Nation artist Caylee Hammack surrenders to disappointment and embraces progress on her brand-new album and novel of the identical identify, ‘Mattress of Roses,’ a deeply private exploration of heartbreak, therapeutic, and the knowledge gained alongside the best way.
Stream: ‘Mattress of Roses’ – Caylee Hammack
Caylee Hammack has by no means been one to hurry the method, and her long-awaited sophomore album proves that good issues take time.
With Mattress of Roses (out March 7th by way of Capitol Information), the Georgia-born nation artist leans into the normal nation sounds that first formed her, crafting a file that feels each deeply private and timeless.
It’s a marked shift from her glossier debut, whose R&B and pop parts gave it a extra ‘trendy nation’ really feel. Mattress of Roses, alternatively, remembers the sounds of Bobby Gentry, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Hammack even reimagines The Highwaymen’s tune, “Mammas Don’t Let Your Infants Develop As much as Be Cowboys” together with her “Mamas.” Hammack’s songwriting has additionally grown, one thing she attributes to her writing an accompanying e-book of the identical identify, the place every chapter is a few tune on the album.
Hammack’s debut album If It Wasn’t For You got here out as COVID hit in 2020, and like many artists, she felt like all that potential and risk had been extinguished right away.
Born and raised within the small city of Ellaville, Georgia, Hammack taught herself to sing and play guitar as a teen. At age 18, she obtained a scholarship to go to Nashville-based Belmont College, however turned it down for a boy she was in love with, and whom the tune “Small City Hypocrite” is about:
And that scholarship was a ship that sailed
After I selected you and daddy gave me hell
I made myself into another person
simply to like you, rattling I cherished you
Took all my plans and I put ’em in a field
Phantom pains for the wings I misplaced
Had me circling rings within the catalogs
For seven years and also you by no means bought the trace
For those who haven’t heard the tune, we propose you sit down with a field of tissues. Hammack tells the story of that sort of naïve love you’ll be able to solely expertise as a teen. “Small City Hypocrite” confirmed Hammack’s prowess as a songwriter and vocalist, and in my view, it’s the stand-out monitor on her debut.
They are saying it takes your complete life to jot down your first file, and solely a yr to jot down your second. In Hammack’s case, she took 5 years, and in her thoughts, that was the very best resolution.
Co-produced by Hammack alongside Dann Huff and John Osborne of The Brothers Osborne, Mattress of Roses has been a very long time coming for her followers, however Hammack has been engaged on it a technique or one other in these intervening years. Whereas her debut was indignant, passionate, and had a disappointment that was like recent like a wound, Mattress of Roses is the older sister: Calmer, accepting, and unhappy, but with a melancholic twinge that involves life on songs like “No I Ain’t,” “Oh Kara,” and “Tumbleweed Males.”
Atwood Journal met Caylee Hammack one afternoon in New York. She was sporting a fantastically knitted cardigan coated in handstitched yellow roses, her fiery pink hair tucked behind her ears.
Hammack joked, “I spent an excessive amount of cash on it to not put on it!” We talked about her sophomore file, the accompanying e-book of the identical identify, and the significance of studying to like your self earlier than attempting to like anybody else.
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A CONVERSATION WITH CAYLEE HAMMACK
Atwood Journal: Thanks for agreeing to talk with us! I have been eager to interview you for some time. I cherished your debut album, If It Wasn’t for You. It was so totally different to plenty of nation music popping out at the moment. Your new album could be very totally different to your earlier file. You’ve stated you wished to return a conventional nation sound, as you felt like the primary file was possibly barely too pop, a bit too polished. I’ve listened to each data side-by-side – If It Wasn’t For You seems like a younger disappointment, whereas Mattress of Roses is extra about accepting of the disappointment, quite than combating in opposition to it.
Caylee Hammack: I’m getting higher at discovering the blessings throughout the issues that I might even see as heartbreak loss, , the cursed second of my life, questioning why it’s occurring. It’s good to be sort of be on the opposite aspect of it.
I’ve had 5 years to essentially come to phrases with among the heartbreaks I’ve skilled and the teachings I’ve discovered alongside the best way. Having the ability to look again and discover the silver linings or see that a few of hurricanes I’ve via have helped me dramatically, so I attempted to translate that into the file as a result of I believe that at the very least once I’m hurting, it’s having the ability to sing alongside to a tragic tune that’s by some means just like the scenario I’m in. The file has some sort of melancholy with optimism simply twisted into the unhappy. That’s the stuff that will get me via. I’m a I’m a bit little bit of a melodrama addict, I assume.
I can’t consider it’s been 5 years since your final album. Wow!
Caylee Hammack: I had a Wile E. Coyote second simply because we had been on cloud 9, , I used to be touring each single weekend, two to a few nights; I used to be doing radio, press and media, and it simply felt like we had been on this curler coaster after which we went off the tracks. I sort of insulated and remoted in 2020, whether or not by alternative or pressured to throughout that point and I wrote lots, I discovered lots about myself.
I discovered lots about my backyard too. It stored me really. I do know this sounds foolish, however gardening and the birds in my yard that got here each time I whistled and crammed the chook feeder, that stored me going. I used to be obsessive about nature at the moment as a result of it was the one place I felt consolation. We may solely go on one stroll a day, so it will imply one thing.
It’s a type of issues that I’m grateful for it as a result of I believe I wanted to develop one thing. I bought to develop these songs organically. I wasn’t actually rushed. I’ve all the time heard that you’ve your whole life to jot down your first album, you then’ve bought a yr to jot down the following, and I bought 5 years.
I all the time foolheartedly consider that an artist is just not supposed to interrupt or make it huge till they’ve the suitable songs and sufficient songs to look again on. I all the time joke that I really like discovering artist on the second or third album as a result of then I don’t have like a four-song EP that I’m gonna put on out throughout the just a few months or one thing. I can return and dive via their discography and I get to know them higher.
I’m hoping that by attending to do a second album, fortunately not in a pandemic, I can get to know my followers higher they usually can get to know me as a result of they’ll see the place I’ve been and the place I’m now.
That is a superb perspective to have on it. I do know out of your social media gardening is an enormous ardour for you. You have referred to as this album Mattress of Roses; did nature encourage this album?
Caylee Hammack: Very a lot so. I all the time say, life is a mattress you make, you’ll be able to determine who you let in it, and you may determine who you kick out of it, however you can also make it up or you’ll be able to go away it messy. You get to make each day both heaven or hell for your self by your decisions, even when life throws issues at you, you will have the selection to attempt to look on the constructive aspect.
I’m simply obsessive about nature. I really like rising issues. I really like studying how one can develop issues and I really like natural farming and I’m somebody that loves permaculture. I’ve all of my roses in between my peas and my corn and my squash. I’ve every thing sort of rising collectively. A whole lot of crops really complement each other that we don’t learn about, and I believe having the ability to develop one thing, to place a seed within the floor and pour your time, persistence and love and care into it, after which see one thing develop and prosper.
For these 5 years, the one music I made was co-writing on buddies’ data or singing vocals behind the scenes, and as a lot as I cherished that, it didn’t absolutely full me the best way a full album did, so I cherished that I may retreat to my backyard throughout that point.
When did you begin writing for this file?
Caylee Hammack: Earlier than 2018, and I returned to it in 2020. We revised some issues, and I realised there was one thing particular there. There are songs that typically get caught in a folder of, ‘it doesn’t match this undertaking or that undertaking’, however the tune is actually me and I have to put it out.
“Breaking Dishes” got here round like that. There may be one other one on the file, “The Pot and The Kettle,” which was written in 2020-21. A few of them are more moderen. “Mattress of Roses” got here to be one of many final ones I wrote for the album.
I went in trying on the songs I wished to create. I knew I wished the sensation of the file to be a mattress of roses, and as somebody who has waited – I’m 30 now and I’ve waited my complete life for a person to convey me roses, not simply on a vacation, however as a result of he solely he considered me, and the entire time I may have simply grown my very own!
And now that’s what I’m doing. I wished to attempt to create one thing that had a bit silver lining. I needed to be taught the laborious means of how one can love myself greater than I give like to somebody I met just a few months in the past. ?
I needed to discover ways to reside with me and tending my backyard tended me. I’m restoring my home by hand myself, constructing, woodworking, constructing cabinets and placing in stair railings. It heals me as a result of I really feel as if I’m engaged on the within of me. I’m engaged on my coronary heart and my soul once I put money into myself.
I believe I’m lastly at some extent, , as somebody who, proper now I’m in a relationship that’s the sturdiest and finest man I’ve ever met in whole life.
It’s stunning to get to return and share these songs and go, ‘hey, there’s a constructive aspect of it, you’ll be able to really feel that means and someday you’re going to be comfortable and also you’re gonna have the ability to giggle about that heartbreak that you just went into the foetal place while you performed it on your finest good friend after writing it.’
What made you determine to jot down a e-book alongside the album?
Caylee Hammack: I used to be 13, and lengthy earlier than I ever thought I may very well be a musician, I began writing a e-book. I believe I bought to web page both 73 or 65, after which at 15, I began the following e-book and that was the identical. I simply keep in mind that this folder was stored of those two books I began at this younger age, and I gave up sooner or later as a result of one thing in me advised me, ‘You gained’t by no means have the ability to write this e-book’, ? Like ‘why are you doing this? You’re losing your time on this.’ I hate that.
They’re someplace on a laptop computer that I can’t activate anymore, however I preserve it in case possibly I can save them someday and look again and giggle.
It was so cool to get to jot down a e-book for me. I attempt to put a silver lining into my songs, even the unhappy ones, and I lastly bought to jot down a fortunately ever after, and it felt great.
I wished to jot down one thing that when girls or ladies learn it, they realise that she must take heed to her intestine, as a result of when she listens to her intestine, she makes the suitable selections and when she doesn’t, she walks down the improper paths. I believe that’s the one factor I actually wished to push ahead, is take heed to your self, particularly in moments of affection and attempting to determine love.
Each single chapter is likely one of the songs and that was a extremely cool factor, as a result of as somebody who loves Easter Eggs, oh man, it opened up a complete different world. I’ve a tune on the file referred to as “Cleopatra” and Chapter 6 can be referred to as Cleopatra. Within the Cleopatra chapter, I inform the story behind the tune via the character speaking to certainly one of her buddies and that was a cool little tie-in I bought to do. I’m so excited for folks to take heed to the album and browse the e-book and put collectively the little items that I’ve specified by there for them to search out and luxuriate in.
Did you discover it simpler to jot down a e-book, or was it only a totally different?
Caylee Hammack: It’s humorous, it was a big distinction however on the similar time it was… I get three minutes and 30 seconds usually to inform my story, that’s what they all the time inform you as a employees author to goal for, or much less, that may be even higher, ? However as a substitute, I’ve as much as 300 pages, and it simply allowed me to essentially dive into narrative and dialogue.
The cool factor was I observed I used to be listening to folks extra. As an alternative of placing on my sound isolating headphones and attempting to create silence.
When I’ve silence, my mind desires to make one thing. It’s determined. It’s annoying and aggravating. For those who simply need to sit nonetheless, I’ve to have one thing continually operating in my thoughts to only preserve my mind from making chatter.
So, I began taking my headphones off much more and listening to folks speak and the smallest little issues that individuals would say, the smallest colloquialism we might say, I’d sit there and go ‘oh, that’s the way you specific that feeling’.
I advised my boyfriend I used to be like, , this isn’t the final e-book I’m gonna write. I’m gonna write one other e-book. We, Carolyn Brown and I, went into it figuring out that it usually takes a yr at the very least, and we solely had two and a half months, as I wished it to come back out with the file.
Wow, that is superb. Solely two and a half months.
Caylee Hammack: I sat in my home in entrance of my fire, and I wrote for eight to 10 hours a day, and it was it was nice.
I regarded round and I realised I had a hoarder home *laughs*. I’d get a package deal, and I simply sit it on the bottom and return, ? I’d cook dinner dinner, put the dish within the seat, return as a result of the deadline quick approaching. I used to be like, ‘I can’t overthink it and I can’t sleep too lengthy, we gotta get this going.’ It feels so good it’s virtually in folks’s palms.
One of many tracks that I actually love is “Tumbleweed Males.” Are you able to speak about a bit about that tune?
Caylee Hammack: It’s so enjoyable to sing. I used to be listening to Mama Cass and there was a bit trill and please don’t let the nice life go you by, and it was so stunning, and I had began sort of attempting to choose one thing out.
I went right into a remedy session, and I used to be speaking about an especially emotionally unavailable man. God bless him, ? He simply was emotionally unavailable for me, which was a godsend ultimately, however on the time didn’t really feel prefer it, and I had my claws in. I used to be, ‘please love me’, ?
I used to be telling my therapist about it, and he lower me off as I’m saying, ‘oh, however he’s a superb man, he’s just a bit confused, he simply doesn’t know what he desires in life’. And, he stated, “you gotta discover ways to let go of the tumbeleweed males. They’re not gonna catch root, and also you’re speculated to have somebody that wishes to take root, and if you happen to preserve chasing these, you’re simply gonna preserve operating from when the suitable man comes alongside that wishes to quiet down and make these routes with you”, and it was true. I used to be I used to be operating after it, and I realised that I’ve to understand that tumbleweeds are speculated to go via the surroundings of my life, and I’ll watch them fade into the sundown.
That’s stunning. It’s a really visible tune and the bit on the finish the place the display screen door opens, and also you say, “And years from now, you’ll hear the display screen door slam, and surprise if it’s him, but it surely’ll solely be the wind.” It’s so heartbreaking. It additionally has a really ‘70s sound to the tune. After I was listening, I stored pondering of Carole King and Joan Baez, however after all, Bobby Gentry. The tune “No I Ain’t” seems like a twin of “Tumbleweed Males.” It’s the tune the place you point out your therapist and say, “for as soon as my therapist could be happy with me” for having boundaries.
Caylee Hammack: We had been listening to plenty of Bobby Gentry. John Osborne and I had been speaking about Bobby Gentry and actually earlier than we had that dialog, I didn’t realise what number of cool sounds she had. We undoubtedly leaned into the ‘70s feeling. I’m actually glad you pointed that out.
I had many the explanation why I picked Mattress of Roses because the title, however life is about studying how one can recognize the bloom of the flower and discover ways to respect it sufficient to seize it in the suitable locations and never lower your self on the thorns.
I believe that as a girl there’s a talent and a divine present that we can provide ourselves when you’ll be able to blossom and develop and permit your self to bloom in the suitable backyard, with the suitable gardener serving to handle your coronary heart. Additionally figuring out you could have wholesome boundaries and that’s the thorns that preserve you protected from undesirable pests or the undesirable issues coming into your life. There’s one thing stunning about this savageness and the sensualness of roses.
Are you able to speak about the way you recorded the album with John Osborne and Dan Huff? Did you file it in a single session or was it in segments?
Caylee Hammack: When John (Osborne) and I bought collectively it was a concentrated cluster of time. When Dan (Huff) and I bought collectively it was the identical. There was an area within the center the place I used to be beginning up my Sirius XM present and I used to be actually devoted to that, after which I began diving into writing and plenty of the writing in that interval had been the songs I introduced in to John.
It’s taken 5 years to get right here, however I’m grateful for each single yr as a result of I really feel I wanted it.
Getting in with Dan helped me turn out to be extra of the artist I wanted to be. Artists discover themselves in each tune they ever write, they usually ever produce, after which you end up much more while you play them each single evening. There’s a continuous progress within the technique of that change.
I can inform I discovered a lot. It’s extra so earlier than and after of myself as a author, as a musician, as an artist, and in addition a producer on issues. I bought to be taught a lot from each of them. I used to be modified in between each of these segments, and I believe getting these 4 songs in with Dan actually helped me begin homing in on the place the album goes, after which I used to be capable of write and actually focus in on, ‘how else do I need to inform this story?’
I need to speak concerning the previous ten years of discovering myself as a result of what number of ladies and men are going via these similar emotions and emotional processes of discovering themselves and looking for good love.
It it’s been a really transformational album for me. I’m so grateful for it. I hope another person feels the sensation I had making it.
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:: join with Caylee Hammack right here ::
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