growing up, somewhere you passed through, a sign you saw somewhere or is it kind an imaginary part of your world that manifested? Where does it actually come from?
“Yeah, I was driving with Ashley Monroe to go write with Connie Harrington at her lake house in Tennessee, and we were taking back roads because it's so beautiful out there. We drove through this place called Cherry Valley in Tennessee and I never went back or anything, but I wrote it down because I thought it sounded like a magical, perfect place. I don't know, it just stuck in my brain a little bit and I started to create this kind of like imaginary world in my head that my songs started to live in. I didn't know it was gonna be the album for a long time, but I somehow came to that conclusion because all my songs, I was like would this fit in Cherry Valley? Then we wrote a song called Cherry Valley, and I was like, "Wow, this is the whole point of this album” you know.”
So, it wasn't so much of the case that it was one of the older songs as such, where you wanted to build as the focal point, it was just kind of that things sort of fitted into it.
“Yeah and I started thinking that the album almost feels like a year in Cherry Valley. There's songs that feel like springtime there, or summertime or fall or winter so that was cool too, just placing them in my head and I made this map of Cherry Valley too, because they kind of all connect and each song has a little story within it, but they all live in this place to me.”
“Ha-ha so true, the thing about Tofer is that he's kind-hearted but still strong willed, which I think can be a hard thing to balance sometimes, especially when you're the leader in a room, which a producer is the leader. Since I'm so close with him, he knows what I want. I'm comfortable telling him that and I feel like he can communicate it in a way to the musicians or whoever that is so accurate to what I was trying to say, even what I sometimes don't know what I'm trying to say, plus he lives and breathes this music just as much as I do, which I'm grateful for. Like, we talk every day dreaming of new things, I mean, we were kind of living in Cherry Valley in our brains while we made this, he was living there with me, you know? I'm grateful for that because sometimes people come in and out of your working relationships but I just know I'll be making records with him for a long time.”
About Cherry Valley itself, like, is it an actual place? Is it somewhere near where you were growing up, somewhere you passed through, a sign you saw somewhere or is it kind an imaginary part of your world that manifested? Where does it actually come from?
“Yeah, I was driving with Ashley Monroe to go write with Connie Harrington at her lake house in Tennessee, and we were taking back roads because it's so beautiful out there. We drove through this place called Cherry Valley in Tennessee and I never went back or anything, but I wrote it down because I thought it sounded like a magical, perfect place. I don't know, it just stuck in my brain a little bit and I started to create this kind of like imaginary world in my head that my songs started to live in. I didn't know it was gonna be the album for a long time, but I somehow came to that conclusion because all my songs, I was like would this fit in Cherry Valley? Then we wrote a song called Cherry Valley, and I was like, "Wow, this is the whole point of this album” you know.”
So, it wasn't so much of the case that it was one of the older songs as such, where you wanted to build as the focal point, it was just kind of that things sort of fitted into it.
“Yeah and I started thinking that the album almost feels like a year in Cherry Valley. There's songs that feel like springtime there, or summertime or fall or winter so that was cool too, just placing them in my head and I made this map of Cherry Valley too, because they kind of all connect and each song has a little story within it, but they all live in this place to me.”
We’ve got fifteen songs on this record but you put out the EP with five songs on it at the back end of last year. Are all of the songs that are on the album newer songs than those five or was it just that those five weren't quite in that Cherry Valley mindset but were still songs that you wanted to put out?
“This is, like, back in music business stuff, but I signed a record deal last year, and I didn't know they would let me put an album out so, I was like, I’ve gotta put an EP out, I love these songs, so let's get these out. I love that EP, it's called “The Aftermath” and they're very emotional songs. When I found out that MCA was gonna let me make a record, I had this batch of songs that I had saved because I was like, I know that these are record songs like, my first record has to have these. So that was really exciting news. And that's that came out like that, actually, if that makes sense.”
I've seen from the five tracks you put out already, obviously, you wrote them all with Tofer and there is Lauren Hungate’s name on two of them, then Steph Jones is on two of the others, while you've been in town quite a long time, where you've got ideas and sort of know what you want to do with a song, are you saving certain ideas or types of song for when you know who you have coming in? Like, are you holding things you think will be say more up-tempo or a more vulnerable idea for certain people or is it still just what comes out on the day was meant to be?
“It's a little bit of both, but I will say, like, for “Betty”, I had that idea and Tofer was like, "Oh, that would be perfect when we go to write with Shane.” Then for really vulnerable songs, I can always write those with Tofer, but I'm usually going to pick someone I'm very close with, like Jessie Jo or Lauren Hungate to write those with, so that I know I can serve the song the best and I know I can go there. I'm an introverted, shy person, so it wouldn't serve a vulnerable song idea well to go in with a stranger for me, because I wouldn't be able to go there, I guess.”
I think for me, when I listen through “Cherry Valley” and after getting to meet you last year, I think it showcases so much of YOU as a person really well because it shows off so many parts of your personality. You're smart, you're very quick witted and you have really good banter for an American, because most of your Americans don't know how to take the piss out of each other, let alone be able to laugh at themselves. I think your fun and humorous side comes out really strong but also you do have an introverted side when you show your vulnerability and it also showcases how good a writer you are, so I think it's just really cool.
“Awh, thank you, that is so nice.”
I want to talk about one of the songs and I really like “Grudge” so hitting that one, was it inspired purely by one person that you hated more than anybody else in things or was it a combination of ideas all of rolled in to create this super villain?
“I wish it was a bunch of ideas, but it was definitely about one person ha-ha and again, like, I can hold a grudge for sure. I've since gotten over of it, but we were talking about song ideas, I started telling this story then Tofer and Steph Jones were like, oh, my God, that's where the drama is today! Like, that's where the emotions are. So, we had to write it because I really just had to get this like anger out of my body. When I started playing it live, people just thought it was funny and loved saying bitch and screaming. I love that and I thought it was like a little healing moment. You know, everyone tells you to be kind and, I don't know, polite and shit, which I agree with that for sure but you also have to have this part of you that can be a little aggressive, at least for a song.”
“This is, like, back in music business stuff, but I signed a record deal last year, and I didn't know they would let me put an album out so, I was like, I’ve gotta put an EP out, I love these songs, so let's get these out. I love that EP, it's called “The Aftermath” and they're very emotional songs. When I found out that MCA was gonna let me make a record, I had this batch of songs that I had saved because I was like, I know that these are record songs like, my first record has to have these. So that was really exciting news. And that's that came out like that, actually, if that makes sense.”
I've seen from the five tracks you put out already, obviously, you wrote them all with Tofer and there is Lauren Hungate’s name on two of them, then Steph Jones is on two of the others, while you've been in town quite a long time, where you've got ideas and sort of know what you want to do with a song, are you saving certain ideas or types of song for when you know who you have coming in? Like, are you holding things you think will be say more up-tempo or a more vulnerable idea for certain people or is it still just what comes out on the day was meant to be?
“It's a little bit of both, but I will say, like, for “Betty”, I had that idea and Tofer was like, "Oh, that would be perfect when we go to write with Shane.” Then for really vulnerable songs, I can always write those with Tofer, but I'm usually going to pick someone I'm very close with, like Jessie Jo or Lauren Hungate to write those with, so that I know I can serve the song the best and I know I can go there. I'm an introverted, shy person, so it wouldn't serve a vulnerable song idea well to go in with a stranger for me, because I wouldn't be able to go there, I guess.”
I think for me, when I listen through “Cherry Valley” and after getting to meet you last year, I think it showcases so much of YOU as a person really well because it shows off so many parts of your personality. You're smart, you're very quick witted and you have really good banter for an American, because most of your Americans don't know how to take the piss out of each other, let alone be able to laugh at themselves. I think your fun and humorous side comes out really strong but also you do have an introverted side when you show your vulnerability and it also showcases how good a writer you are, so I think it's just really cool.
“Awh, thank you, that is so nice.”
I want to talk about one of the songs and I really like “Grudge” so hitting that one, was it inspired purely by one person that you hated more than anybody else in things or was it a combination of ideas all of rolled in to create this super villain?
“I wish it was a bunch of ideas, but it was definitely about one person ha-ha and again, like, I can hold a grudge for sure. I've since gotten over of it, but we were talking about song ideas, I started telling this story then Tofer and Steph Jones were like, oh, my God, that's where the drama is today! Like, that's where the emotions are. So, we had to write it because I really just had to get this like anger out of my body. When I started playing it live, people just thought it was funny and loved saying bitch and screaming. I love that and I thought it was like a little healing moment. You know, everyone tells you to be kind and, I don't know, polite and shit, which I agree with that for sure but you also have to have this part of you that can be a little aggressive, at least for a song.”
It's a busy back end of the year for you, it’s not just everything around the album, but your still on the road too and then you’re off to Australia with Kelsea in December. You've been down there before, haven't you?
“Yes, I just went over there for the first time in March.”
Did they make you do a shoey?
“Yes, the first night I did a shoey and I did it from someone in the crowd. I didn't know about the clean boots by the stage.”
Fair play for you for just taking it. What did you drink out of it?
“They put a beer in there and I was like freak, I hate this!”
Well, you’re prepared now and you know they'll have clean boots ready if you want to do it again.
“But I was real, I was real.”
Exactly! Australia is a long way for any of us to be going but what about somewhere a bit closer to me? Have you got any plans to try and get back over here?
“I think so next year maybe. I can't say exactly what it's for yet, but you never know.”
That sounds like a classic case of I can neither confirm nor deny as the answer to that question but you’re basically saying I might get to see you again within the next twelve months.
“Yes, I might get to see my good friend Jamie in person very soon.”
Oooh, that would be absolutely lovely. Thanks for taking time out to hang, you’re so much fun. I love the record and meant what I said about how it shows a lot about you and I think it comes out really, really well.
“Thank you for saying that.”
I love it and can’t wait to see you again whenever that may be.
“Yes, you too. Thank you for this, this was so fun.”
No worries at all, Carter, see you soon and by the way, I said your name how you say it, so you can't laugh at me for how I pronounce it today ha-ha.
Carter Faith will release her debut album “Cherry Valley” via MCA on Friday October 3rd which available to pre-save HERE whilst you can keep up to date with all that Carter is up to socially by following her on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK FACEBOOK & X.
“Yes, I just went over there for the first time in March.”
Did they make you do a shoey?
“Yes, the first night I did a shoey and I did it from someone in the crowd. I didn't know about the clean boots by the stage.”
Fair play for you for just taking it. What did you drink out of it?
“They put a beer in there and I was like freak, I hate this!”
Well, you’re prepared now and you know they'll have clean boots ready if you want to do it again.
“But I was real, I was real.”
Exactly! Australia is a long way for any of us to be going but what about somewhere a bit closer to me? Have you got any plans to try and get back over here?
“I think so next year maybe. I can't say exactly what it's for yet, but you never know.”
That sounds like a classic case of I can neither confirm nor deny as the answer to that question but you’re basically saying I might get to see you again within the next twelve months.
“Yes, I might get to see my good friend Jamie in person very soon.”
Oooh, that would be absolutely lovely. Thanks for taking time out to hang, you’re so much fun. I love the record and meant what I said about how it shows a lot about you and I think it comes out really, really well.
“Thank you for saying that.”
I love it and can’t wait to see you again whenever that may be.
“Yes, you too. Thank you for this, this was so fun.”
No worries at all, Carter, see you soon and by the way, I said your name how you say it, so you can't laugh at me for how I pronounce it today ha-ha.
Carter Faith will release her debut album “Cherry Valley” via MCA on Friday October 3rd which available to pre-save HERE whilst you can keep up to date with all that Carter is up to socially by following her on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK FACEBOOK & X.
