“Ain’t About You” singer HunterGirl had a “pinch me” second just lately as she was getting ready for this week’s CMA Fest, the place she’ll carry out on the Chevy Vibes stage on Friday (June 7) and seem on the CMA Closeup stage on Saturday (June 8).
“I had rehearsals with a band and I used to be pondering again to being 14 years previous and enjoying reveals — little Hunter would lose her thoughts enthusiastic about all these cool issues which are occurring proper now,” HunterGirl stated in dialog with Billboard on the BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville workplaces.
These “cool issues” embody not solely being runner-up through the twentieth season of American Idol two years in the past, being introduced as a part of this yr’s CMT’s Subsequent Ladies of Nation class in January and making her Grand Ole Opry debut in March, but additionally gearing up for the discharge of her main label debut EP, Tennessee Woman, out Friday (June 7) on 19 Recordings/BBRMG/BMG Nashville.
Born Hunter Wolkonowski, HunterGirl grew up 90 minutes south of Nashville, in Winchester, Tennessee. She earned her stage title by being the one woman named Hunter in her elementary class. Impressed equally by the confessional songwriting of Dolly Parton and the fierceness of P!nk, HunterGirl made her option to Nashville quickly after graduating highschool, finding out at close by Center Tennessee State College, whereas enjoying the downtown Nashville bars. She received a Nashville Songwriters Affiliation Worldwide contest — after which got here her career-expanding time on American Idol in 2022. HunterGirl grew up listening to Luke Bryan’s 2013 Crash My Occasion album, so her stint on American Idol practically a decade later was full circle, with HunterGirl performing for and being mentored by Bryan himself.
“He’s all the time instructed me, ‘Simply hold writing songs and all the time keep true to your self,’” HunterGirl says of Bryan. “He’s simply been such a champion for me since I used to be on the present and I’m very grateful to have him in my nook.” She may even open reveals for Bryan this summer season.
Her EP consists of “Ain’t About You,” which made HunterGirl the primary feminine nation artist in over three many years to jot down her debut radio single by herself.
“Ain’t About You” – which reached No. 53 on Scorching Nation Songs — detailed the deflating feeling acquainted to so many aspiring Nashville hitmakers who watch as buddies and fellow artists attain profession milestones and framed the now 26-year-old as a clear-eyed purveyor of emotional depth.
“It was probably the most trustworthy and weak I’d ever been in a tune,” she says. “I wrote it in my bed room and by no means thought anybody would hear it. That tune and folks’s reception to it modified my songwriting as a result of I noticed folks wanted to listen to the not-so-pretty elements of your life, the actually exhausting issues I used to be scared to say. After that it made selecting [songs for] the EP a lot simpler, as a result of I’m like, ‘I’m simply going to be myself and hopefully, it touches anyone else on the market.’”
The six-song EP weaves in what HunterGirl calls “blue jean jacket songs” and “leather-based jacket songs.” She explains: “The blue jean jacket songs really feel like me sitting in my bed room and speaking about my story, and the leather-based jacket songs are those that make me really feel like I can tackle the world and really feel highly effective. So the EP reveals totally different sides of my character.”
“Unhealthy Boy,” an up-tempo rocker with lyrics that gush over a tattooed, cigarette-smoking guitar participant, is a decidedly “leather-based jacket tune,” HunterGirl says.
“I needed to jot down a tune about my horrible style in males,” says HunterGirl, who wrote the tune with writer-producer Lindsay Rimes and Greg Bates. “I used to be out after a present and a man pulled up on a motorbike, and later I simply began singing the lyric, ‘I obtained it unhealthy for a nasty boy.’ I took the concept to them and we simply obtained within the studio and had enjoyable.”
Billboard spoke with HunterGirl, our Nation Rookie of the Month for June, about her new EP, songwriting, her ardour for supporting the navy and extra.
“Ain’t About You” was a solo write for you. Why is songwriting such an essential side of your artistry?
I write each single day. It’s simply unloading my day in my diary or in my notes app. I really feel like I want to jot down my songs simply because I’ve gone by way of totally different circumstances, and I really feel like I can discuss them with my viewers. I really feel like each time I’m writing a tune, it simply lets me sit with all people else and say, “Hey, that is me as an individual.”
Do you’ve gotten a favourite lyric on the EP?
I really like the road in “Fairly A lot” that claims, “Who determined what fairly was?” At the same time as a younger woman, I simply anxious about how I appeared — “Am I carrying the best outfit?” — or when your pal takes an image and also you’re scared to take a look at it. I’m lastly attending to a part in my life the place I’m like “I simply need to be myself, say the issues I need to say, and be who I need to be — and should you don’t prefer it, that’s okay.”
A standout on the EP is “Clockworks,” which you wrote with Rimes and JoyBeth Taylor. What do you recall about writing that tune?
JoyBeth introduced up the title and thought for “Clockworks,” and I believed, “Oh my gosh, that’s my grandpa.” We had been simply speaking about all these moments I want I may reside once more. I really feel like issues transfer so shortly and I overlook to reside within the second typically. Every time I sing that tune in my set, it’s a reminder to reside within the right here and now. I dedicate that tune to my grandpa and I simply really feel like everybody ought to take that journey, or make that decision and inform folks you like them when you can.
You come from a household of navy veterans. How does that affect your work with military-focused organizations?
Yeah, my grandpa, my great-grandpa, six of my great-uncles, all of them. I grew up round navy folks. I began working with veterans once I was 17, and I began writing with organizations like Operation Track, Freedom Sings, and A Soldier’s Youngster. Loads of occasions, after we write these songs and report them, after which the households hear them, it’s the first time the households are listening to about a few of the issues they went by way of.
In 2020, I began a feminine veterans class on Zoom, and it turned a neighborhood of help. I believe when veterans come house, they’ll really feel misplaced, and that’s what my grandpa and others in my household have felt. Giving again to veterans is essential to me, as a result of I’ve seen how a lot it could possibly change an individual to jot down a tune.
When did you first understand you had musical expertise?
I began singing at three years previous, singing with my grandpa in church. I wrote my first tune at 9 and a few of my first performances had been expertise reveals and county festivals. I performed parking tons and automobile reveals, I performed all of them. Though they didn’t have any musical background [my parents?] simply instructed me if I needed to do that, I needed to work exhausting. My household labored a number of jobs, so I noticed how exhausting they labored and that was constructed into me as a child.
Did you’re taking guitar classes or had been you in bands at school?
I realized piano by ear first, then I needed to study bass as a result of I needed to be in a band they usually wanted a bass participant, so I sang lead and performed bass. Then I realized guitar so I may write on guitar. I need to get again into enjoying bass. My bass remains to be at house, and I believe my mother goes to deliver it up throughout CMA Fest.
You moved to Nashville and studied music enterprise at Center Tennessee State College. How do you’re feeling like that ready you to your profession?
I really feel like I realized rather a lot about music and who I’m as an individual. The songwriting program is nice there, and [Grammy-nominated songwriter and MTSU associate professor] Odie Blackmon is superb, and [MTSU dean of the College of Media and Entertainment] Beverly Keel has been such a champion for me, and for all girls. I believe I punched the passport for each bar on [Nashville’s Lower] Broadway, going to highschool whereas enjoying reveals seven days per week.
I put my lessons tremendous early, at like 7 a.m., after which would go to Broadway, play eight to 12 hours, after which drive again to Murfreesboro [Tennessee] to do all of it once more. I don’t know what sort of espresso I used to be consuming again then. I keep in mind typically somebody would say, “Play one thing that you simply wrote.” Enjoying covers for eight hours, you then get to sing your individual tune? God bless folks like that.
What was the primary tune you fell in love with?
I keep in mind listening to Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colours” for the primary time, simply sitting there watching with my dad and Pa. They liked Dolly. I keep in mind pondering, “I hope I can write a tune like that in the future.” You are feeling each phrase she’s singing, and he or she says such complicated issues in the simplest means. It looks like you’re speaking to your greatest pal.
What was the primary live performance you went to?
I went to the Southern Floor Competition right here in Nashville, with Zac Brown Band. It was so enjoyable and I obtained to see Willie Nelson carry out, so it was unbelievable.
Who would you most like to collaborate with sooner or later?
I’d like to collaborate with Dolly or Reba McEntire sooner or later and on the opposite facet of the spectrum, P!nk, positively.
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