Yesterday, Spotify released the latest episode of their new podcast series, “Spotify: Mic Check”- a series aimed at connecting listeners and fans with the world’s biggest creators. The podcast features exclusively intimate conversations with musicians and podcast creators from around the globe.
This week’s episode welcomes rising Country star Morgan Wade to the mic to share with listeners some of her personal stories, from her decision to quit drinking and the painful breakups that inspire her music to how her genre-bending vocal style has helped catapult her rise with country and rock fans. You can listen to the full episode here.
Available to stream for free exclusively on Spotify, please see below for interview highlights in the episode:
- Morgan Wade on her earliest musical inspirations.
- “My earliest inspiration for music was definitely Elvis Presley. I discovered him when I was about seven years old. I just thought he was the coolest thing I’d ever heard or seen. And he was so different from anything else I had ever laid my eyes on.
- Morgan Wade on her journey from classical violinist to Country/Rock guitarist.
- “I first picked up an instrument when I was about eight years old, classical violin. And I hated it — every minute of it. And my grandmother got me a guitar. I started playing that when I was probably 11 or 12 and I never performed before. I didn’t tell anybody; Hey, I’m writing songs. It was just something that I did for myself. And so, my first time actually playing out loud music with a band was when I was 19. It was my freshman year of college and I went through a breakup.”
- Morgan Wade on the power of vulnerability.
- “We all have parts of us that we don’t want the world to see, but if we could talk more about that. Everything from addiction, to mental health, we could not feel so alone. So I think that it’s less painful to be transparent, even though it is hard in a society that just wants the perfect stuff to show.”
- Morgan Wade on her decision to quit drinking
- “You know, I would not be sitting here talking to you right now if I didn’t quit drinking. When I first started playing music, I wasn’t always getting paid, but 90 percent of the time, you had a bar tab. And so I really did start to take advantage of that. So that was really my first introduction to drinking.”
- Morgan Wade on what inspires her to write.
- “I write when I’m inspired or when I’m going through something and I try to write and come up with something every day. The other day, I sat down and I wrote three songs and they’re three songs I know I’m going to use. When something’s supposed to come to me, it comes to me and I try not to push it too hard. I don’t want to feel like a machine. That’s why my stuff can be as authentic as it is because I only write when I really feel something.”
- Morgan Wade on how Spotify has helped fans discover her music.
- “It’s just crazy because to see to get added to these different playlists and having people be like, Hey, I discovered you because of a Spotify playlist. It’s awesome. And, you know, people in Sweden are listening to my music. I’ve never been to Sweden, but there’s somebody over there that knows who I am.”
- “It’s just crazy because to see to get added to these different playlists and having people be like, Hey, I discovered you because of a Spotify playlist. It’s awesome. And, you know, people in Sweden are listening to my music. I’ve never been to Sweden, but there’s somebody over there that knows who I am.”
