In the very special new issue of Music Week we welcome country star Maren Morris to our cover ahead of releasing her incredible second major label album, Girl, on March 8 via Columbia.
Back in 2017, Morris told Music Week all about her journey from early self-released albums and failed auditions for American Idol and The Voice through to her breakout success with the Grammy-winning, double-platinum single My Church. For our latest interview we go in-depth on the making of Girl, while also finding out her views on the imbalance of female representation on country radio, therapy and what she’s learned from some of her peers like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift.
The lead single/title track – which features production from Greg Kurstin (Adele, Foo Fighters) – was streamed 3.3 million times in its first week, while its video directed by the legendary Dave Meyers (Ariana Grande, Kendrick Lamar, Pink) also surpassed a million views in just over seven days. It also comes hot on the heels of her huge 2018 crossover collaboration with Zedd, The Middle which stands on over 621 million streams on Spotify alone.
On hand to shed light on the campaign in the feature is Janet Weir of 42 Entertainment/Red Light Management. Here, in an unread extract from our cover feature interview, Weir reflects on her journey with Morris so far…
When do you and Maren start working together?
“I started managing her in May 2015, and the first time we released music was in July of that year. That was My Church independently via Spotify – before the label [got involved]. At the time Maren was starting to transition from being a songwriter back to an artist. I remember hearing her music and it just felt so distinctive. The first song I ever heard was Sugar – the first song on the her debut. It was so distinctive, like, ‘I can’t tell if it is country, I can’t tell if it’s pop – it’s a mixture of both’. It was both her vocals and her songwriting that I just fell in love with. I kept playing it in my car over and over. I would just keep flying to Nashville for us to spend time together; we got along as friends and she was starting to seriously think about being an artist. Because I had shown so much passion from the very beginning and loved her songs, it was actually a pretty natural progression. Shortly after that, I was travelling back and forth from Nashville to LA. We released music independently at first and as soon as we did that, of course, all the labels wanted to meet and sign her. I moved to Nashville pretty much straight away. It was July 2015, when we released My Church independently and shortly afterwards we moved.”
Did you know My Church would be a hit?
“One hundred per cent. With My Church there was no doubt. I heard it the first time in the car and I was so emotionally moved by it. I loved it so much. We were both very protective of it. There was never a doubt that as soon as we put it out there it was going to react. We actually had a friend I was working with at Spotify who’ve I’ve known for a long time. Maren and I played him the song and he was like, ‘Let me help you build a real story’. We mapped out a whole plan and I don’t think at the time anyone else was really doing that with Spotify in Nashville. It was pretty wild.”
We released music independently at first and as soon as we did that, of course, all the labels wanted to meet and sign her
Janet Weir
Why do you work so well together?
“From day one we went with our gut instinct on decisions. For me personally, I’ve been in management for over 20 years and she’s gone from being an artist to songwriter to artist. We both had this enormous amount of experience together, but our shot came for each of us at the same time with each other. When I met her, I moved my family to Nashville, but I also said, ‘I’m not going to manage anyone else for a long time because I just really want to give this all of my attention and focus’. In the past I’ve always had multiple clients working for management companies at the same time, but I decided this would be the one I wanted to give everything. I just felt like she deserved it. I manage her husband Ryan Hurd now, and one other developing artist, but I like to keep my roster small. I like to be really hands on. I don’t like to have a lot of middle men or women between my clients and I. It’s just such a personal relationship and I just think that’s something that’s really important to me. She’s just the most amazing business and creative partner.”
What does Girl say about Maren as an artist right now?
“It’s pretty clear that Maren has something to say. The Bones is my favourite song right now, but it changes all the time. It just speaks to the foundation of all relationships. It’s very inspiring to me, it is every day. It inspires me [to think] about who I am and how I want to build relationships with people.”
Morris cover feature leads up Music Week’s Nashville 2019 special – which also includes interviews with the CMA’s Milly Olykan, Country To Country Festival’s Chris York, rising star Kassi Ashton, Sony/ATV Nashville’s Troy Tomlinson and Lady Antebellum. Subscribers can read the feature in full here.
Photo: Jamie Nelson
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