Madelyn Rose is a new face in the country music scene. At just 17 years old, she is ready to take the scene by storm. Fueled with inspiration from the women who have come before her like Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert, she is well on her way. I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Madelyn about her career thus far, and her upcoming releases. Check out our exclusive interview below!
James Adamski: I know you have a new single coming out, so I want to ask you about that. But before we get into any of that, could you just tell our fans who've never really heard of you just who Madelyn Rose is, how you got started, and an overview of you as an artist?
Madelyn Rose: Yeah, for sure. So, my name's Madelyn Rose. I'm a country music artist and I started when I was 14. I'm now 17. I've been signed to VE Music in Nashville for about two years. I like to take an honest approach to my music and be super honest with my fans and show who I really am and hoping that they can relate to that.
From there, we took a different approach with this new upcoming EP from my last EP. My last EP Teenage Heartache was more of a sad, but relatable kind of approach to life. This is kind of the other side where you're coming out of a breakup, you're coming out of the sad parts, and you're starting to enjoy life again.
James Adamski: Awesome. So I've had a chance to listen to Teenage Heartbreaks, and I can definitely say that it tore my heartstrings a little bit. I'm out of the teenage heartbreaks, but it tore at my teenage soul a little bit.
Talk us through the process of how it's been working on this new EP. I know you have a new single dropping August 2nd called "Save It". If you could, talk us through the process of writing the song and making it happen. I'm assuming you wrote it yourself, correct?
Madelyn Rose: This one, I actually didn't.
James Adamski: Oh, you didn't?
Madelyn Rose: This was the first song that I've ever cut, so this is a little bit different for me, but I'm excited. So, putting together this EP, which is called Cowboys, we really wanted to do another smaller project that's just fun, relatable songs instead of super down and depressing. We wanted to ramp things up in my career, so I wrote Cowboys back in October, and I co-wrote that with Deanna Walker, who's in Nashville too. We wrote that over Zoom in New York.
I also have been trying to write as much as possible from that, me and my team and my parents. I just wasn't loving anything that I was writing, which was rare for me and kind of feeling a little bit burnt out on the writing spectrum. And so I'm like, "You know what? Let's see what other artists have out there." We looked through some catalogs and a lot of different websites. We spent hours and hours searching until we found "Save It" and another one that will be released in September.
They're just amazing songs. I am so excited to have them to my name. I'm so excited to be releasing them and they're just something different. You don't always have to write something to feel so passionate about it, but it stuck in my head versus all the other songs that I listened to. It was in my head all day and I'm like, "That's what I want my fans to listen to." So yeah, that's what we found out from trying to cut versus write a song.
James Adamski: Fair enough. Yeah, I mean, that's amazing. You said you're from New York, correct?
Madelyn Rose: Correct. Yep.
James Adamski: What drew you to country music? A lot of people are going to say, "What does a New Yorker know about country music?" So what drove you to kind of take a step in that direction?
Madelyn Rose: Great question. So I'm actually in central New York, not the city. We say there are more cows and people where we live. It's very rural. We live actually right in the Finger Lakes, so more water than land. But, around here, you're either a farmer, a sheriff, or a schoolteacher. We are in a tourist town, so everyone comes in for the summer to enjoy the lakes, enjoy the good weather, all that good stuff.
But yeah, so from living in a small town, I've always, always been pulled towards country. That's what I always grew up on. I used to watch CMT music videos when I was a toddler, and I would just sit there, watch Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood and others right on CMT. I've always, always been drawn to country.
James Adamski: That's amazing. I listened to your single you released in June called "Cowboys". It was a fantastic song by the way.
Madelyn Rose: Thank you so much.
James Adamski: I got a Miranda Lambert early 2000s feeling about it. Do you think you lean more towards that early 2000s kind of country sound, or are you trying to branch to something else? Where do you see your sound and your music going from here?
Madelyn Rose: I am trying to bring back the amazing music from the 2000s. So it's funny that you say that. I love the early 2000s, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, and even Jamie O'Neill. Not that I don't love today's country, but I feel like the 2000s was prime time for country and pop. But yeah, so with that sound, it's kind of like a twangy sassy feeling, and a lot of the music that was released during that time was more women's empowering country, which I think is rare.
So, I've always loved that time in music and what you'll see with the next two releases that we did, they have such a 2000s vibe. If you think "Cowboys" is very throwback (which is only 20 years ago, but throwback nonetheless), the next two singles are going to blow you away. It feels like down home; it feels like Jo Dee Messina. Like I said, a lot of the country artists were just in their prime time during that time. So yeah, that's what I kind of wanted to bring back.
James Adamski: You touched on the fact that it is going in a different direction from that modern country. I mean, today in the country world, you got Ashley McBride, Morgan Wade. Tthose are kind of your rough and tumble kind of female country artists that are the badass, kick the door down kind of female country music. Is that something that you'd want to go into or are you like, "Nope, I like the 2000s kind of sound?"
Madelyn Rose: I love the 2000 sound. However, I think that it can transition in the lyrics when I continue writing for whatever next project that I do work on. It's a complicated topic of mixing an older sound with today's lyrics. But I would love to put them together, because a lot of the women's country these days, it's like "All right. I’ll smash your truck, I'll burn your house down." And that was like, "Oh, women's country music, super harsh." But I think at this point you just got to embrace it.
James Adamski: Fair enough. I don't really have any more pressing questions, but I do like to ask you some fun questions just so that way our fans can get to know you and then your fans can also get to know a little bit more about you. Is that cool?
Madelyn Rose: Yeah, for sure.
James Adamski: All right. Question number one. If you could write and record a song with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be? It doesn't have to be country music, but who would it be?
Madelyn Rose: I love that you said dead or alive! Carrie Underwood.
James Adamski: Carrie Underwood?
Madelyn Rose: Yeah, she's my all-time idol. I love her to death.
James Adamski: So what's your favorite Carrie Underwood song?
Madelyn Rose: Well, oh, that's a really tough question. I'll probably say "Drinking Alone" or "All-American Girl". Actually, my least favorite song of hers is "Before He Cheats".
James Adamski: Really?
Madelyn Rose: It's funny because that, like, a lot of people's most favorite song. But yeah, she's my all-time idol, so I'd have to go with her.
James Adamski: If you had to make a top five of your all-time favorite country artists - I know you've already mentioned Carrie Underwood., but if you had top five of country artists, who would they be?
Madelyn Rose: Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, and Dierks Bentley.
James Adamski: Oh, Dierks Bentley. Really?
Madelyn Rose: Yeah.
James Adamski: You don't hear most people mention Dierks.
Madelyn Rose: Yeah, it's something that I really grew up on, and so it feels like home to me. Okay. So yeah.
James Adamski: Most people would mention Luke Bryan first over Dierks, but hey, I love Dierks. Old Dierks is fantastic.
Madelyn Rose: Especially the older songs.
James Adamski: The older songs are amazing. So that's all I have for you, but is there anything that you would like to say to our fans, say to your fans, anything we should know coming up, any shows, anything coming up that we should be looking for?
Madelyn Rose: Yeah, for sure. So I do a ton of local shows around the area. I'm between Rochester and Syracuse, New York. Today is my first show of four this weekend. I would love if you could follow me on social media, I respond to all my comments. I love hearing what you guys have to say.
So, my social media is @madelynrosemusic, and my website is madelynroseofficial.com. You can talk to me on there, too. But I love hearing from fans. I love hearing what you guys think of the music or whatever ideas that you have. I really appreciate it.
James Adamski: Awesome. Well, thank you for your time, Madelyn. I appreciate it.
Madelyn Rose: Awesome. Thank you so much.
