Kasey Tyndall has just released her brand new single ‘Middle Man’, written with roommate Lainey Wilson that is a phenomenally powerful and personal track. Here, we talk to Tyndall about the evolution of the track.
Hey, how are you doing? You’re back doing live shows – it must be so good for the soul..
I’m good thanks. It is incredible, I’ve missed it so much. I just played one of my first shows back this past weekend and I was just like, ‘Thank You Jesus.’ I’m so I’m so ready for this.
Have you found that you’ve been really inspired over the past year? Some people have kind of taken it as an opportunity and they’ve got really inspired – you can get really introspective, but it’s also in a vacuum.
We’ve had more time to just sit around and hone in our craft. I just feel like my songwriting has grown because I haven’t been on the road as much and I’ve been kind of forced to sit with my experiences and my stories and really just throw them on paper. It’s forced me to get creative.
Obviously ‘Middle Man’ has just come out, I’m excited about this track. Obviously it’s a very personal track to you but I also think that it’s relatable to so many people. I know you wrote it with Lainey but what was the inspiration and how did it come together?
It’s so funny – since we’re roommates – we just catch up whenever we can, because we’re so busy right now. It was during the pandemic, so we had more time to hang out, we were just on the back porch catching up on everything. I don’t even know how we got there, but we were talking about how my parents were divorced. I had a positive experience with it – I know a lot of people didn’t, but I loved it. I happened to say that the only thing that was negative was being the middle man as I was the older sibling. She said ‘Go get a guitar.’ When you live with a songwriter and you say a cool title, they’re like ‘let’s do it.’ I walked out the door and I said, ‘Well, I hope mama never hears this song’ and she’s like ‘man, keep talking.’ It just fell out and it was my personal experience. Every single line was just something that I said about the experience.
It’s so funny because this wasn’t supposed to be the next single. We had started playing writer’s rounds again and I played it a few times and I kept getting standing ovations and people kept saying ‘you have no idea – you have just described my life or my childhood or I’m divorcing and you’re singing a song about my kids. I didn’t realise that we were writing a song for other people – people needed to hear this.
I can imagine that it’s been strange over the past year not having audience reactions to songs and not seeing which songs that your fans are really falling in love with, so it must be nice now having some validation.
It felt so good, the song definitely picked itself. I mean, we just couldn’t ignore just the overwhelming support. When a song does well online you always have a few bad comments and stuff. I had one video go viral and every single comment has been great. I’m hoping that it just connects with people and gives people a little bit of peace. I’m so excited to connect with this song.
I definitely think it will. I know you’re from Carolina initially, so how much has having Lainey and your songwriter community in Nashville shaped you to be the artist that you are today,
It’s such a small town in a big city and the songwriting community is so close. Everybody is just one big happy family, if somebody goes through something the rest of the community steps in to help and everybody’s always making everybody better. There’s always new goals and new songs to try to be as good as. It’s such an awesome community and I’m really thankful to be a part of it.
I love the fact that you all buoy each other up.Everyone has their moment to shine, and you celebrate hard work as well. Obviously, you’ve been working in the town for so many years and that that side of things is almost celebrated as much as the talent itself.
It’s so crazy when one of my friends succeeds, and does well, I celebrate just as hard. It’s so awesome – watching your friends do well is one of the best feelings in the world because everybody’s so close. It’s just a big village out here and that’s what it takes on the music side and the personal side – we don’t have family here because we’re all from different places and we all lift each other up. It’s so awesome – it’s a really cool thing.
Obviously you’ve recently signed with River House, which is super exciting. What did that mean to you?
It’s crazy, I’ve been with Sony ATV for about four years, and now I’ve got a new team and it’s awesome just seeing the growth and recognising who I am now and it’s so awesome. I’m so thankful for all the team members that I’ve ever had that have helped mould me and get me here.
I definitely think one thing that comes through with your artistry and everything you’ve released is that it feels so authentic – obviously with ‘Middle Man’ and ‘Double-Edged Sword’ last year. How important was it to release songs that you really believe in rather than rushing to get out music?
Well it’s interesting, with this past year and with everything slowing down, it’s allowed everyone to go back to the drawing board and test out new things. ‘Middle Man’ wasn’t supposed to be the single but because of everything and being able to play more rounds in town and testing the waters with different new songs – it’s been pretty cool.
Referring to ‘Double-edged Sword’ can you talk a bit about that track?
I wrote that song with with Jason Nix and Lainey. Lainey had the title and she kept throwing it out to people and nobody would write it. I kept telling her ‘next time we write it, if nobody else has written that song, I want to write that song with you.’
I was kind of thankful that nobody else wanted to write it with her and Jason Nix is so incredible – he helped produce it. I’m sure you guys know his music as well. I love that song and I think we had already been in the pandemic when I released it.
With that song I just wanted to rock out. It was definitely a passion project for me – I love that song.
Well we’re just excited to hopefully get you to the UK soon, once all this has gone away.
I’m so excited, I’ve never been overseas. I’m going in September to Denmark for a songwriter festival. I’ve never been actually been to the UK but I’m so excited to come.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us.
No, thank you. I appreciate you guys so much.
