Well, they ended up with an incredible album, so all’s well that ends well, as they say…
This past Friday, Miranda Lambert released her new disco-inspired album Crisco, which she co-produced with Jesse Frasure. It will feature 12 tracks as Miranda explores “heartbreak and hope, highways and honky-tonks, rhinestones and reflection, creating a record that feels both timeless and refreshingly alive.”
One of my favorites on the tracklist is “Snakesksin Boots” with Ella Langley, who is not only one of Miranda’s close friends but one of her close collaborators, too. Miranda co-wrote Ella’s record-breaking hit “Choosin’ Texas,” as well as their duet “Butterfly Season,” and Miranda co-produced the entire Dandelion record.
As you can probably imagine, making an album is a grueling process, and that kind of creative endeavor can sometimes lead to artistic differences, which was the case even for Miranda and Ella.
Miranda has been doing tons of press around the release, and during a fascinating conversation on the New York Times podcast Popcast, she opened up about what it’s been like to work with Ella, admitted that there were times they butted heads while making Dandelion.
But she viewed it as a good thing, saying:
“If we don’t fight by the end of this, we probably didn’t do it right.”
I completely agree, and as Miranda explained, there are lots of emotions involved in a process like this, especially because the songs are so personal, but it was all for the good of the music at the end of the day:
“There was hard parts of it. Creating a record is not… I mean, it’s a long journey, you know what I mean? And it’s a lot of emotions… We did a lot. And I think that’s important because we needed to.”
Miranda has never been one to back down from an argument or fight of any kind, and that was no different here.
I think most country fans know Miranda is pretty dang “scrappy,” as she put it:
“Yeah, I’m scrappy… I wanted it to be right, you know what I mean?”
When asked how often she let Ella win the arguments, Miranda laughed as she explained it was a good balance, because it’s Ella’s music and her name on the record. Of course, Miranda has had a very successful, lengthy career and she knows what it takes to not only make it in this business, but maintain it at a high level for many years:
“Yeah. I mean, it’s her name. But, yeah, it was a good balance, I felt like, of bouncing songs off each other, saying like, ‘That’s too far one way,’ or ‘That doesn’t fit the record,’ whatever it was.
And I love that she trusted me with that. I really do.”
But when it came to writing and recording their record-breaking mega hit “Choosin’ Texas,” Miranda’s says there were no disagreements there
. That fell out of them and the rest is obviously music history:
“That one is just like — it’s like a piece of our DNA. So, no. It’s like there’s this nostalgia to it, and it’s like her love for country and my love for country.
That one, whether it was the writing of it, just fell out of the production. It was just like, ‘This is what it’s supposed to be. Let’s let it be.'”
“Choosin’ Texas” just spent its 23rd week at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, expanding her record with the longest-reigning song at the top of that chart.
It sounds like the things Ella and Miranda disagreed on were more like sisterly fights than anything more serious, and like Miranda said, I think it’s a sign that they both really cared and wanted every song to be as good as it could possibly be, and their hard worked certainly paid off because Ella is the hottest thing in music with no signs of slowing down soon.
They make a heck of a pair, and I can’t wait to hear what else they cook up in the future because they haven’t missed yet, and I doubt they ever will.
“Snakeskin Boots”
The full interview is available below.
