We interview Stephanie Quayle about her most recent project, her roots in Montana, her Western-infused sound and more.
Hi! How has everything been for you – I know America is beginning to open up slowly? Are you moving a bit back toward normality.
Well to be determined, I’m on our farm in North Carolina, just north of Greensboro, it’s about seven hours from Nashville and so I’ve been there for the last about 100 days, which is crazy. I haven’t been in one place for this long in I think about twenty years (laughs), I’m always on the road. I’ve been doing a load of virtual concerts and virtual fan activities. I go to Nashville this week, I’ll go on Sunday and I’ll be there to record new music and do some different things there. It’ll be interesting to see how that feels, having to plan – like what door to go into the studio that no one else goes through. The part of music that I love the most is the community and us all being together, so the separate rooms that’s weird. The isolation booth for recording, yes but not being able to go back into the studio and listen as a group, it’ll all feel weird.
It must also have been a weird transition to Zoom writes, because obviously you usually feed off the energy of people when you’re in a writing session and that’s part of it as much as the words. It must be a weird thing to navigate.
It’s interesting. I think I’m grateful that we can, like I’m grateful that there’s a way to keep creating but I think it really depends on the people and the personalities and if you already have rapport and relationships with them.
I can imagine it’s particularly difficult with people you have never met before.
It is definitely different. I think it’s stretching all of us and we’re getting really comfortable with being uncomfortable and navigating it. I think over the last however long it’s been, I think just really taking down self-criticism and allowing ourselves to find our way through this, because none of us have ever experienced this before.
It’s something that no one has experienced before and there’s no rule book for how you’re meant to navigate a pandemic.
You just do the best you can. I feel like I’ve become a better listener because with this, there’s that delay sometimes and especially when you’re writing and you want everyone to feel heard, plus you get excited. It’s really having to learn that.
Back in February, which feels much longer than three and a bit months ago, you released your ‘The Montana Sessions’ EP, which was so special in being so stripped back so that you can really hear the lyrics. It also really drew out that Western sound that found its way into your latest project, how important was that going back to where it all started?
For me, it was the first time recording live in a living room with some of my best friends in music and being able to collaborate in such a stripped down fashion, it really enables the room to just speak. There’s a different sense, not in terms of being nervous that we don’t know what we’re doing, it’s nervous excitement that we want to get different moments and just allowing it to happen. Obviously we know the music very well so being able to be in my home, in my living room and having this happen as a first time experience and being able to capture that was really awesome. I found that especially after the last couple of years, capturing the moments that have translated into songs or videos, it’s just wonderful to be able to look back at and listen to and feel Montana. That was really my goal for that, when I feel Montana and when I go home, I feel such freedom. I can look at a picture of Montana and I feel that peace.
I always think of endless nature and it’s that energy that you want to bring through.
Completely. That’s something I really loved about creating ‘The Montana Sessions’ and it’s something I want to carry through to all the music that I make – that expansiveness. When you listen to my music, I want you to feel that we’re riding down the road in Montana, whether by horse, or bike or truck – choose your horsepower (laughs). We get to listen and soak it up and really have that feeling.
I know Wrangler were instrumental in helping bring that project to life and they’ve been such huge proponents of your music over the years. How did they become involved in your music?
Sure, very organically! I think when you’re partnering with a brand, the key is that authenticity, I’ve been wearing Wrangler since I was a little kid, so my lifestyle and Wrangler have always been synonymous, it’s never felt like a departure, it’s just been ‘oh yes those are the jeans I wear.’ It’s just part of the cowboy state of mind. The wild part for me has been Wrangler’s headquarters are here in Greensboro, North Carolina and our farm is 15 minutes away from there.
What are the chances?
What are the beautiful chances, and so just the natural authentic connection. I think for me I bridge the modern with fashion and then the Western with the lifestyle. Wrangler really has that diversity in its customers, so I think we just align. I think fortunately I love them, I love wearing them – I have them on right now, it’s a family thing.
One of the biggest changes from your first album to the ‘If I Was a Cowboy’ EP was that Western element really coming through your music. Was that a conscious move, or was it the people you were working with or was it a natural evolution in your sound?
Sure. All of the above! Evolution, the people that I was working with and I remember the moment that I heard the baritone guitar on one of my songs when we were making ‘If I Was A Cowboy.’ I remember saying to myself in the studio that I wanted to find a sonic thread in my music that could continue project to project and it really be that identifier without it feeling kitsch-y or overused. I think for me, finding that in the studio was like ‘this is what I’ve been looking for, ok now how can we elevate it and how do we bridge it into the next song and the next song.’ Knowing when to pull that back and if it lends itself to the song, or sometimes it doesn’t, it’s just having that awareness. I think that it’s a fundamental foundation of my Western ways that when I hear it, it makes me feel at home and I can present that in a really honest way to my fans. There’s not a lot of Western country artists that have that thread.
There really isn’t. One of the songs that really brought out that sound was ‘Evel Knievel,’ there’s something about that song that just makes me happy. Can you talk a bit about that one?
For sure, I think as a songwriter that was one of my favourite songs. It will go down in history as one of the most incredible ways of a song creating so many more experiences that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Starting with being in Karen Kosowski’s studio with Tori Tullier, and I remember specifically because you have three songwriters and artists, Karen’s an extraordinary producer, you have all this passion and energy. We were thinking of what we were going to write today and say something that hasn’t been said.
I feel like that’s a huge challenge for every songwriter.
Right, 1000%. I look over at Karen’s wall in her studio and there’s a Evel Knievel poster and Evel Knievel was from Butte, Montana and I’m from Bozeman, Montana. There was just so much in that moment, where I was like ‘ok, what rhymes with Evel Knievel?’ That song has been one of those songs that’s my go to when I need a little reminder of that perseverance, that resilience, that hope in difficult times. Just to have that song of courage, ‘run like a wild horse,’ we know these images.
It captures so many images of Montana…
Exactly! Gosh, I remember playing that in Montana and Evel Knievel’s daughter was in the audience and she didn’t know that I had a song called ‘Evel Knievel’ and I didn’t know that she was in the audience. It wasn’t until after the show during a Meet and Greet that I got to speak with her. I have chills just thinking about it. Then going into thinking that Evel had ridden Harley Davidsons, my mom has been riding Harley Davidsons for twenty years and she mentoring me to become a rider as well. She taught me to ride horses and now she’s taught me how to ride motorcycles. It’s incredible, it’s hands down one of the greatest experiences of my life, because also finding that courage and that I can do this.
Well that’s hard sometimes, particularly as a woman in country music, to hold onto sometimes.
It’s interesting, I don’t surf and I don’t know why this has become my analogy over the course of the last 100 days, but I’ve said ‘we’re riding a wave, we don’t know how to surf but you just hold onto the board.’ We’ve just got to hold on and we’ll get through this. Your voice is your voice and you’ve just got to keep going.
Exactly! The current single right now has kept me going through – ‘Whatcha Drinkin’ Bout’…
There’s a lot to drink about, whether that’s whiskey, wine or milk… I think with that one, we didn’t realise the impact it was going to have. We were writers in a room, Ryland Fisher, Joey Ebach and me, it was the first time that the three of us were in a room collaborating together. We’re all writers in our own right, but it was the first time with the three of us, I remember being so nervous knowing what extraordinary writers they are and not wanting to disappoint. This was one of those perfect days, we left thinking that was a really special song but we didn’t know the magnitude of it until we got into the studio and when we recorded that song, we thought ‘ok, fasten our seatbelts, here we go.’
I think that song has just elevated something.
Completely, the reason why this song is resonating on so many different levels, is because yes it’s super simple to sing along to, it’s cheeky, it’s got the personality and then when you go another layer, it’s like well what is this about, what am I drinking about. Maybe sub-consciously we knew it had greater intent, but it’s been wild. I think also I love to create experiences around everything I do, and the visual part with the music video and creating storylines.
You have always been very careful with your music to create it as a holistic package, not just with the visuals as an afterthought.
Yeah, everything is important, in the ‘If I Was A Cowboy’ music video, we shot that in Montana and the Easter egg of that video was that my husband is in it, but no one really knows. When the swinging doors open, there’s a silhouette of a cowboy that watches me walk out. I really loved that I could have him in the video, he did such a good job of trying not to break, I just kept laughing. It was so much fun to get to do that together and we’ll always have that. It’s been fun to watch other people’s responses to him and the video.
Well obviously everything’s a bit on hold at the moment, but we can’t wait to have you back in the UK before too long.
I can’t wait to get back, as soon as they say everything’s ok, I’ll be the first one with my hand in the air going ‘pick me!’ That’s been really tough, because I know as a community, live music is so powerful and healing, so to not have that during this time… I can’t wait for us all to be together again.
Final Few
Wine or whiskey? Whiskey, for sure.
If there was a biopic written about your life, what would be the opening track? I’d have to go with ‘Evel Knievel,’ I think if you didn’t know me, you’d understand who I was with that song.
Record you couldn’t live without if you were stuck on a desert island? Hmm, it would probably be go with Joni Mitchell ‘Court and Spark.’
Complete the sentence…
Music is… everything.
Country music is… everything.
Stephanie Quayle is… hopeful!
