Megan, I'm so glad to see you.
I feel like this album.
Of course it's still Emo Cowgirl, but it's got a lot of lightness and it's playful, it's funny, it's self-deprecating, but it does feel like there's a new lightness to the energy.
Does that feel right?
I agree yeah, I think, like you said, there is, there's never gonna not be emo cowgirl songs, you know, feathered in there, but overall it does feel lighter and it's fun.
It's the most fun I've ever had making an album.
What do you think was different like?
Why was it more fun?
I think, just like when I wrote this um, a lot of the album was written like in the very middle of the my okay tour and I was just like, night after night, I couldn't believe that I got to do that with my life.
Every single show, I'm like, how is this real?
So on the career side of things, I was just like How I even came up with Cloud9 was like people say that they're on Cloud9, but I feel like I'm way above it.
Like 10, 11, 12.
I mean, that's honestly.
If we're talking about the title track Cloud9, it's like oh, what is it like to be even higher than Cloud9 and looking down upon it?
What does that feel like?
I think in my personal life, too, I love thinking I have a crush on someone.
You know what I mean?
Having a crush is so fun for me.
So that paired with me just...
It was also having my feet planted in doing this.
I feel like with Lucky.
I followed Lucky, my debut album up from Tennessee Orange.
I followed up with Lucky and then a year after that I knew I was touring with Kenny Chesney so I wanted to make sure that I had like two albums, you know, to play live and yeah, then I went on to do the MRK tour, which is like the best time ever.
But this album wasn't created for any other purpose than just because I loved it.
You know, like every song that I wrote I didn't even.
There's like three songs that I wrote during this period that aren't on the album.
Basically everything I wrote during this time made the album, because that was my strategy this time.
I didn't like write just because you have to keep writing.
I was like I'm going to come up with good, solid ideas, marinate on them and then write them with the people that I know I can go to to execute the right ideas.
I really like that strategy, because there is this sort of like bottomless pit thing that happens where it's like well, maybe we can beat it, maybe we can beat it.
And there's a little bit of like.
Is that really like good energy that we wanna welcome into our creativity?
It sounds like you're almost like, more defiantly, like I literally wrote like this album is the most accurate like screenshot of the past year and a half of my life, like every single thing that I went through is written about there and there's no like oh, we wrote this because we're just vibing like no, I lived every single like line of the album.
Um, very honestly and it was fun to like not put pressure on myself when it comes to writing like I wasn't like Oh, I've got to write 20 more songs and then narrow it down.
It was like after that weekend that I wrote Lars and tigers and bears who hurt you, and waiting on the rain the same weekend.
I was like the album's done, we can let everybody know.
Yeah, that's awesome.
That.
So talk about that confidence like is does that kind of confidence?
Because if I feel like you hear the confidence on the album, it feels like you're talking about the strategy in a really confident way.
Is that a byproduct of success or of having grown into the like what is that coming from?
I really think it's just because it's not my first rodeo or my second.
Like this is like I've done this before, twice now, and the last two albums like even down to the sounds like silly.
But even when we're shooting the album it's like okay, we need, we need all these different shots for all these different outlets.
Let's check them off so that it's.
It was just like very organized and like we know every single thing we need.
We know we're gonna need visualizers for the lyric videos.
It's not just like oh, we're gonna shoot and then like make it all work together.
It was like this is what we're shooting here, this is what we're doing here, and kind of it felt that way with the writing process too.
Like I was like it's just honest.
And I was like, I'm just gonna do what feels right in a follow my gut.
And I feel like my gut is more confident because I've done it already.
Yeah, twice.
Awesome.
We're like surrounded by the album cover.
This is so I'm trying to like maybe this reminds me of teenage dream.
As a reference, like album cover-wise.
I don't know what you guys went into, but like could you actually talk about like?
So how do you get that shot?
You're not, are you wearing a version of this dress?
Oh, the dress is 100% real.
Yep, Jonathan Cain made it.
I just had this, when I wrote Cloud Nine, I mean...
I'm not is it kind of like yeah not to toot my own horn but we ate with that one yeah um no crumbs but I wanted the dress like when I wrote cloud nine and I was like what is the like the message behind the album.
What's really interesting and something that's like nerdy of me, that like no one else probably cares about, but I care about it.
This is my most confident me album yet.
And it's the only album cover I have.
I mean other than Piss Made of Roses.
But I'm talking like Lucky.
And Am I Okay where I'm looking directly into the camera?
Love it, lucky.
I'm looking up, am i okay?
I'm looking off to the side and this i wanted to.
I'm also thinking about what they look like on on a wall all together.
So lucky, i love it.
Blue, this.
So i knew that it was going to be a full body shot.
So i was like yeah, i want the dress.
Give the people what they want.
I want it to be flowers that could turn into clouds, and then it's just all one thing.
And i'm climbing a ladder because i'm like way above cloud nine.
Yeah, i'm just like you're climbing a ladder.
This is what it looks like.
Yeah, and it's just, the ladder never ends you.
We're talking about lucky.
I loved that album.
I think that is a thanks.
I mean, it's really hard to be that fully grown on a debut album and then you continue to level up especially, I think about your storytelling.
But if someone was listening back to back lucky to Cloud9, what do you think they would hear?
As far as the greatest ways that you've grown as an artist, as a person.
I think.
To me it's very obvious when you hear songs like, Like let's just compare why Johnny and girl in the mirror to beautiful things and waiting on the rain.
Yeah.
So girl in the mirror and why Johnny are very like, it's the end of the world.
Never going to get better.
Um, I love this guy more than myself.
I don't know what I'm going to do without him.
Why Johnny is like, please, like, I wish this guy would change for me.
Like I'll do anything.
How do I, how do I get this total love me?
Yeah.
And yeah.
In cloud nine beautiful like with Beautiful Things.
I think that the girl that wrote Girl in the Mirror could have never written Beautiful Things, because not only am I kind of talking to myself of like the world is hard on beautiful things, I also am spreading that message and like I feel qualified and I've gone through enough stuff to be like I know how this goes.
Life sucks sometimes and if you just keep in mind that the world is hard on beautiful things, you'll get through it.
And the same thing with Waiting on the Rain.
Even though that song has the same like, I consider that song pretty devastating.
Like that line that's like, what is it?
Oh, me and Jesse Joe cry at this line every time.
I'll forget the way he laughs.
I hate that.
But like with Why Johnny, there's like a desperation to that song.
Whereas Waiting on the Rain, it's very matter of fact and like life will just go on.
Ain't the first time I've been wrong.
We'll make new friends, you know?
Yes.
There's a sense of like.
You know what, I am heartbroken, but not in the way that I'm begging for him back.
I'm heartbroken in a way that like this sucks, but I'm gonna be fine and I'm gonna let it hurt and then I'm gonna move on.
Yeah, honestly, kind of remarkable amount of personal growth. from that moment.
I mean, that's like, I know.
And I didn't even really realize it till you know this like album press kind of started and I was like having to talk about the album and I'm like oh, wow.
Like that's kind of crazy that you know cause girl in the mirror and why.
Johnny, those were such honest songs for where I was at the time.
And now I would never look in the mirror and like, be like, I love him so much.
Who is this?
You know what I mean?
Like, yeah.
Oh, that makes me so proud.
You know, it's like, oh, I'm proud of the girl that wrote Girl in the Mirror.
I'm really proud of her because those are two different people.
Yeah.
Even though I think sometimes when people look at my music like oh, she's still singing about the same stuff.
It's like, well, it's from a wildly different perspective.
Well, that's I mean to that.
It's like we're always singing about that.
We're like that's the.
We're singing about love in some form, forever.
That's exactly and and heartbreak and all the things that go with it, right?
So that's all anybody is singing about.
We're just different iterations of us, right?
Or who's singing about it?
Um okay, let's talk about beautiful things.
That there's like a softness on this album too.
There's confidence and then there's a softness.
I think you see it in a song like beautiful things.
It kind of makes me wonder do you wish you'd had something to sing along to, like that song, when you were coming up?
Yeah.
That's why I kind of realized that I wrote the song.
So I wrote the song for my niece and she's two now.
She's got like bright red hair.
She's like a firecracker, huge personality.
I'm obsessed with her.
Um, and when she was born, I remember like looking at her and I was like, oh my God, she's perfect.
If anything sad ever happens to her, I'm gonna freak out.
Like I went into crazy auntie mode.
And I started replaying all the times, like in school, where people would be mean to me or I didn't get invited to a party in middle school.
And then I got a little bit older and got my heart broken for the first time.
And I was just devastated thinking about her going through that same heartbreak and feeling so sad and like it's basically that's just normal human stuff though i understand it's not the end of the world, but at the time it does feel like the end of the world and so i was like i need to write her a song so, when and if she needs it, she has it to listen to.
And you know, the first verse is kind of set as you know, your friends didn't invite you to this party and then the second verse was like set to you're going through your first heartbreak and i feel like those two things in middle school and high school are things that, like i wish.
I'm kind of writing them to my younger self too.
Yeah yeah, in a way i'm like i wish i, i know like if i wish i had it when i was younger, i think she'll appreciate it one day.
That is sweet.
I, i have a two-year-old, so i'm like we're there, it's just, and they're so tender and they're so hilarious and adorable.
I will hurt you, i will come for you.
That's really, really that's beautiful.
I want to talk about bells and whistles.
We're obsessed.
What if we just talk about I mean, we kind of hit on it a little bit with some of like the glammy stuff, but like, what are the bells and whistles that you can't live without?
Ooh, my Louboutins, my fake hair, my glam squad, my fake eyelashes.
Do you have extensions or are you wearing falsies?
Like you're wearing right now?
Oh, they're always like, I can like transform, you know what I mean?
I'm not trying to like stay that all the time.
But and then my hair are clip-ins yeah, so that i, you don't have real extension.
Like no, i don't have extensions.
Yeah, because my hair is naturally curly.
Like so yeah, it makes it, so it's clip-ins.
Yeah, just clipping y'all.
You can get this look with clip-ins people um, i have i, i have i'm on the extensions train for a long time because i like destroyed my hair with like heat styling and bleach.
I'm like oh, so annoying.
But a lot of my friends that are not in the entertainment business will be like, is that your real hair?
And i'm like offend, that's rude.
Yes, it is my, it is my real hair.
I bought it.
We are yeah yeah um, okay.
So then this is why, like this is the perfect song for you to sing with Casey.
It sounds like Casey surprised you by like popping on that second verse.
Yeah, you get an email.
Um, it was like a.
It was a message through the managers like I guess that she had sent were talking about the song and i kind of just thought it was gonna be backgrounds.
So i was like i'm just expecting this to come back with backgrounds.
She was also like in another country, so it was like very much last minute, like we didn't know if it was actually gonna happen.
So i literally the thought of where they said oh, she wants to sing on it, i came into my brain, but i didn't fixate on it because i would be heartbroken and if it didn't end up happening and i knew she was so busy.
So i was just expecting backgrounds back.
And then we get a message from her.
That's like I sang on the second verse, like I think she included too, like you don't have to use this.
But just like I went ahead and sang on it because I love this song and I was like, Should we just become best friends?
I was like, I haven't heard it.
I will be using it.
How fast?
I mean, my heart would be racing.
You just could not get to that play button fast enough.
Yeah, no.
There was two versions.
One with her without her singing the second verse and then with the second verse.
And then I didn't even listen to the first one they sent without her.
I was like, I'm going to listen to what it's going to be.
And then I cried.
I haven't really happy cried too many times in my life.
Yeah.
And I did because I just, it's like a dream come true for a younger me.
I waited outside of her bus in like 2014 to meet her.
I had a knee injury, which is why I was in a wheelchair, which is why I learned how to play guitar.
Remember that whole story?
So I met her with one shoe on also.
I had like a knee brace on that like was my entire leg that I couldn't even put a cowgirl boot on.
So I had one cowgirl boot on and then a purple sock.
She had purple pants on, so we were coordinating um.
But so i met her then and that was like dream come true.
And then i we shared a dressing room not this cma's, but the one before that and i going into it was like award shows are so stressful, so i'm not expecting her to like even say hi to me, because also she could remember that I waited outside of her bus and I'm like, was obsessed with her and I talk about her in all my interviews.
She probably thinks it's funny honestly.
I met her then and she was wonderful and great and so sweet.
But I was expecting her like it could go either way, because I'm like I don't know she might be like, oh great, I'm with this freak and I'm already stressed out can you move my dressing room?
But she was so sweet so that like made my life.
And then for her to all I.
All I wanted was background vocals, because I didn't want to ask too much of her.
So I was like I'll just take a background vocal, spare me a background vocal.
And um, she ended up singing the second verse, which I think made the song a million times better because like, we need the award show performance.
I would love that.
Let's say we need to make that happen.
Okay, Liars and Tigers and Bears.
I love that.
I mean, I don't know how that idea happened, but it's so clever.
But then it's not just written from like a tricky clever, it's just written in a way where I think any woman in country music maybe in the industry, you know, regardless of genre, but any woman has had those lines said to her, has thought she had to fit in those boxes, has lived with that scarcity mentality.
I'm just like how?
Why are we still framing the conversation around female success in country music like that?
Yeah, there's the line that says love everybody.
Aren't you all friends, even though aren't you all friends, even the ones that we pitch you against?
That is straight up calling out the loser behavior of just constantly comparing women successful, great women, like let's just put them all against each other yes, and that's just yeah, that's that line is just calling out the lame, energy loser behavior of that.
That goes on and it's not a secret.
Yeah, it's a very matter-of-fact song.
Like i i wouldn't even say i'm complaining in the song it's just like this is what it is and like if you're gonna work in this industry, you have to have really thick skin, because this is what it's like and buckle up.
How do you keep yourself safe protected, insulated from that kind of energy?
I just don't give it my energy.
I know it exists out there and I just move along with my life.
I focus on my music.
Like.
That sounds like a really cliche answer, but there's.
I feel like the There's a lot of great things about social media, but that's one part that I just hate.
Just the constant comparison of really successful people.
It doesn't even have to be just women compared to women.
It's just like, oh, well, who's better than who here?
It's just like, what are we doing?
Just like touch grass, go on a walk.
So it's not even that like you feel, because there are times when I'm like eh, I don't want to be looking at this app because it makes me feel ick about myself or what I've accomplished.
Because it's just, it's more like other people making the comparison on your behalf or like.
Yeah, I mean, and I've had to deal with a lot of online stuff.
I mean like, if you really like, if you were online for five seconds and looked up my name, there would just be a bunch of people shitting on me.
But I just like, yeah.
That's actually, that's how you know you've made it.
It doesn't bother me anymore, truly.
Like, I mean, there's some days where I'm just like, oh, that sucks.
But then I just move on with my day.
I don't really let it affect me more than that.
I mean, there's a lot of like well-focused like you're in my crosshairs shots that are taken on this album.
I mean, we want that from you.
We love that about you.
One of maybe the most painful is to hurt you.
It's explicit like we have come to like love your writing to be um.
But i guess what i'm curious about, and y'all, if y'all haven't heard the song, like it, it's terrifying, right.
But we also know that there's going to be an arena full of women that are scream, singing lines like god, i hate how gross you are.
Yeah, i love that one.
It's so simple.
I said God, I hate how gross you are.
And I remember Luke and Jessie Jo being like, can we say that?
And I'm like, we absolutely can.
Who are we asking permission to?
And they were like, absolutely, we're doing it.
The problem is and this is the problem folks, everyone has an ex that they really need to say God, I hate, how gross you are.
I just think that is going to be a hilarious moment in that song.
But I guess what I'm asking maybe even more generally about.
I mean, you've said people that you date, be warned ahead of time.
You're going to get a song written about you probably, maybe.
Q, wish I didn't.
Q, wish I didn't.
So what is your hope when X is here? your songs or like yeah or that song?
What they do is none of my business.
Yeah, I wrote that for me and, like it's one of those things where songwriting has always been an outlet for me, and there's situations that I genuinely don't know I would have gotten through if I couldn't write a song about it.
And so when I wrote that song, obviously there's a lot of sadness and anger and it's almost like when i can turn that into a song, it no longer exists, like in my heart and inside of me.
It now exists as this physical, tangible thing that now my fans and i can enjoy.
They can relate their own stories to it.
So it feels like less monumental to me, you know, because it's like oh, i'm not the only person that's felt like this and had this happen to, so we're all just gonna like bond together in that way and now I don't have to like keep that pent up anger or sadness here and so that's been.
That was like really interesting.
Like as soon as I wrote that song, I was like oh, I'm over it yeah oh, that's amazing.
That's like that's the gift of it right, I know truly, like I, it's definitely some it feels like a superpower a little bit.
Yeah because yeah, it's like that's how I process things and then Better than eating your feelings, better than going on a binge.
Um, is there like?
This was a conversation that came up.
Like I was listening to this song with some other members of the team and I was like, Is there like a slightly empathetic thread through it, or is it just a dip?
Is it a little like wow, something really fed you up, or is it just like My hope with this?
Obviously, there's a lot of this which is totally valid, especially in the bridge.
But I think the entire song, I...
I think it's because I'm a Libra, but I always try to rationalize things like okay, like cause and effect, like there's got to be a reason for why this happened, it's got to all like balance and um, I think when I was going through that situation I was like hoping like, and not I guess hoping isn't the right word but hoping that there was a reason why someone could be this cruel.
I hope you weren't just like spawned on earth like this.
I hope that maybe there's something that you didn't talk about that made you this way.
And maybe.
So that is empathetic.
Yeah.
Sociopaths in the room.
Let us know yeah no literally, like writing that song was so healing and I'm so excited to scream with everyone and, like I'm big on, I want to leak my whole album, like I wish I could just post it to Instagram tonight.
But um, we're gonna wait.
They're gonna wait for sure, but that one I've been really precious about because I want reaction videos.
Oh oh, that's gonna be fun, that's gonna be hilarious.
You mentioned wish, I didn't.
It's the.
The music video is so much fun.
Um, I guess so.
That's kind of a song in some ways about red flags.
It makes me think, what are the green flags?
Green flags.
Green flags when you're dating someone.
Of dating?
Yeah.
I don't come across a lot of those.
I would say honesty.
I love honesty.
Okay.
Like the bar is in hell.
I think...
Like, being able to be supportive, I've found... Yeah, okay.
Not threatened by your career.
Right, yeah, yeah.
Because I found, like, there's a song on the Target exclusive called I Bought a House.
And it's about how I bought a house and, like the dude I was dating, wouldn't even come inside and look at it.
Oh.
Not one green flag in sight.
Wait, that is kind of bizarre.
Yeah, it's bizarre.
But...
Yeah, I don't come across a lot of green flags, but I think I think my like, my wants used to be a lot different.
I'm just like literally looking for kindness.
Yeah.
And honestly, honestly.
Yeah.
I'm like, I'm tired.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we'll see.
But I'm also like not looking either.
So, after like everything that you went through to inspire this album, to get us to hear are you more of a cynic when it comes to your romantic life or more of a romantic?
The whole time i was creating this album, like the year and a half, two years, i took care of myself.
Yeah, in a way that like, as soon as i started to not be treated the way i knew i deserved to be treated, i left You mean in dating relationships or just generally.
Just in dating.
So I think I'm more of a romantic, because I know that I can always handle it, you know, and that makes me excited for meeting someone that's right for me.
Yeah, you know, because i'm like i can.
I'm now at the point where i can get out of something toxic, and i know when it's toxic, because i've done enough of that.
Yeah, and i i trust myself enough to know that i'm going to be okay, because i think a lot of the times before i would stay in it because i didn't think that i would like ever do better, or i was like oh my god i, i just this, this is my person.
It's like no sweetheart, that's not your person.
Yeah, he's treating you like It takes a minute.
I don't know why it takes a minute to learn that.
I just think that I trust myself more to get out of toxic relationships.
Therefore, it makes me softer, more confident, and more of a romantic.
Because I'm like, yeah, it'll be good.
Whenever I meet the right person, be able to handle it.
Whenever i meet another, i'll be able to peace out real quick.
Yeah, so that is growth.
Ladies and gentlemen, insert applause.
Megan, i'm i'm excited for you.
This is going to be a fantastic year, and i mean the album is going it's.
It's just, it's gonna it's gonna get bigger, it's gonna get noisier.
I think you're in a great place to receive all that too, and i'm really excited.
So congrats.
Thank you.
Cloud9.
Yay.
