Hiya Ainsley, thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
What made you decide that music is a thing for you?
Hi there! Thanks so much for taking the time to sit down with me! I always inherently knew that music was my thing because I grew up around it. My dad went to LA in the 90’s to do the same thing I’m doing here in Nashville, but even when he settled down and got a day job, some of my earliest and most formative memories are of going to see him at local bars and restaurants in his own cover bands when I was really little.
But if I had to pinpoint one moment, I would say when I was 3 or 4, I remember listening to Alison Krauss in the car with my dad one night. I don’t remember which song it was; I want to say it was ‘Forget About It’, but it was a song of hers I hadn’t heard before, and I asked my dad if it was her. He looked at me with this look of “how did this tiny child recognize that voice so quickly?” I remember him being so impressed and how good that made me feel that I decided I wanted to be a singer the next day and haven’t look back!
Introduce us to you all and your musical history.
I was born in Sarasota, Florida, and I lived there until I was 11, but now I say that I’m Seattle, Washington because it’s the place I feel the most soul-connected to. It’s where music really started for me, I wrote my first songs there, I played my first gigs, and traveled to play shows for the first time from there.
Then when I was 15 we moved to Nashville after the past few years of me begging my parents with puppy dog eyes if we could. But we got there about 20 minutes before the pandemic hit so as you can image the first year was pretty bumpy. But even though it was hard, that year I got super connected to the Nashville songwriting scene and truly learned to hone my craft and revere the art of songwriting. Since moving to Nashville, I’ve written somewhere around 300 songs, and have been able to use it as my home base for touring.
I put out my first album when I was 15 that was super pop country, then in 2021 I put out a song a month that in my eyes was the equivalent of my second album that started to lean more indie, singer/songwriter-ish, and every year since then I’ve continued to get closer and closer to my ideal sound which is pretty squarely pop rock, and that’s lead to the upcoming release of my new album EXLESS which is coming out on May 9th!
What’s the live music scene like in Nashville right now? Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
The Nashville music scene is one huge melting pot of style and influence. Of course, everyone thinks of country music first when Nashville comes to mind, but there are so many cool pockets of rock and jazz and funk popping up and it’s really exciting to see and just be an active fan of. A few artists you should keep an eye out for are some of my best girlfriends, Emily D’Ranged, ARREIS, JoJo Scott, and Kathryn! They’re all so different and unique, and not what you would expect to see come out of Nashville.
I’ve seen a lot of people struggling for support recently online. What’s your view on the industry?
As a whole, I think the music industry is really broken right now. The past five years or so, the higher ups in music have become so focused on TikTok as a means of discovery, and are completely casting aside insanely talented, and ready for prime-time acts because they don’t have massive followings, when historically, that’s what record labels are supposed to help you cultivate.
Labels would rather spend their time working with people who have gone viral on TikTok for one song, who haven’t put in their 10,000 hours, and then everyone is shocked when you put a TikTok star on the road and they can’t pull off an original set because singing on stage with a full band and putting on a performance isn’t just singing to yourself in your bedroom. Discovery is also irrevocably broken. Getting on Spotify editorials, the radio, even having an “organic” viral moment is all pay to play and blocked by scores and scores of gatekeepers. It’s really disheartening and makes it so much harder to find your fans. These are things I’ve been going up against headfirst the past five years of living in Nashville.
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
My very first singing teacher in Florida told me “When you feel like you’re at a wall, that’s when you’re about to have a breakthrough” and I feel like that pretty much sums up where I feel I sit. I feel like I’m at the precipice of the next level, whatever that is, waiting for the bubble to burst. It’s a weird but exciting spot to be in.
Tell us two truths and a lie about you.
I graduated from college when I was 19, I love working out, and I’ve played over 200 shows in 20+ states. I’m sure the lie is easy to spot.
Do you ever worry about people taking things the wrong way or cancel culture? Discuss….
Of course, it’s something I worry about all the time. Being a part of the first generation that really grew up on the internet, it’s ingrained in my brain that you’re not really allowed to make mistakes in this day and age without getting publicly eviscerated or cancelled for it, since every mistake, big or small, seems to be recorded or captured for the whole world to see.
Every time I make a post online or am speaking on a panel that gets recorded, I’m uber aware (and uber anxious) about everything I say, knowing that you can’t please everyone, and some things are inevitably going to get taken out of context. Even when I know I have nothing to be anxious about, my mind is always working overtime going over everything I’ve ever said that could potentially be “cancellable” one day. That’s one of the biggest problems I have with social media today, the unintended consequences that stir up so much anxiety that my generation has taken the brunt of.
Do you sign up to any conspiracy theories? If not, why not?
Haha, not really. There’s so much sadness and complexity and nuance that we see happen in the world every day that I try not to spend what little free time I have thinking about what other bad stuff is going on that we don’t know about for my own mental health and peace of mind.
What was your best experience on stage?
I have to say my best experience on stage so far has been playing Kiwi Country Day Camp in upstate New York. I’ve played it twice and am going back a third time this July, but the first time I played there, 600 screaming kids followed me around all day like paparazzi and then they knew the words to my songs when I performed for them.
I’ve never had that happen before where a crowd knew all the words to my songs, so it was so surreal and special since they’d been playing my music at the camp in the weeks leading up to my performance. I had my first on stage fall the first time I played Kiwi, but it was a glorious, awesome moment, so I would say that the fall even contributed to that show being as wonderful as it was.
What was your worst experience on stage?
My worst experience on stage happened just recently, I didn’t know it at the time but I’m 99% sure I played a show with Covid. I had this sinking feeling when I woke up, I could just feel that my throat was all messed up, but it became more apparent when I was getting ready in the green room a few hours later, doing my makeup and warming up. I got so achy and lethargic, and my warmups were super crunchy and raspy. Then when I got on stage, a huge portion of my normal range was blocked off, so I had to adjust what I was doing on the fly and sing the lower harmonies of some of the parts in my songs to just get through. But then I got In N Out burger afterwards so that was the real prize of the day.
Tell us something about you that you think people would be surprised about.
I think people would be surprised to know that I had an atypical schooling experience. I graduated high school at 16, and started taking courses at Berklee College of Music online when I was 15, that lead me to be able to graduate early at 19. My thought process was, I’m already doing what I know I’ll be doing for the rest of my life, why wouldn’t I just fast track the school part?
What are the next steps you plan to take as a band to reach the next level?
My goal for this year is just to tour, tour, tour! And being openminded to new opportunities and possibilities is so important so you don’t miss out on alternative routes into your dream life. In the past year and a half or so my music has become synonymous with the podcasting space, RSS, Nostr, and lightning enabled technologies, and it’s lead to some amazing opportunities I never would have had otherwise.
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
I do have new music! My new album EXLESS will be out on May 9th and I could not be more excited about it. The ethos that I had when writing the project was to write the songs I didn’t grow up hearing. The messages I always remember hearing on the radio when I was young were “I’m sad my boyfriend broke up with me” or “I don’t feel like I have as much worth now that I’m single” and I just got so tired of that. Of course,
I’m sure I’ll write those kinds of songs when I’m experiencing that, but as a young woman who has been actively putting myself and my dreams first for as long as I can remember, I wanted to write songs that honored this phase of life I’m in (pursuing my dreams and having fun by myself and with my friends), and to set a different precedent in the messages that young girls today will grow up hearing.
If I’m ever lucky enough to have a bunch of young girls listening to my music, I want to instill the notion in them that they never have to be ashamed for not having been in a relationship by a certain time in their lives, and to put themselves and their dreams first before any boy/girl or romantic relationship. I think the messages we consume from a young age can impact our sense of self-worth and how we view and carry ourselves for a long time, and I want to be a part of changing the narrative of how we speak to and uplift the next generation of young women. And that’s what the song EXLESS is all about, so once I’d written that song, it acted as the lighthouse for the rest of the project.
What was the recording process like?
Long, but so much fun and so worth it. I was writing and recording these songs for almost three years by the time this album will come out. I was privileged enough to write the title track of the album with my friends Nathan Dohse and Nick Wheeler of the All American Rejects, and it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had recording a song. We tracked it at Nick’s beautiful home studio here in Nashville between mine and his (albeit more intensive) touring schedules in 2023. My other good friend, Christian produced of couple of songs on this album, and that was so much fun because we’ve done so much music together at this point that it just feels like second nature working with him.
What was the biggest learning curve in writing the new tunes?
I would say the biggest learning curve in writing these new songs was learning about where to draw the line between compromising on what my collaborators thought was good for the song, and where to fight for what I knew what I wanted to say and communicate as an artist and as an artistic statement.
I am always afraid that if I put my foot down (politely), and say that I don’t like something and that I think it should be this other line or word or concept entirely, that my collaborators will get upset with me or think I’m not easy to work with and then won’t want to work with me again.
But that isn’t always the case, sure some collaborators will get butthurt over something small, but the ones who are worth continuing to work with are the ones who will honor what you want to say as an artist and will help mold and craft the message with you until it’s what you want to say. Getting over my own anxiety about that was probably the biggest challenge in writing these songs.
Would you change anything now that it’s finished?
In a perfect world, I would have loved to have more songs on the album because God knows I have them, but being an indie artist is so expensive, it’s upwards of $1500+ dollars to create one song. And because I’m balling on a budget, I definitely had to pick and choose which songs I felt like where the most important to this chapter of my life, and the story of this album. But even though I had to be choosy and didn’t get to put every song on this album that I loved, I am still so proud of it as a whole and think it’s a really cohesive and meaningful project.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
My new song EXLESS, which is the title track to my upcoming album is coming out on 3/14, and the full album will be out on 5/9! I have so many fun shows and appearances in the works right now, so head over to my website www.ainsleycostello.com to stay updated!
My Instagram is @ainsleycostello_official my TikTok is @ainsleycostello and my Twitter is just @ainsleymusic07. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me!
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