Tenille Townes joins Today’s Country Radio for an interview with Kelleigh Bannen to chat about writing vulnerable songs for her new EP ‘Masquerades.’ Plus, Tenille performs “Somebody’s Daughter” and “Same Road Home” live from the Apple Music Nashville studios, exclusively available on this episode of Today’s Country Radio. Tune in and listen to the episode on-demand here.
Tenille Townes Recalls Playing Her First Award Show at the 2019 CMT Awards
Just play the song. That’s all you’re doing. You’re just playing a song for people. My vision was blurry. I don’t remember seeing anything beyond the stage. And I came back and was like, “oh my gosh, that just happened.” And hugged my manager. And she’s like, “Did you see everyone? Did you see everyone?” I was like, “No. I didn’t see anything.”
Tenille Townes on the Stage Being Her Quiet Place
The stage to me is the quietest time in my head, which is this weird thing if I really try to process and understand that. Because leading up to the stage, after the stage and analyzing what happened, what I could have done better. Sometimes writing is total turmoil. Being in the studio can be that way where I’m very much in my head. Photo shoots, all of those things are like there’s a lot of voices in my head sometimes in those processes. But when I’m up there, it is like the choir is silenced. And it’s awesome. I feel like, I don’t know, this kind of other side of myself in a way. I feel like both of those people. It’s like the introvert, the reflective person, the perfectionist, the over-thinker, the quiet one. And then I get on stage and it’s like I am this other version of myself.
Tenille Townes on Writing from a More Personal Spot on ‘Masquerades’ EP
Writing during that time, it just was happening. And I was terrified as it was happening. I was like, “am I really saying this in this lyric? Am I really going here?” And the answer is yes. And it’s so exciting to feel like I’ve come to this place of going, “yeah, I’m ready to kind of share more of the perspective of the inside.”
Tenille Townes on Writing “When You Need It” with Wrabel
I love that song. And honestly, one of the brightest silver linings over the weird past couple of years was getting to know Wrabel and writing songs through the distance together. So I did not realize it would be possible to write a song through a computer screen, nevermind make a true friend that way. So I love that this song marks the beginning of our friendship and the beginning… We’ve probably written over 20 songs together at this point, but it’s like this was the first one and I’m so, so glad to sing it with him. I love his voice so much. Love writing with him.
Tenille Townes on Healing Through Writing New Music on ‘Masquerades’ EP
That really feels like a really true part of how I felt in the middle of writing every single one of these songs… is it was healing and it was very much reflective of, “I don’t have this figured out, but I’m going to write about how I am learning to and my process in that.” And I’m still very much not there. I’m in the messiness. And I wanted this part of the music to kind of represent that season of my life and to be hopefully an invitation to anybody listening to be like, “Oh, cool. Okay. So we’re figuring out the same things. That’s good.”
Tenille Townes on the Idea of Tattooing Her Guitars
I had this sort of this moment of going, “I want to create something that’s a time capsule for the music that I’m making and this visual representation of the songs and the window that I’m looking out at the world through at that point.” And I thought it’d be really cool to tattoo a guitar.
Tenille Townes on Writing with Her Songwriting Hero Lori McKenna
She’s truly so disarming and is just this beautiful human. And she’s one of those people where there is that saying of “don’t meet your heroes” and there are certain people where it’s like, “Okay, it’s best to just leave you in this bubble that I have.” But when it comes to Lori in person and creating with her has far surpassed any expectation I would’ve had of her even before. So she’s pretty special.
