Karen McCormick is a singer-songwriter based in Nashville, having been born in the Congo and raised in Washington State. Her debut EP ‘Retro’ was released late last year, following her performances on Kelsea Ballerini’s “The Unapologetically Tour” with Walker Hayes and performances with Hayes for an additional two dates on his headlining tour in 2019. Following the success of the EP, McCormick is set for big things in 2021.
Hello! Happy New Year! I can’t believe we finally made it to 2021. You definitely had a saving grace at the end of 2020 with the release of your EP. How was it putting that out?
You know it was a highlight, it took some time off everything that was going on, it was nice to have something to really focus on and hone in on, something that was escapism in the sense and provide that for other people, so that was nice. I did push back the EP to September, because I had no idea what was going to happen.
Well in March, I think we all did think that it would be over by April.
I’ve noticed that we do seem to have stopped with the guessing of when this will all be over, we’re all just thinking ‘we’re in it, let’s accept it.’ I don’t need the false hope. I saw yesterday that it said ‘concerts could come back in the fall’ and I thought ‘I’ll believe that when I see it, I don’t want to get my hopes up.’
That’s my mindset too. We’ll get there when we get there. You had so much momentum moving into the end of 2019, with Walker Hayes bringing you on tour, so even though you had the EP in your back pocket, it must have felt frustrating.
It was funny, I didn’t realise till I was gearing up to release the EP that I had released ‘Heartbroken Girls’ on March 13th of 2020, which was the day that in the States all public schools closed down. It was really interesting, I remember talking with some of my team because we had plans for more traditional promotion – going into a new studio and performing and going into a radio station and performing – so it was really interesting navigating doing Instagram lives and Zoom calls instead. I really honestly didn’t notice it until about two to three months after that single release, why did this song feel different and why did it have a different performance at the time. When we all collectively understood that this wasn’t going away and that this is what we were doing now, it helped on the artistic side and feeling ok that we’re adjusting my plans now because we all get it.
Well we’ve all had to adjust to this whole new era of living and working. Do you feel like you’ve been more creative during this period, I know some people have felt so inspired and some completely the opposite?
I’m going to be honest – no – it’s interesting because at the beginning of quarantine, I thought this was nice, it allowed me as a writer to slow down and feel ok if I’m not writing constantly. I would say after the EP, I thought what’s next and typically I would go and start writing again, but it’s really hard when I personally write about what’s going on in my life and not a lot has happened. It’s hard to know where to draw inspiration from and I specifically was writing to discover what my sound would be for the next project. It’s more of a challenge to think outside of autobiographical topics when really I am an autobiographical writer, I’m going to tell a story but it might not be what happened to me personally. It’s a challenge.
In this EP there are so many different elements. Obviously you were born in the Congo and raised in Washington State and you’ve brought all of that into this project. Can you talk a bit about your musical journey and influences?
Well thank you so much for saying that, I really feel like growing up with two parents of such different cultures really created a melting pot of what we listened to around the house. For me that was very normal, so when I started pursuing music more seriously and having to fit my music in a box, I thought ‘well I just enjoy music,’ it doesn’t really matter in what box it fits. My mom had me listening to Faith Hill, everything to Afro-pop and then my dad was very old-school rock with a little bit of country. There’s all those things blended together. When I work on my next project, that’s what I’m going for, as long as it tells a story, for me I feel like the listener can decide where they classify it. I do feel like growing up in Washington State, that isn’t your typical ‘country’ environment, as a listener feeling maybe I’m not country enough to even listen to this music, if I can’t relate to growing up a certain way. I hope that through my music, people who also didn’t grow up a certain way can find themselves in that. That’s what I love about country, when you really get into it, you realise there’s a lot of different styles of country.
I think it’s more about that storytelling side of the songwriting, rather than the sound per se. It’s more about the real human experience.
Absolutely, and with streaming the listener can really narrow down on what kind of country they want to listen to. That’s why I feel like having these genre lines is going to be outdated very soon, if you have the choice to listen to radio where they’re playing the same sound every time you turn it on, versus going into your Spotify and being in the mood for everything, you’re probably going to lean toward that every time.
You moved to Nashville back in 2018, so what made you decide to make that move and how much do you think your songwriting has developed since you’ve been there?
Well I first visited Nashville my senior year of high school back in 2012, I knew that I wanted to end up here – I didn’t know what that would look like, whether I would go to school here or whether I’d go after school. I ended up getting an internship at Warner Music Nashville in my junior year of college, so I kind of got a good test run and it was good to see whether I really wanted to be here. My final year, I got an internship at the CMA and that was when I decided to make this move permanent. Once I did, it was very much like welcome to the real world, I absolutely think that my songwriting has changed and developed upon the foundation of writing about what I’ve experienced. I think that co-writing has helped me learn how to write about things that people can relate to. I also think that living in Nashville has taught me that I also would like to continue writing alone as well. There’s two songs on the EP that I wrote alone and I would definitely like to continue to be a writer who writes alone and empower other writers who enjoy writing alone to do the same.
Well there are certain songs and stories that you actually need to write alone and you don’t need a co-writer for that.
Exactly and that’s how I’d say it too. You have certain song ideas that you know who exactly you’d write that song with to elevate it and then you have other stories that you know you’re the best person who can tell that story.
Since then, your breakout single was ‘Dancing With Him Tonight.’ Did you have a good feeling about that song when you wrote it?
I would say yes I did! (laughs) Prior to releasing it, I performed it live at every show and I would always end with it and that was the one everyone would always ask ‘hey, where can I listen to this?’ I hope live shows come back one day, it’s a foreign concept now, but back in my day (laughs) it was a great way to test out and put out feelers at what people were connecting with. Sonically, I can pinpoint who I was inspired by with that song with heavier, moody guitars. Something that I think about when I go into the studio production-wise is ‘how would this sound in an arena?’ performing with a full band. For me, that’s really an encore one and I’m so glad I released it and people are connecting with it still. I think my sound changed a little bit between that song to writing for the EP. I always strive to be bigger and better than the last thing I did but also the best thing I could do in that moment. When we wrote ‘Heartbroken Girls,’ I knew that was the direction I was headed, with this spaghetti-western, country-pop sound.
I love that track, it’s so relatable. Can you talk a bit about that track and the moment you wrote it?
I had been in a situation where I had stuck around longer than I should have, even though I knew that I shouldn’t (laughs). I think we’ve all been there. I had the title ‘Heartbroken Girls’ but I thought let’s make this ironic, it doesn’t have to sound sad and I wanted it to be relatable. I think so many of us have been through that, I find it so much more fun to sing ‘we’re good at being heartbroken girls’, rather than I. I didn’t want it to be this thing of feeling bad for ourselves, but a case of ‘why did we do that, but now we’re ok.’ I wanted it to be a fun, upbeat one to sing.
Everyone talks about the struggles of being an independent artist but there’s also so much joy in the independence of the process.
Oh it definitely is, that was the nice thing last year, the EP was originally going to come out in July but I was able to call the shots and say ‘hey, I think we should hold off and see how things play out,’ which I definitely think was for the best, I think releasing it in September was a great way to have something to look forward to throughout the year. It all ended up the way it was supposed to.
I’m so excited to hear more original music from you in due course and eventually get you over to the UK!
Thank you!
