Singer-songwriter Ashley Monroe is poised to release her new record Rosegold on the 30th April. The GRAMMY-nominated Nashville star will release the record via Mountainrose Sparrow/Thirty Tigers, taking her sound in a new direction. The record is now available for pre-order here.
Hey Ashley how are you? You must be so excited now that we’re in the final countdown to the record’s release?
Oh, I’m so excited. I’m so beyond ready for it to all be heard, but I’m glad that I’ve got three songs out – kind of like a sneak peek. It’s been fun to kind of slowly roll it out, but I’m ready for the whole thing to be out now.
It must be nice now that the world is opening up, you know you’ll be able to play the record live soon.
Yeah, I can’t wait. I was thinking earlier that I need to practise (laughs).
Obviously with this record, you’ve taken the record in a different direction. Was that very intentional and something you’d wanted to do – experiment a bit more with your sound?
It was intentional in the way of what it was – because that’s what I was hearing – I was hearing this noise, I was hearing different production, I was hearing not country elements to the production with the songs. I just heard something different. This time, the more I started writing songs, the more I was realising that they go together – it was a fluid project and then I knew I definitely wanted to put it out. I wanted the world to hear it. At first I was like, shall I be an alter ego, what should I do? I’m writing all the harmonies to help produce how I hear it. The more I look back at everything I’ve listened to in my life from rap to Mariah Care and Celine Dion – I used to blast her and try to learn the licks. Anyway, it was cool to not have a genre in mind and just sing from my heart.
Your vocals have always been so unique and powerful – intense and interesting – which I think is so important. I feel like it actually wasn’t that unnatural a direction to go in, because it felt like you were just leading with your vocal.
Yeah, I wanted my vocal up, over time I have developed more confidence as a singer and songwriter – and as a human. You know, there’s that quote that says ‘if you don’t grow, you die’. It’s kind of cool to even see old footage of myself, thinking that it sounded good and everything, but I would see my confidence was down – my shoulders were kind of hunched over. I just feel differently now It was so natural on this project. When I was thinking about singing harmony, I hear harmonies to everything and I wanted to layer it and just use every element of my vocal – showcasing the entirety of [it].
The range is incredible, but also the depth of tone that’s what made it so special. I know that you worked with a whole lot of different producers on this record – was it difficult to choose particular producers for particular tracks or did you naturally match up different songs to different producers?
You know, it all just happened so naturally and I didn’t even know first that it was a record I was making. I was starting to hear things and working with my co-writers – amazing writers – Mikey Reeves, Jason Mitchell, Nathan Chapman, Jordan Reynolds. They were my co-writers but they were creating the base we’d worked on – sounds got added or taken away but what we built that day in the writing room was the base of those songs. Those guys are so talented and so fresh. I always think some people aren’t as open to new things and want to keep things traditional, but I like the mixture of both and I’m excited to learn what different buttons do [in the studio]. I find it so cool and interesting. Then, when we were mixing the record, I wanted the mix to go around. I wanted to go around people, when they’re sitting in the car or wherever they’re listening. I wanted them to feel like they were in the middle of this whimsical storm.
You recently released the video for ‘Groove’ which is stunning. It’s a timeless video. It must have been fun to get back in and be able to do all these creative projects rather than just being stuck inside?
I love it. I have so many notebooks of visuals or songs and ‘Groove’ was one that I’d had for a while. So when it was time to do it, I was inspired by 90s videos – it’s just so simple. You know, just somebody doing their thing on camera you know.
I mean it’s such a fun track – how did you decide to lead out with one of those tracks as your lead-out tracks?
I kept noticing when I would listen to Rosegold – in my car or someplace – I’d listen to that one a lot and then I wanted it to ‘Groove’ harder. I knew we had to get Brian Allen and Chris Powell – they’re amazing musicians, drummer and bass who play all day, they’re just amazing. We called them  – they’re busy all the time – and they happened to be available that day. I wanted it to be so groovy –  bouncing off each other. I feel like that was Brian’s – the bassist’s – second pass. I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so good’. I wanted strings – Kanye does that a lot – as percussion, I love strings and I had never really played with them that way. So I got that layered and then before mastering wanted it to go into double time tracking and adding a breath track. I wanted to do some heavy styling on this one and on ‘Siren’ and then we’re done – that was the last thing I did on the project, I heard it so clearly. Once I was listening to all the mixes back, I kept hearing that.
I know you’ve also spoken about the songwriting for this project – you’ve dialled into the more painful side of things before – and you were a bit freer not his one. Was that a natural evolution in your journey? Has it been harder to write less painful songs?
The weird thing is it has not been one ride and it’s funny because anybody who’s written with me – we always go to all honesty – I’m not afraid to go there. I had my son and I live in Nashville with my family, and I get to have a job where I go write, and then I get to come home and put my son to bed. My heart wanted to take a picture and freeze it and amplify it and also give that feeling to other people. It’s not like sadness doesn’t exist – I mean my three year old had four meltdowns this morning – there’s shit going on in everyone’s life, but if you want to seek joy, you can if you want to feel it, even if you need a little help. I feel like I want Rosegold to do that.
Sometimes you also need the pain to appreciate the joy?
I’ve had a great life, but when I was 13 my dad died – it went bad – I mean, people will probably be shocked and one day I’ll  do a book. I mean the older I get, the more I look back and go, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that’ – grief and sorrow enveloped me and it’s not that I don’t still miss my dad, I’m positive I’ll still write about that but I didn’t even really try to think about it that much. I’ve written another album’s worth of songs like this [leading with melodies] and it’s something that I can’t wait for people to hear. I will say I feel like as an artist and as a writer, I do have to get back to the spirit that can move through music and that’s my job and I’m taking it seriously now. I feel like I’ve always wanted to get people to chills because I love getting chills from music, whether it’s classical or whether it rap. It’s powerful. Music is one of the most powerful things, but now joy chills too.
Well mission accomplished with this record – it’s absolutely stunning. I’m excited for people to hear the the whole project.
That means a lot and thank you. I love you all [in the UK] and I’ve missed it over there. I’ve just been really thankful that everyone’s being so kind and receptive. So thank you.
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Rosegold is out on Friday 30th April – pre-save here.
