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Maddie & Tae

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Annette: Hi Maddie, hi Tae, how are you?

Maddie & Tae: We are great, how are you!?

Annette: Really good! We are having a heatwave in England! It’s not like you get in America but, gosh, it’s boiling here today! We need to go fishing!

Maddie & Tae: Yeh, for sure!

Annette: So where are you girls today?

Maddie & Tae: We are in Nashville right now.

Annette: Ah, I am headed there tomorrow actually! I was looking at your tour schedule… You girls are so busy and visiting so many states, how are you enjoying the travelling side of it?

Maddie & Tae: Travelling is really fun, it definitely gets exhausting, but we are just trying to rest as much as we can. We actually get to be home in Nashville for 2 days, today and tomorrow, so… Most of the time we get to be home like once a week or twice every 2 weeks. That’s our saving grace with the travelling but it’s worth it because we get to do what we love!

Annette: Oh my gosh, what a career you have had already. Now, obviously I couldn’t talk to you girls without talking about ‘Girl In A Country Song’. I think that is what all the fans want to know about. When did you firs realise that this song was going to be a big thing?

Maddie & Tae: Thank you! We wrote it on Saint Patrick’s Day 3 years ago, maybe 2! It’s pretty amazing to write a song like that and then get the success like that because we honestly had no idea. The moment I think we realised “ok, this is our song!” was, we had turned it into our publishing team. Not knowing what was going to come about because, like I said, we didn’t even know it would be what it is or even it if would be released. As soon as we turned it in, we saw the look on their faces, and they were like “ok, we are going to call Scott [Borchetta]” because he is the label head at Big Machine. He is the master behind that! They said they were going to call him and have him come to one of our shows and hear us play that song. From that moment on, as soon as we played it for Scott and saw his reaction… He was just laughing hysterically! I think we knew that we had something special in our hands. We are so thankful that they got on board and released it!

Annette: Did you ever feel nervous about some of these ‘redneck Romeo’… What these other people would think about it who you were having this little joke with?

Maddie & Tae: Yeh, we were a little bit nervous. Just because it was such a bold statement. But for the most part we don’t really let our fears determine our music and the way that we write our music. So we figured, you know, hopefully this will relate to at least one person in the world! It turned out relating to a lot of people and a lot of people agreed with us too which is really cool. We just felt really grateful that Nashville and the country music industry really embraced us the way that they did with such a bold message. So we are really grateful for that and that is something that we are always gonna do which is write from the heart and how we are feeling. Be as honest as we possibly can.

Annette: Which is fantastic! I have a teenage daughter so in a way you are already a role model to her and that is such a great thing just coming from a personal point of view. Sometimes when a new artist has a really big first song, everyone takes a breath and thinks…. What’s going to come up? What can be as good as that first song and you have proven to everybody what a strong album you have had. How important was it for you for getting the right songs and the right order on the album?

Maddie & Tae: Absolutely, very, very important because of what you said, you know. We want to release a good song but also have content to follow that up with and that is exactly what we tried to do along the way, to tell a story. We have been writing together since we were 15 so we have a lot of stories that we were very passionate about but it really just came down to the songs that we felt best describes our journey for the past 4 or 5 years. Whether it has to do with leaving home, or Maddie’s high school bully, going fishing, love, or heartbreak all of that. It’s really neat that we got to tell that story and prove to people that we are more than just ‘Girl In A Country Song’,

Annette: Absolutely and I think you have done that wonderfully. So the main reason we are getting to talk to you is that you guys are coming back to the UK. You were here for Country2Country, how did that measure up, was it how you expected?

Maddie & Tae: Well, Country2Country is basically the reason we are coming back because it was such an incredible experience. It was no anything that we expected, we had never been to the UK so we didn’t know how many people would show up for our set, how many people would applaud, how many people would really listen to what we were saying and singing. The experience was so incredible that we had to come back and we didn’t really have a great amount of time that wasn’t already booked up this year so we scrapped a couple of things in October so we could come out and spend some more time with our UK fans because the experience was so incredible we want really know what to expect so now we are excited to play a few more intimate venues and get to know our UK fans even better.

Annette: Absolutely, the day they came out on presale my 15 year old daughter was like: “Mum. You have to get tickets!”. We are coming to see you in Bristol and we are really looking forward to it. This is probably quite hard because you have had so many great experiences. Have you got one so far that has just made you go “wow, I really am living my dream!”?

Maddie & Tae: One of the most breath taking experiences for us was when we got to play the LP Field in Nashville for CMA Fest last year (2015). There was 70,000 people there were lights and screaming and you could just see the excitement on their faces. We have never experienced anything like that. We have experienced great audiences but 70,000 people is pretty breath taking and I think it just goes to show that if we stick to our guns and stay true to who we are then that stuff can happen.

Annette: Fantastic! Now we asked some of our readers to come up with some questions for you so we have a couple of those if that is ok! If you were characters in a movie or a book who would you be and why?

Tae: If I was a fictional character… I am going to have to go for Elena from Vampire Diaries!
Maddie: I want to be…… Serena from Gossip Girl because her clothes are so awesome and I just started liking New York! I didn’t really like it at first but I think I would like it if I were her!

Annette: Excellent! When have you felt the most challenged, the most daunted about what is going on with you?

Maddie & Tae: I feel like now is a big challenge because we are in between albums right now so we are trying to make sure that our fans are still really engaged and really excited about what we are doing. Also trying not to give away too much about the new music. It is challenging being on the road all the time and still trying to write for the second record. So it is a good challenge, it is a cool growing experience. It is really figuring out how to be songwriters and artists and travelling and all of those things. It is challenging but it is very fun!

Annette: So this one must have come from a super fan and her name is Meghan. She says what is the relevance of ‘purple elephant’?

Maddie & Tae: I remember being in 5th grade and we had to come up with a little skit or a part of a play or either sing. Our school was singing some song and I had no idea what it was and we had a really short amount of time to learn it so our teacher said you can just mouth ‘purple elephant’ and it will look like you are singing what everyone else was singing!

Annette: And finally, I know we are getting near to the end of our time! You are talking about being in-between albums, so you are writing at the moment and getting ready for that next album?

Maddie & Tae: Yes actually when we get off the phone with you we are writing today and tomorrow. We are really excited, getting to talk to people about the new record. What we are doing is we are kind of hitting the ground running with the writing process because we have most of the album but as writers you are always trying to beat what you already have so we are really excited to see what we write today! So when we see you in the UK we will have to show you the song that we write today!

Annette: Absolutely! Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to me. I look forward to seeing you in Bristol and you never know maybe bumping into you in Nashville some time!

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