While the winter weather blustered outside, the inside of the Omni Hotel in Nashville, Tenn., was aflame with on-goings during the 2016 Country Radio Seminar. Grabbing a quick minute during the madness, country artist Rachele Lynae graciously spoke with us about her upcoming nuptials, growing up in the Last Frontier, and her new single “Quicksand.”
TCN: You’re getting married! First thing – congratulations!
Rachele: Thank you!
TCN: Did you find the dress yet? Did you get everything…….
Rachele: Yes, we are getting closer and closer to the end of the list, so that’s nice. Got the dress, got the venue.
TCN: Fantastic. How long have you guys been together?
Rachele: 2 years, well like, dating….there’s always been interest since we’ve known each other. But we’ve been dating 2 years and 4.5-5 months.
TCN: You’ve got it down to the month.
Rachele: We’ll I recently had a bridal shower and they asked me this as one of the questions so I’ve had to think about it!
TCN: So the wedding’s in May, is that going to affect anything? Are you going to take some time off from the road?Rachele: Just the time it takes for the honeymoon and then were gonna dive right back in because…
TCN: …Quicksand..
Rachele: Yeah we got lots to do. And we’re both…you know he’s in the industry as well. Right now he’s doing lights for Caanan Smith. So he’s on the road a lot and I’m on the road a lot. But we’re taking just…you know give ourselves a week. A little get away and then back at it.
TCN: So the new single is “Quicksand” and CMT has been promoting it. How does that feel?
Rachele: Awesome! It feels great. I mean we’ve gotten more love for this video than we have for any other video as far as from the industry. There’s people who still love the “Cows” video especially fans, but this video – we were the #1 trending artist page on CMT.com.
TCN: Yeah I was reading about that. Oh my goodness. That’s kind of incredible.
Rachele: It is. That means people are going and checking out the video.
TCN: They’re literally going and stopping on that page. Like 12-pack is strictly fan voted. Nothing is manipulating it behind the scenes.
Rachele: Exactly. So that’s been pretty exciting. CMT Music – they’ve been playing it a lot and GAC started playing it. It’s been a great start to my year to be honest with you.
TCN: Of course. You’ve got the wedding. You’ve got the single. 2016 is really going to be your year it sounds like.
Rachele: Thank you. I feel that way. I feel like it’s a really positive start and sometimes, not always does the beginning of the year tell you the rest, but I feel like you know it’s good to start on the right foot.
TCN: Absolutely, could not agree more with you on that. Ok just I have to ask, because I’ve never been and always wanted to go. You’re from Alaska.
Rachele: Yes I grew up in Alaska.
TCN: Are you loving the weather today?
Rachele: No I’m not. You know – I like to watch snow. I don’t like to have to be out in it. I mean you know you get use to it. Growing up in Kodiak – we always…it didn’t stop you. I mean depending on, sometimes your road might not be taken care of yet or something so it might slow you down. But it wouldn’t stop you really. But here you know it takes longer for everybody. For someone who’s so full speed ahead like me it’s just like “oh goodness, it’s going to take me a little longer to get to where I’m going. Am I going to be able to get out of my driveway?”
Rachele: I would say growing up there influenced me as a person. I mean I’m a writer as well as a singer and so it influences my art because you write from what you know and who you are. It’s a very inspiring place just because of the beauty of it but also part of that – there are no snow days. You do what you can. You work hard. You stay warm. Those things kind of create an independence and like a sense of freedom and hard work and all these things that do come through in music. And I think it’s great for me because the industry is not an easy industry. It’s really hard. So growing up there kind of instilled in me that “stick to it!” – and for that I’m really grateful. For me it’s not… you know, I’m a lifer. I think growing up there kinda got me ready for that.
TCN: “Salad-Gate” happened this past summer. The whole big controversy. And I like to ask newer or upcoming female artists in particular – do you feel that Keith’s comments actually helped open up more of a door for incoming female artists in the genre because there’s such a direction now to want to embrace women in country radio?
Rachele: I think that it did help. I think that honestly that’s true in a lot of things throughout history not even just music – whenever there’s adversity, the truth will rise and people will fight harder. I mean there still is you know a lot of that kind of idea floating around out there. And some if it’s because, I think as women, there’s a lot of layers to us so sometimes a woman might not test as well, initially, because we like to get to know each other better. And so a woman is gonna – we want to hear other women. I mean I do.
TCN: Because we identify with them.
Rachele: We identify because those stories could be our stories and spoken from that feminine perspective. But it just might take a second for us to really dive in. We want to know what the lyrics are saying. We want to know about the person. Are they a genuine person? So sometimes I think it’s hard to overcome that. But I think that his comments kind of got people thinking about “well why is that?” and realizing – ok no there’s a lot of women, a lot of country listeners out there that are dying for some of that female perspective. It’s been cool to see. It’s a slow climb but it’s happening for sure where they’re embracing the girls so much more. I mean I’m in Country Weekly this week for the video, and it’s just this really cool spread about it and I was looking through the pages and it was like woman after woman after woman being featured in Country Weekly. And I was like “This is really good!” How cool – 2016 might be the year for the women in country.
TCN: Looking at your career so far and looking ahead 10-20 years, are there any particular achievements that you want to accomplish?
Rachele: It’s not about awards for me, but, not that – I’d probably cry like a baby if I won one of those awards – but that’s not really it. It’s about connecting with fans. So for me – and the live show – I’m just all about that. Because then you get to see the stories that you’ve written come to life and you get see it. You SEE it – you actually see the faces of the people that it’s touching. And that’s just so powerful. I mean for me I just want to be doing these huge tours. I just want to be on the road and playing arenas to all these people, because there’s just so much magic when that many people are connecting to the same thing.
For more information on Rachele Lynae, follow her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube.