{"id":5030,"date":"2012-02-29T01:01:23","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T08:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=5030"},"modified":"2012-02-29T01:01:23","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T08:01:23","slug":"martina-mcbride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/02\/martina-mcbride\/","title":{"rendered":"MARTINA McBRIDE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"MARTINA M<\/strong>c<\/strong>BRIDE<\/strong><\/h1>\n

A country powerhouse finds a new attitude south of Nashville \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI don\u2019t claim to be Kris\u00a0Kristofferson,\u201d says Martina McBride. \u201cI\u2019m still learning to express myself.\u201d After two decades of performing hits written mostly by others, the country superstar co-penned six tracks for Eleven<\/em> (eight on the 15-track \u201cdeluxe edition\u201d). The Kansas native makes other changes, too: The new album finds her embracing styles like soul, traditional pop and reggae; recording for a new label; working with a new co-producer (Byron Gallimore); and cutting her songs in a studio outside her home base of Nashville (Atlanta\u2019s Southern Tracks). \u201cI\u2019m always looking to do things a bit different,\u201d says McBride, 45. \u201cThat\u2019s the challenge when you\u2019ve been doing\u00a0this as long as I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What led to this writing burst?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I finally took the time, made myself focus on it and, honestly, stopped making excuses. Normally I\u2019d say \u201cI don\u2019t have time,\u201d or \u201cThat\u2019s not my thing.\u201d But all three of my daughters were now in school, so I decided I owed it to myself to see what would happen if I devoted time to it. I got together with people whose writing I liked and started crafting songs. Part of it is getting over the fact that you may or may not be any good at it. It can be intimidating working with some of the best writers in Nashville. Once you get past that and start throwing out ideas, you realize, \u201cI do have something to say! I can<\/em> do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did you decide what to record?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I usually spend a lot of time looking for material. I\u2019ll find three or four songs and cut those while I look for more, so the record happens in stages. This time, for the first time, I had all the songs except one when I went into the studio. I didn\u2019t want a slick, overproduced record. We cut it with very few overdubs. We put horns on a couple of songs, which I\u2019ve never done before. I wanted to experiment with different layers. I was determined to find a new sound.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What were the biggest challenges?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several of the songs went through metamorphoses. It took time to get the right arrangements and feel. One of the greatest things was making this record in Atlanta. I love Nashville, but it was important for me to get out of my daily routine. I took all the musicians there, so they were out of their daily routine, too. There was no structure, no rules and nobody had to worry about picking up a gallon of milk on the way home or making sure the kids had clean clothes for school. We had no responsibilities\u00a0other than making music.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did Atlanta affect the sound?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are some songs that we wouldn\u2019t have done otherwise. \u201cAlways Be This Way\u201d would have never come to fruition if we had recorded it in Nashville, because we probably would\u2019ve given up on it. We had the luxury of time to say, \u201cThat\u2019s not quite right. Let\u2019s try a different tempo, a different key.\u201d This environment was super-creative, and that made a huge difference.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How do you see your career now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m having more fun than I ever had. I\u2019m working harder than I\u2019ve ever worked, which is an interesting place to find yourself 20 years in. I feel more confident. I don\u2019t get stressed by every little thing like I used to. I have new management and a new label, and they\u2019re very excited about my music and my career, which is contagious. It\u2019s a\u00a0really good time right now.<\/p>\n

\u2013Juli Thanki<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MARTINA McBRIDE A country powerhouse finds a new attitude south of Nashville \u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t claim to be Kris\u00a0Kristofferson,\u201d says Martina McBride. \u201cI\u2019m still learning to express myself.\u201d After two decades of performing hits written mostly by others, the country superstar co-penned six tracks for Eleven (eight on the 15-track \u201cdeluxe edition\u201d). The Kansas native […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[3146,2864,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5030"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5032,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5030\/revisions\/5032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}