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Ashley Monroe doesnt do radio promotion anymore.
I was like, Im too old, Im too tired, Im too good, Monroe remembers.
Im not doing this anymore.
Monroe has never fully played by Nashvilles rules.
As country went bigger and poppier, she was making stripped-down ballads and jaunty honky-tonk jams.
Yet nothing Monroe has done has broken the rules quite likeRosegold, her just-released fifth studio album.
When everything changes, everything changes, she says.
Thatll be the kind of melodies, production, lyrics, blah blah blah that come to me.
Well, thisfollow the feelingwas just a brand new feeling.
Ive always, ever since I started making music, wanted to make music to give people chills.
In my mind, thats the Holy Spirit saying, This is right.
[Laughs] What does this need?
But what I was hearing was so pure.
I dont have radio hits, et cetera, et cetera.
But then I started getting this wave of confidence.
I walk differently than how I walked before I had a kid.
Its probably something thats always been in the back of my mind.
But I was starting to write [these songs] when I was still at the label.
Like, every record hes ever made.
I dont know why, either.
Thats another thing I just felt led to.
He would use certain beats [on] different records [in] different ways.
Id never done as much percussive styles with strings.
Beck was another one, when that record [Hyperspace] came out [in 2019].
I love how theres something underneath something in his beats, and how much more powerful that makes it.
Im such a music lover, and Ive never only listened to one thing.
I just took in a little bit of everything.
Breaking the recording process
I would normally go in with an idea.
They would just get so excited with me!
Its like they all were free to be whatever the song needed [them] to be.
Every vocal except The New Me was my vocal the day I wrote the song.
When you write a song, that sound is so cool.
Thats been the case forever, in Nashville, just trying to copy a demo.
Theyve always said, Its hard to capture that demo magic.
It didnt make sense.
Rethinking:What is country?
I didnt want [this album] to be country.
I think [Rosegold] is genre-less.
When I listen to country music, I dont know, its a different feeling.
note:Rosegoldis filed under pop on Apple Music.
]Im not trying to be like, This is country.
I wouldnt do that, because I realize it isnt, technically.
But then, my old stuff, they would say it was too country for country.
So, what is country?
Its just a word these days, I dont know.
I think the power of the Eagles melodies and harmonies will always be there.
Bobbie Gentry, I listen to her records, and they could be so different.
And sexy Fancy, my gosh.
And All I Have to Do Is Dream.
Also, I love Shania Twain.
When she came [into] pop those melodies, I just always loved it.
Every single day, I have to fight that fear.
It kind of is like that, just a hyper-exaggeration of it.
But Im trying to not let my fear of losing the joy rule the thrill of having it.
you’ve got the option to always go back to it.
I saw everything through a prism light.
I wear rosegold sunglasses every day.
Cause, you know, its pretty to look through rose-colored glasses.
Like something coming alive.
When I was with Nathan Chapman when we wrote Gold, thats when I felt sure.
I was like,This project is calledRosegold.
I feel like Gold would be like what a hit was.
I would think it would be one, but I dont even know what genre it is.
But I get it stuck in my head.
Theres even a line in it, I wear you like a ruby necklace thats my sons birthstone.
Or, Youre Love Me Tender I have that tattooed on my back.
Theres different little things in that song that make it that much more personal to me.
I was so insecure and shy.
I wouldnt change anything in the past for anything.
I see how it got me to here.
I also wanted to put that Bible verse in, Isaiah 43:18-19: I am doing a new thing.
Now it springs up, do you now perceive it?
Its almost like being baptized and coming up again a new person.
Because I have to make some money to spend some money without a label these days.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
