[ad_1]
On the cover of Ingrid Andres’ new album, Good man, as well as in the videos for the project, the singer-songwriter repeatedly returns to the calm and introspective depths of the water. The album cover features Andres floating in a swimming pool, while the video for “Pain” was shot in a lake in Nashville during cooler weather earlier this year, and the video for “Blue” also features a water theme.
“The next album I’m like, ‘Let’s do a Hawaii-themed album,'” Andres jokes during a Zoom call with billboard, before reflecting, “Nature is healing and there are so many parallels to what we go through in humanity. The whole idea of the album is dark versus light. For me, the visuals should tell as much of a story as the song.”
Good manout Friday via Atlantic/Warner Music Nashville, finds Andres turning his earthy and ethereal voice to songs coming to terms with life as it is and pondering how it could be.
In “Pain,” written with Ellis and Laura Welz, Andres offers reflection as a balm for life’s emotional disconnections and separations. “No pain/ How will you know what things to change/ And what stays the same?” she sings.
2020 saw Andres fly high with five top Country Airplay hits (“More Hearts Than Mine”), multiple Grammy nominations and critical acclaim for his debut album Lady Like. But just as she was opening shows for pop-country duo Dan + Shay, the pandemic forced the artists to spend a long period off the road. But what this period stole in the live performance was giving time to reflect and delve deeper into the songwriting.
“I’m very autobiographical,” says Andres, who is managed by rogue’s Blythe Scokin and is booked by WME. “I had time and my life was changing. I started writing about this project maybe a week later Lady Like come out.”
Andres co-wrote and co-produced every song Good manreuniting with Lady Like collaborators Sam Ellis and Derrick Southerland, but also expands her musical palette. “Issues” hitmaker Julia Michaels co-wrote “Feel Like This,” while Grammy-winning writer-producer Shane McAnally co-wrote “Blue” and “Yearbook.”
“I’ve always been dying to work with them, so it was a really beautiful thing to meet them, to work with them, to become friends with them,” Andres says. “I always try to be in a room with people who are better than me. They took what I already have as a writer and expanded on it.
“I’ve always liked her songs,” Andres says of Michaels. “I appreciate how she stays true to her writing style. I think that’s what creating an icon is, being able to identify, ‘Oh, that’s a Julia song.'” Meanwhile, she admires McAnally that “so many songs that I love have [his] name on it — ‘Space Cowboy’ by Kacey Musgraves, ‘Drinkin’ Problem’ by Midland, all very clever puns that I like to make.’
Andres was writing with JP Saxe, who was dating Michaels at the time. Through this connection, Michaels traveled to Nashville and met with Andres for a writing session. “We were both in the beginning stages of new relationships and we were just channeling that feeling of being in love,” she explains. “We went through the same thing from toxic exes to finding a new healthy relationship. Also, we both write in a similar way, so it was like, “I like that line, love.” that line.’ It was a quick write.
The idea for “Blue” came from watching videos of previously colorblind children seeing color for the first time in their lives.
“The videos are so emotional; you can’t help but cry when you see them. I just felt we were taking [seeing color] taken for granted and I thought, “I guess it’s the same as love. When it’s going well, it’s easy to take it for granted. Love is like a color. When you don’t have it, you don’t think you’re missing anything. But once you see it, you’re like, “Where have I been?”
This time, Andres also uses a broader sound theme with a range of instruments, including a vocoder on “Good Person”.
“I’m sure Sam was terrified at first because I came in like a tornado wanting to try all these new things,” she says. “But what I love about him is that he’s with me. I was on a mission the other day. I wanted to try a vocoder on something. The song was written on guitar, no songs were used. Then we went into production mode and just felt like it had to be droney, vibey, because it’s such an introspective song. I didn’t want a lot of things going on in the background to distract, but I wanted to feel like you were floating. It questions the meaning of life, and I wanted it to feel like a higher concept and sound like a brainspace.”
“Good Man” was inspired by society’s increased use of the Internet in the early days of the pandemic — and falls into civil exchange.
“We couldn’t see people in person and I just saw the intense increase in canceling and screaming in the comment sections,” she recalled. “It was fascinating — and it made me wonder, like, ‘Am I a good person? And what does it mean? And it just made my brain go wild like, “I guess religious people think they’re good people, but they also don’t accept everyone.” For me, at the end of a four-day, mentally debilitating spiral, I was like, “No I know what it means to be a good person – and maybe that should be the song, just asking that question.”
She says the pandemic has made her “not so caught up in people’s anger because I think most of us are doing our best and that looks different for everyone. I want everyone to find happiness in their lives and that looks different for everyone.”
She also introduces audiences to her new collection of songs as she opens Keith Urban’s Speed of Now world tour, which runs through November.
“It’s definitely on my bucket list to write with him while we’re there,” Andres says. “We’ve got until November, so we’ll see.” In the meantime, she says spending those months on the road observing Urban’s creative vision has helped her improve her own live shows.
“I was able to find out details about how to set up my own set, like, ‘Oh, maybe these visual effects don’t quite fit that emotion in the song,’ or ‘I feel like I shouldn’t be belting out three songs in a row because this it’s exhausting,” she says. “We’ve changed the kit a few times but I think we’ve got it dialed in now. It was interesting to think about it that way because he changes his sets every night.
Before moving to Nashville to pursue her career, Colorado-born Andres was set on pursuing comedy in Los Angeles until one of her instructors at Berklee College of Music, songwriter Cara DioGuardi, encouraged her to focus on writing of songs, which prompted Andres’ decision to move to Nashville instead. The move paid off and she initially launched her career as a songwriter, including Charli XCX’s ‘Boys’.
She still harbors comedic aspirations, both through music and acting.
“I would like to find other creative ways to use my songs in other formats,” she says, naming the name Yellowstone and Hacks as two series she would like to contribute to. “I don’t know if I could play in something like that yellowstone, because I’m more of a comedy person. Put me in something like that Parks and recreation areas and I would like it.’
[ad_2]
Source link