“It’s Hard To Make Music In The Money Business” – Ashley McBryde On Balance Of Expressing Yourself As An Artist & Being Commercially Appealing

It’s hard to stay true to yourself sometimes when record labels are looking at you like a cash cow. In the mainstream music business, the thought of needing the next radio hit often takes priority over artistry and quality, and the musician behind the microphone loses the sound or voice they had when first getting their careers off the ground.

However, one artist who has made sure that her voice is not diminished by label input is Ashley McBryde. The woman is quite literally the most bad a** gal in the business right now, constantly pushing the boundaries with her clever yet deep lyrics and creating a sound that is uniquely hers while still honoring the genre’s pioneers.

But having the backbone to stay true to herself has not always come naturally. While sitting down with ESPN’s Marty Smith and Ryan McGee, McBryde has a very candid conversation about how it’s hard to express yourself sometimes while ticking those boxes you need to tick to be commercially successful. Of course, when money comes into the equation, and profitability becomes the sole focus, it’s hard to stay to true to your core identity in any scenario. It also gets tougher when other people come on board, and now their livelihood depends on your success. Whether it’s American made products moving overseas to increase margins, maintaining great customer service vs outsourcing it… it’s not just limited to the arts. But that’s why people hate when their favorite artists sign record deals or favorite brands get bought out by major corporations or private equity firms.

“It’s hard to make music in the money business. And some days, when you’re trying to make sure you stick to the truth, you will question, ‘Why do I keep busting my face against the wall when it just needs to rhyme with beer?’

We need those songs too! That’s just not what comes out of my bones. You know? And it’s something that is a challenge because when you question yourself about, ‘Should I water this down? Or should I be a little friendly in this direction or that direction?’ You’ve already shot yourself in the foot, and you already hate the song, and you didn’t even write it yet. All you can do is make the music that lives inside of you.” 

Ryan McGee then asks McBryde to expand on the “tug of war” between art and commerce.

“You have to figure out where that balance is. Speaking your truth is important. It’s important for you, and it’s important because it’s not just your truth. Someone else is experiencing the same thing, and they need to feel less alone. And that’s the whole point of making music to begin with, or writing plays, or acting, or show choir. The whole point is for us to walk each other home in the way that we’re able to. 

When it has to be more commercial than the truth, you’re going to have to find where you’re comfortable on that. If you can figure it out, great. And on the times you can, great. And on the times you can’t, you probably won’t put that song in your live set, and that’s all right too. 

In the same way, a song that tugs at your heartstrings or makes you think, makes us feel less alone, sometimes we need to not think too hard. We need both kinds of songs.” 

While McBryde has always tried to be “the most me I can be,” there was a time when she struggled with living and making the music that was inside of her. She once said she had tried to fit a mold that was not hers and began to turn into someone who was not “her.” It got to the point where she “didn’t even recognize her own hair.”

“It wasn’t that all was lost. That it wasn’t fixable or it was irreparable. It was that I noticed enough of me was polished off that I should be mad about it. And the good news was, I was.”

McBryde shared this concern with her band, saying that she felt like she had been softened around the edges, and they agreed. They had to remember that they started playing for a girl who played bars and needed to return to that feeling as a band. But even when McBryde felt like she was changing in a way that she didn’t love, she was so thankful to have a band that was honest with her and still supported her no matter what direction she wanted to grow.

Ashley McBryde is as real as they get, and her honest (yet hard) reflection of the person she was becoming proves that she’s in a league of her own. Most would ride the wave of fame and see what happened, but McBryde redirected her persona back to a version that felt more authentically her, and in turn, her fans connected with her on an even deeper level.

If you want to hear the truth and nothing but the truth, Ashley McBryde is the woman you need to listen to lyrically and in an interview format like this.

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