Tenille Townes‘ new album, The Acrobat, is an intimate collection of tracks from Townes’ personal experiences and stories. Originally from Canada, Townes moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to kick-start her journey in the music industry. After two albums, two JUNO Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards, and 17 Canadian Country Music Association Awards, Townes is now releasing her first-ever album as an independent artist, having complete creative control from start to finish. The nine-track album showcases each song with a specific purpose and message that embodies the raw and close emotion that Townes conveys.
Townes is currently halfway through “The Living Room Tour,” which allows Townes to connect with fans in a close-knit environment by singing every song as an acoustic version, allowing Townes to go back to her roots of singing with only herself and her guitar, leaving the audience feeling closer to both the artist and the music.
Melodic Magazine had the opportunity to talk with Tenille Townes and get a closer look at the creative process and insights behind her new album.
Since you are currently in the middle of “The Living Room Tour,” what has it been like so far to get fans excited and ready for, The Acrobat?
It’s been so fun. This tour is literally kind of a dream. I was really nervous for these shows because they’re solo acoustic, but everybody’s just shown up with so much heart at these shows so far, and I’ve literally brought pieces of my living room on stage with me, so the whole experience feels a lot like home. And everybody’s just been very conversational.
I’ve been taking requests, and I’ve been sharing a few new songs from the album as well, and it’s wild. We played one a couple of weeks ago, and there’s this group of girls like screaming a brand new song at the top of their lungs, and it meant the world to me. It’s so cool to see people excited.
On The Acrobat, you had your hands in every aspect, from mixing, recording, and production. What was the most exciting part of working on this album overall?
I started making this record because I was just making guitar vocals to decide which songs I really loved that I wanted to bring into the studio, and it came from a time where I was going through a lot of changes in my life, personally and career-wise, and I was taking the leap of returning to being an independent artist and was a little lost. And I started to strip away all the noise so that I could get back to the truth of the music underneath.
I got three or four songs into that process of just making guitar vocals on my own and I was like, “What if I just made the album like this?” I actually really love the kind of raw vulnerability that’s coming through in this, and it was kind of a practice in letting go, making this record, and not being attached to perfection. There’s no tuning on this album. This is very much organic and just sort of the song delivered as I would sing it live.
I learned how to put bass on a track and learned how to add a little bit of mandolin, it was my first time kind of exploring self-production like that. I really learned a lot from this process, and I’m really proud of how it ended up turning out. So it kind of became this return to creative autonomy and taking things back into my own hands, and that feels good.
“The Acrobat” is an intimate album with beautiful storytelling, what gave you the inspiration to share the most honest and vulnerable side of your songwriting to date?
Honestly, the community of people out there who have been on this journey with me, like getting tickets to shows, supporting the music, and on the whole evolution of this ride. They very much gave me the courage to just build back that trust in myself and share more of the process. Because they’ve kind of been this group of cheerleaders.
It’s like, we are excited for whatever you do next and feeling that support gave me the courage to be able to try something different and new like this. Getting back to the basics of music and stripping it all away, just picking up a guitar, that’s how I started writing songs as a kid in my room. I feel like that was a healing process, getting back to the simplicity of that. I think it was a combination of this hunger to like trust my instincts again and this incredible community that’s been supporting this whole new independent journey. And I feel like the more I share and try to be honest about it, the more it feels so important to me because they’ve been so supportive.
Track 2, “The Acrobat,” has a feature with Grammy-winning writer Lori McKenna. What was it like to have that collaborative experience working together on that track specifically?
I love Lori so much. She’s literally my songwriting hero. When I first moved to Nashville, my dad helped me make the 47-hour drive from my hometown, and the first place that we got to go was to the Bluebird, and Lori McKenna was playing that night.
I just sat there, and I was so inspired by her writing. There were lines that she was saying that I just kept thinking about for days after the show. I just studied her work, and I’ve just been such a fan for so long. And she was at the top of my list of dream collaborators to write with one day and eventually, I kept writing songs and meeting people, and like, maybe seven or eight years later, I was sitting across from her in a writing room, and that was pretty wild.
She’s just become an incredible mentor to me and also just a really great friend and somebody who’s been just an encouraging force of good in my life. So I got to go to Boston to write a few of these songs with her a couple of years ago, and The Acrobat was one of those. It didn’t fit what I was releasing at the time, but I knew that this song would like raise its hand when it was time, and I’m so glad that’s now. But I started working on this record, and I was telling Laurie about it, and I was like, it would be insanely cool if you sang on The Acrobat with me. And I love that she comes in on the line that talks about the Fortune Teller, because she is this voice of wisdom to so many of us in the songwriting community. And I’m so grateful she said yes. It’s pretty surreal, full circle, to get to sing this song with her.
A lot of the album is about the trust of believing in yourself and having hope while taking that leap of faith. While this is your third album, it’s your first as an independent artist instead. What was the biggest change that you found while producing this album compared to your previous experience, before being independent?
I don’t think I was really thinking about it while it was happening, but for me, working on this record, I think it was really a healing journey to find my voice again because it was the only one around. Being surrounded by this awesome team of people, I had such a great experience in the major label system. It just kind of ran its course for me. And I was looking forward to a way to be able to release music that wasn’t kind of waiting on the timelines of the system and waiting for green light approvals to keep getting the vision going. The ability to take this back into my own hands was, at first, really disorienting without that village of people around and all those opinions. And it was like every decision that I made
In that process helped strengthen my own intuition again.
“We could use a little more,” is a heartwarming song to give the message of a need for more kindness and care for one another, and while you’ve been on tour, you have done performances at local schools and organizations to share that message of love and kindness. What has that been like so far to share that message with the younger generation?
This song is really special to me, and I wrote it because there’s so much going on in the world right now that I do not understand. Just holding on to that belief that the love that we’re made of is so much bigger than any of that. And I crave for more of that, and that’s why I wrote this song, but it’s been so special seeing people connect to this, and remember that love is so valuable, and I tried to put that in every aspect of the song. The music video was so special, having people show up and singing in the park, and the streams from the song and video are going to youth shelter initiatives, so every time they press play on the song, they’re supporting them. I think we need each other more now than ever, and I’m glad this song can shed light on that.
How has moving from Canada to Nashville transformed or inspired your songwriting?
This is like the heart of songs, and this town is unparalleled. If you let it, it will sharpen your arrow. There’s no way not to become a better writer just by being influenced and inspired by the community of people who are just masters of the craft here. I was going to all the songwriting rounds I could do, standing in line, and just studying these absolute masters of songwriting and trying to be a sponge for that. That’s my favorite part about Nashville, the creative community and the people who are the architects of songs. And I still feel inspired by that to this day. Every time I get to write with someone, I’m always learning something new from them or thinking, “That’s such an interesting way to look at that.” It’s really cool that now I get to call a lot of those people I used to study with, friends, and people I get to write with now.
Out of all nine tracks from the album, which one is your personal favorite?
One of them, “she plays the piano,” which was inspired by visiting my grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s, and this woman was sitting and playing the piano, although she doesn’t remember her own name, and feeling how incredible that music can remember who we are even when we can’t. That song is very close to my heart. Also, “in love with the sky,” which is another song I collaborated with Lori on, and how music was my first love, so I’m glad it’s on the album too.
You’re already halfway done with “The Living Room Tour.” What has been your favorite city to tour in so far, and which city are you looking forward to?
They’ve all been wonderful! There was a crowd in Kingston, Ontario, that felt really special to me. There is my Nashville release show with pretty cool surprises that I am looking forward to doing. As well, we have two shows that we are playing with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and I’ve never gotten to do that before, playing with sixty people on stage, all being a part of this wall of song. I am really excited for that too.
What is the overall theme you wish fans would take away from this album?
I really hope that by sharing the heart of the mess and the honesty it took to get there, there would be songs that make people feel more at home with themselves, and that everyone can feel less alone. That’s really my whole goal with this record and with the music I make.
What three words would you use to describe “The Acrobat”?
Return. To. Self.
Readers can listen to Tenille Townes’ new album, “The Acrobat,” on all platforms.
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