Maddie Font of Maddie & Tae joins Kelleigh Bannen for an interview on Today’s Country Radio to chat about the duo’s new project, ‘Through The Madness, Vol. 1.’ They also discuss motherhood as a female artist in light of Tae recently welcoming her daughter, and the premonitions Maddie had about meeting her now husband. Tune in and listen to the episode in-full this Friday (Feb. 4) at 11am PT / 1pm CT / 2pm ET or anytime on-demand here.
Maddie on Tae’s Daughter, Leighton, Being in the NICU
It’s terrifying. And I don’t know what’s scarier, [Leighton] being in the NICU or just the journey to get there. It was really scary. It was really, really hard times. I keep joking that I jinxed us with the album title because I’m like, “Oh my God, I named the album ‘Through the Madness.’” And then literally a week before the album, baby Leighton comes and it’s just crazy. But the dust is kind of settling now and Tae is getting settled and Leighton’s doing great. Josh [Kerr] is great. So, I’m glad that we get to love on them though this week.
Maddie on Her and Tae’s Different Reactions to Tae Being Pregnant
I think the first moment… Tae was more “Oh s***” and I was more “Wooo!” So, I was stoked [Tae was pregnant] but obviously when you’re the one that’s pregnant and having to do all the work, you are terrified, but we definitely had the “oh s***” moment and once Tae told me, I was like, we have to tell our management [in] two weeks. We’ve really got to tell them soon so they can start planning. It’s funny we planned this whole thing and had this whole plan and then God’s like, “Nah, that’s not what’s going to happen. Actually something better. It’s going to be even better than you could imagine.” But yeah, I think there’s this pressure on female artists in country music… I think just in the music and entertainment industry in general. Actresses, musicians, everything, that you can’t do it all. And I don’t know why as a society we think women as that one-dimensional.
Maddie on Starting a Family as a Female Artist
I have my moments where I’m like, “I don’t know when I want to start a family. I don’t know when I want to do that because I am scared.” It’s like you’re trying to run a business, you’re trying to make fans. You’re trying to release music and throw a baby in the mix. And it’s a little complicated… And you need [your body] for both jobs. You need your body for your baby and your body for your job. It’s crazy. And I feel like it’s hard as women to… I feel like you’re going to feel guilty either way. If you’re not with your baby and you’re working, you’ll feel guilty, or if you’re with your baby, you’re not working. It’s just like I wish that that guilt would just go away. But I think it’s ingrained for some reason in us.
Maddie & Tae on the Meaning Behind Their Album Title
I think the title embodies a lot of different things, but the madness that we were experiencing in the moment was the madness of the pandemic. Not touring, trying to run a business that has no income as everyone in our position was trying to do. And it was… Our industry took a really hard hit and is still taking a hard hit. And there’s so many businesses and everything that’s just really had a hard time during this pandemic. But the way I like to explain it is like, once everything felt real, maybe by April or May, we were like, “Okay, this is not going anywhere. And this is what we got to do.” And we just started writing, which is the only thing, that’s been our only constant… We’ve had so many different experiences, but I think that this album is all about seeing the beauty in the madness and kind of walking into the madness of your life with like, “All right, I’m ready for whatever crazy life is about to throw at me. And I’m just going to do the best I can.”
Maddie on Writing “The Other Side” with Lori McKenna
I think “The Other Side” was one of the first songs that we wrote [with Lori McKenna.] Almost positive. Definitely first or second, but we wrote that during the pandemic and it just was one of those songs that just fell out. It was so natural. And actually [Tae’s husband] Josh [Kerr] got the title from our documentary on YouTube called ‘Reframed,’ because I was kind of sharing about walking through a season of depression when our career just kind of plummeted and everything just hit the fan. And so Josh was saying, “I was watching Tae talk about you going through that hard time. And Tae just said, ‘I knew she was struggling but I never worried because she always makes it out on the other side.’” And we just thought that was such a sweet sentiment. When you see someone that you love going through a hard time, it hurts. My heart has just now returned to my chest from Tae being in the hospital.
Maddie on Writing “Don’t Make Her Look Dumb” and featuring Morgane Stapleton On It
So “Don’t Make Her Look Dumb,” the song that [Morgane Stapleton’s] on with us, was actually written the same week “Die From a Broken Heart” was. So this is like an older song that we had just forgotten about, you know, like, in your catalog you have songs that you’re like, “Oh I love but I just forgot about them.” And it kept coming back. It was making its way around Nashville for some pitch meetings and stuff. And our head of A&R was like, “Hey, this song is getting a lot of attention. Don’t let it be someone else’s hit.” It freaked me out enough to be like, “Oh, okay, let’s record the song, cool.” And so we kind of breathed brand new life into this song that we had forgotten about. And Morgane… that came out of nowhere. Stephanie Wright at Universal, she’s like, “Hey, I think it’d be really special to have Morgane come sing on this song.” And I’m like, “If you can even work a miracle like that, freaking go for it.” And so I was just crossing my fingers that she’d do it. And man, I mean she’s just insane. I wanted to shine a light on women’s voices that people don’t get to hear as much as like someone like Tae and I, or anyone that’s mainstream I guess would be the right word. [We wanted to really highlight women] that I don’t feel like [people] get to hear enough of.
