The Sit Down with Kylie Morgan
Oklahoma born and now long-time Nashville residing Mermaid Cowgirl Kylie Morgan has one of the most distinct and recognisable voices in country music in addition to being regarded as one of Music City’s finest songwriters. Since we last spoke to Kylie in 2021 a lot has happened in both her professional and personal life: she released her first full-length album, got married and also divorced before finding love again and more recently became an independent artist after choosing to step away from her recording contract.
Kylie headed back to London earlier this week for her first ever public performance at Bush Hall after her initial trip back in 2020 didn’t quite go to plan due to the onset of the pandemic. Ahead of her performance, she spent some with Jamie to talk about the rewards and challenges with releasing music independently, her time in the UK capital, her new found love of the Green Bay Packers and looking ahead to her first trip to Germany next year for C2C Festival in Berlin.
Kylie headed back to London earlier this week for her first ever public performance at Bush Hall after her initial trip back in 2020 didn’t quite go to plan due to the onset of the pandemic. Ahead of her performance, she spent some with Jamie to talk about the rewards and challenges with releasing music independently, her time in the UK capital, her new found love of the Green Bay Packers and looking ahead to her first trip to Germany next year for C2C Festival in Berlin.
Let's do it, how are you, friend?
“I'm good.”
This has been a long time coming.
“Oh, my goodness, talk about the ultimate redemption trip.”
This genuinely is five and a half years in the making.
“Oh, my God, it is, yeah, you're right.”
I was looking back through my phone and I've got a video of Caylee Hammack singing at that showcase, then through the night they announced that they were going to shut all your borders and everyone was like, we need to get home NOW.
“That was saddest thing ever. I think I was here for like thirty-six hours. It was so sad. I unpacked, I haven't unpacked since, I think it's like a curse now ha-ha.”
But this time, things are going a lot better.
“Oh, my God, it's been so fun. It's just like, everyone here is so kind, nice and just happy to be here. It's very good energy to be around.”
You've had more time to be a tourist as well, I see.
“I have. We actually had a day off yesterday.”
Oooh, in London? What did you do?
“So, I got my days mixed up and I totally thought yesterday was show day. In the morning, Alek was like, so what are we going to do today? I'm like, what do you mean? We play tonight night and he’s like, actually, no, we have the day off, we don't play until tomorrow. I was like, oh my God, this is great news. We did all of all of the sights and we were on our way to Buckingham Palace, this is a random story but we're in the middle of a pitch black dark park and Drew Baldridge comes up to me and my boyfriend being like Alek? Kylie? Then I'm like, Drew? Like, what are the odds of that? In the middle of London, like .000 chance, it’s wild.”
Yeah, you are both here and Max McNown is touring too so it's nice for us having gigs in December because everyone's just craving for stuff to go to.
“Absolutely, I'm a workaholic and I love my job, so, like, around December, the whole industry shuts down and I'm like, I am bored. So, I was so thankful that this lined up and it worked out perfectly.”
It pretty much is that after the awards, everyone in Nashville is like right, time to go home and we’ll see you all again in January.
“Totally and that's none my style. I’m like, no, no, no, no, what can we do here?”
Coming back here has definitely been something that you have wanted to do and been trying to make line up because whilst things didn’t go to plan in 2020, the support and metrics seem like they definitely have made it worthwhile.
“Absolutely. We have been super hyper focussed on where the audience is and we have realised that the UK shows up every single time I release a song, so we are so thankful to be here.”
I think one of the cool things as well is that you've got Amy Jo opening up for you after you reached out to find someone and give them a shot through socials, where you had a great reaction with a lot of people sending you videos. I think that's really cool because when we'd spoke before, I had told you the story how I came across you was when I interviewed Walker Hayes and he talked about this killer track that he was really proud of called “Cuss A Little” that he had just wrote with you, then I checked you out after. This is like the same thing of kind of passing on and it's really cool to see that you're really big on that too and giving other people opportunities.
“Absolutely, I mean, that's what's so cool about the industry, you know, you can connect with people that you've never met before through music, through social media and, I mean, that's what it's all about, bringing new artists up with you and, you know, there's no room for one at the top, so come one, come all.”
“I'm good.”
This has been a long time coming.
“Oh, my goodness, talk about the ultimate redemption trip.”
This genuinely is five and a half years in the making.
“Oh, my God, it is, yeah, you're right.”
I was looking back through my phone and I've got a video of Caylee Hammack singing at that showcase, then through the night they announced that they were going to shut all your borders and everyone was like, we need to get home NOW.
“That was saddest thing ever. I think I was here for like thirty-six hours. It was so sad. I unpacked, I haven't unpacked since, I think it's like a curse now ha-ha.”
But this time, things are going a lot better.
“Oh, my God, it's been so fun. It's just like, everyone here is so kind, nice and just happy to be here. It's very good energy to be around.”
You've had more time to be a tourist as well, I see.
“I have. We actually had a day off yesterday.”
Oooh, in London? What did you do?
“So, I got my days mixed up and I totally thought yesterday was show day. In the morning, Alek was like, so what are we going to do today? I'm like, what do you mean? We play tonight night and he’s like, actually, no, we have the day off, we don't play until tomorrow. I was like, oh my God, this is great news. We did all of all of the sights and we were on our way to Buckingham Palace, this is a random story but we're in the middle of a pitch black dark park and Drew Baldridge comes up to me and my boyfriend being like Alek? Kylie? Then I'm like, Drew? Like, what are the odds of that? In the middle of London, like .000 chance, it’s wild.”
Yeah, you are both here and Max McNown is touring too so it's nice for us having gigs in December because everyone's just craving for stuff to go to.
“Absolutely, I'm a workaholic and I love my job, so, like, around December, the whole industry shuts down and I'm like, I am bored. So, I was so thankful that this lined up and it worked out perfectly.”
It pretty much is that after the awards, everyone in Nashville is like right, time to go home and we’ll see you all again in January.
“Totally and that's none my style. I’m like, no, no, no, no, what can we do here?”
Coming back here has definitely been something that you have wanted to do and been trying to make line up because whilst things didn’t go to plan in 2020, the support and metrics seem like they definitely have made it worthwhile.
“Absolutely. We have been super hyper focussed on where the audience is and we have realised that the UK shows up every single time I release a song, so we are so thankful to be here.”
I think one of the cool things as well is that you've got Amy Jo opening up for you after you reached out to find someone and give them a shot through socials, where you had a great reaction with a lot of people sending you videos. I think that's really cool because when we'd spoke before, I had told you the story how I came across you was when I interviewed Walker Hayes and he talked about this killer track that he was really proud of called “Cuss A Little” that he had just wrote with you, then I checked you out after. This is like the same thing of kind of passing on and it's really cool to see that you're really big on that too and giving other people opportunities.
“Absolutely, I mean, that's what's so cool about the industry, you know, you can connect with people that you've never met before through music, through social media and, I mean, that's what it's all about, bringing new artists up with you and, you know, there's no room for one at the top, so come one, come all.”
We’re here in London in December and hopefully it won’t be too long before you are here again but I’m definitely going to see you in Berlin at the German C2C in March which is a very a different event to what goes on in London, but we have been the last two years and absolutely love the festival over there. How excited are you to get over to mainland Europe and get to play over there for the first time?
“I mean, honestly, I just, I love getting to visit places I've never been and the fact that I can do what I love to do and get to do it at the same time is truly just not even real to me sometimes. I'm just so excited to continue that, we're going to add dates to that whole part and we're announcing a big headlining tour soon so, it's going to be really cool to be able to bring all the new music to everybody even across the pond.”
Let's talk about this new music. You’re independent now and it was your choice to be, why did you make that choice and feel that you needed to move on from where things were before?
“I'll be honest, it was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made only because I'm very much a golden retriever and I loyal to the people around me. Moving to Nashville from a small town in Oklahoma, I wanted to find my musical family and when I signed to the biggest label in the world, that was the dream, then I realised very quickly, just how fast things change in the music industry and I feel like I was going uphill both ways. Thankfully, I mean, you know, they could have held me there for as long as they wanted to but the fact that I made one phone call and I was like, listen, I don't feel like we're serving each other where they were like, we love you, you know we want the best for you and if that's how you feel then we support you, which is unheard of when it comes to that. It could have gotten real ugly, real quick and they absolutely understood. Now, it's been a scary time, I've learned a lot, but it has been one of those moments where now I feel like I understand so many parts of the business that I didn't understand before and I think that I've learned a lot through that.”
What would you say have been the biggest challenges and the biggest rewards since becoming independent in terms of looking to put stuff out?
“I think that logistics were the biggest challenge. I now have a team in place, I just signed to a new distribution company that has been incredible. They have made such good moves for me but the whole logistics even when it comes to registering songs, being able to submit releases, making sure that the single art is in the right place, the marketing and all of the technical stuff that I just had no idea about so, it's been a giant learning curve.”
“Break Up With Me” has been the most recent one that you’ve put out, so just give us the background behind that and how you wrote that with Sarah (Buxton) and Johnny (Clawson).
“That was a fun one. I was out on wine with one of my friends, as one does with friends and we were talking about how in every past relationship we've been in, it's always been an apology for either taking up too much space, being called too much or, you know, being hard to be with because of X, Y and Z. My friend and I were talking about it and she was like, you know what? I am hard to be with, I would break up with me too. I was like, pause, that’s a great song title, so I wrote it down on my phone, wrote it the very next day and just kind of unapologetically put it all out there.”
“I mean, honestly, I just, I love getting to visit places I've never been and the fact that I can do what I love to do and get to do it at the same time is truly just not even real to me sometimes. I'm just so excited to continue that, we're going to add dates to that whole part and we're announcing a big headlining tour soon so, it's going to be really cool to be able to bring all the new music to everybody even across the pond.”
Let's talk about this new music. You’re independent now and it was your choice to be, why did you make that choice and feel that you needed to move on from where things were before?
“I'll be honest, it was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made only because I'm very much a golden retriever and I loyal to the people around me. Moving to Nashville from a small town in Oklahoma, I wanted to find my musical family and when I signed to the biggest label in the world, that was the dream, then I realised very quickly, just how fast things change in the music industry and I feel like I was going uphill both ways. Thankfully, I mean, you know, they could have held me there for as long as they wanted to but the fact that I made one phone call and I was like, listen, I don't feel like we're serving each other where they were like, we love you, you know we want the best for you and if that's how you feel then we support you, which is unheard of when it comes to that. It could have gotten real ugly, real quick and they absolutely understood. Now, it's been a scary time, I've learned a lot, but it has been one of those moments where now I feel like I understand so many parts of the business that I didn't understand before and I think that I've learned a lot through that.”
What would you say have been the biggest challenges and the biggest rewards since becoming independent in terms of looking to put stuff out?
“I think that logistics were the biggest challenge. I now have a team in place, I just signed to a new distribution company that has been incredible. They have made such good moves for me but the whole logistics even when it comes to registering songs, being able to submit releases, making sure that the single art is in the right place, the marketing and all of the technical stuff that I just had no idea about so, it's been a giant learning curve.”
“Break Up With Me” has been the most recent one that you’ve put out, so just give us the background behind that and how you wrote that with Sarah (Buxton) and Johnny (Clawson).
“That was a fun one. I was out on wine with one of my friends, as one does with friends and we were talking about how in every past relationship we've been in, it's always been an apology for either taking up too much space, being called too much or, you know, being hard to be with because of X, Y and Z. My friend and I were talking about it and she was like, you know what? I am hard to be with, I would break up with me too. I was like, pause, that’s a great song title, so I wrote it down on my phone, wrote it the very next day and just kind of unapologetically put it all out there.”
That's been the second release in this independent era so are we building towards something? Have you got more in the can that's ready?
“You're gonna hear it tonight!”
A lot of people talk about the way the audiences here are slightly different to back at home so It's a good place to test out new music but I guess you're in kind of a weird situation because people would have been fans of you for six years or so and haven’t got to see you before so you know, they want to hear “Boy's Girl” and “Break Things” where it’s a balancing act, then also you are playing acoustic as well.
“Yeah, bridging the gap is hard because, you know, obviously people want to hear the older stuff and as they should, I'm just thankful that people know the older stuff but I’m very excited for this new era. I teased the song that I'm going to perform tonight on socials for the first time the other day and it went down extremely well. I got a response that I haven't seen in a minute since “Then You Happened”, which was the first independent release so it's been kind of a release that everyone chose for me in the best way and I think that the most important part is involving the fans.”
With the new stuff that we've got coming, are you still working in the same like writing circles or have you had a reset in terms of things on that side as well?
“I still have my go-to people that I come to but also am in the new era stage where I want new perspectives from people. What's awesome about being independent is I can walk into a writing room and if I love what we did that day, I could tease it on socials, have the fans, tell me what they think and then within five weeks we could have it out if we wanted to. It was usually a whole process that took way longer and I am a very impatient person, I think we all are, so it's very inspiring to walk in a room and know that if you write something that day which you love, you can just put it out.”
Lastly, we’ll end on the big one, so, how does a girl from Oklahoma that's lived in Nashville for a long time end up becoming a Green Bay Packers fan? Growing up in Oklahoma, surely that’s Cowboys territory and then everyone in Nashville gets drawn to accepting failure with the Titans. It’s really strange to us as Brits, because you are brought up on having a team for life, all sports fans hate their team doing well because they have nothing to complain about and how it is the hope and optimism that your team are actually going to go well that really kills you.
“Ha-ha, that’s so funny. That is a wild thing about how I've always looked at NFL, coming from Oklahoma, we don't have a team, right? So that worked out with the relationship that I am currently in because whether or not I wanted to, I am a Packers fan, due to my boyfriend's family and him. He's a two-time owner, so of course, there's no choice in the best way, but truly, I grew up with the whole idea of like, why would I invest in something more that I can't control when 'm already in the music industry, right? Now being a part of his family and seeing the passion and the community that comes with it, you know, like walking through an airport and wearing a Packers beanie, then everyone suddenly is being your best friend because of that. I've definitely seen the community part of it that has made me really fall in love.”
Have you got your big foam cheese head at home yet?
“Oh, no, I'm not that far. I'm more of the vintage Packers gear in the middle of a vintage store in Green Bay.”
I guess at home growing up, the Sooners would be the main team.
“Oh yeah, for sure.”
Hopefully they're going to do one over on Alabama this weekend.
“I hope so, I'll hear about it from my dad if they don't.”
“You're gonna hear it tonight!”
A lot of people talk about the way the audiences here are slightly different to back at home so It's a good place to test out new music but I guess you're in kind of a weird situation because people would have been fans of you for six years or so and haven’t got to see you before so you know, they want to hear “Boy's Girl” and “Break Things” where it’s a balancing act, then also you are playing acoustic as well.
“Yeah, bridging the gap is hard because, you know, obviously people want to hear the older stuff and as they should, I'm just thankful that people know the older stuff but I’m very excited for this new era. I teased the song that I'm going to perform tonight on socials for the first time the other day and it went down extremely well. I got a response that I haven't seen in a minute since “Then You Happened”, which was the first independent release so it's been kind of a release that everyone chose for me in the best way and I think that the most important part is involving the fans.”
With the new stuff that we've got coming, are you still working in the same like writing circles or have you had a reset in terms of things on that side as well?
“I still have my go-to people that I come to but also am in the new era stage where I want new perspectives from people. What's awesome about being independent is I can walk into a writing room and if I love what we did that day, I could tease it on socials, have the fans, tell me what they think and then within five weeks we could have it out if we wanted to. It was usually a whole process that took way longer and I am a very impatient person, I think we all are, so it's very inspiring to walk in a room and know that if you write something that day which you love, you can just put it out.”
Lastly, we’ll end on the big one, so, how does a girl from Oklahoma that's lived in Nashville for a long time end up becoming a Green Bay Packers fan? Growing up in Oklahoma, surely that’s Cowboys territory and then everyone in Nashville gets drawn to accepting failure with the Titans. It’s really strange to us as Brits, because you are brought up on having a team for life, all sports fans hate their team doing well because they have nothing to complain about and how it is the hope and optimism that your team are actually going to go well that really kills you.
“Ha-ha, that’s so funny. That is a wild thing about how I've always looked at NFL, coming from Oklahoma, we don't have a team, right? So that worked out with the relationship that I am currently in because whether or not I wanted to, I am a Packers fan, due to my boyfriend's family and him. He's a two-time owner, so of course, there's no choice in the best way, but truly, I grew up with the whole idea of like, why would I invest in something more that I can't control when 'm already in the music industry, right? Now being a part of his family and seeing the passion and the community that comes with it, you know, like walking through an airport and wearing a Packers beanie, then everyone suddenly is being your best friend because of that. I've definitely seen the community part of it that has made me really fall in love.”
Have you got your big foam cheese head at home yet?
“Oh, no, I'm not that far. I'm more of the vintage Packers gear in the middle of a vintage store in Green Bay.”
I guess at home growing up, the Sooners would be the main team.
“Oh yeah, for sure.”
Hopefully they're going to do one over on Alabama this weekend.
“I hope so, I'll hear about it from my dad if they don't.”
It's great that you're here, have a lot of fun tonight.
“Thank you.”
and I’m going to get to see you in March which is going to be so much fun.
“It’s so good that we finally got to do this in person.”
You’re the best and we’ll definitely grab some drinks in Berlin.
“Absolutely!”
“Break Up With Me” from Kylie Morgan is out now and is available HERE. Kylie will be appearing at C2C: Country to Country in Berlin over the weekend of March 6th, 7th & 8th which you can find more details on the event WEBSITE or on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK but to be the first to know about any further tour dates, you can check out her WEBSITE or follow Kylie socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
“Thank you.”
and I’m going to get to see you in March which is going to be so much fun.
“It’s so good that we finally got to do this in person.”
You’re the best and we’ll definitely grab some drinks in Berlin.
“Absolutely!”
“Break Up With Me” from Kylie Morgan is out now and is available HERE. Kylie will be appearing at C2C: Country to Country in Berlin over the weekend of March 6th, 7th & 8th which you can find more details on the event WEBSITE or on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK but to be the first to know about any further tour dates, you can check out her WEBSITE or follow Kylie socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
