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  • 2 days ago
Ella Langley joins Katie Neal on this week's Katie & Company!
Transcript
00:00Back to keep us company this week on the Superstar Power Hour for the week of 4th of July, Miss
00:05ACMNC award-winning Ella Langley. How you been? Hi, I'm good. I'm doing wonderful. Yeah.
00:11Did you seven naps in a row? Not doing wonderful. I know I am with you on that. How are your,
00:17um, your sweet baby puppy dogs crew and be, are they out with you? I got to put them in the
00:21interview. Come here, boy. Come here. So crew comes on the road. I love this little bus dog.
00:28Um, and then be mother dog. Um, so I have a nonprofit. I work with a nonprofit called
00:36positive pets, paradise. And, um, the lady that her name's Lauren Masunas and she watches
00:43be, she, I started out, I met her through just needing somewhere for my second dog to go.
00:48And I just didn't want to need to be someone random or, you know, different places constantly.
00:53I wanted consistency in her life. So it kind of started out that way. But then I was like,
00:57where are all these dogs that you have here? And she said, no, they need to be adopted. So
01:01we ended up getting a few adopted and yeah, it's been really, it's been an incredible thing.
01:06We've been in for the last year. That's fun. That's got to be like a very feel good thing
01:10to be able to give back. Cause I know how much you care about animals. That's very special.
01:13Oh yeah. Are we boring you? It looks a little bit bored, right? Well, I want to tell you
01:19congratulations. I was so excited to see just like how quickly the success of weren't for the wind
01:23happened. And this now coming back to the chart, I feel like after first number one,
01:28it's always a little bit stressful coming back with the second single, but this has all happened
01:32for you really quickly with this song. So I feel like that's got to feel really good.
01:36Well, especially with what, well, especially with what you look like you love me did. I mean,
01:40out of the gate, that's pretty big mountain to try to climb back up again. But the fans, man,
01:47everyone has really attached themselves to this song and it's just so cool. I have one of the
01:54girls, I wrote it with two other people, Johnny Clawson and then Joy Beth Taylor. She's out with
01:59me right now. And we met, she's from Alabama, but we met in Nashville, right when I moved to town
02:06and we've written so many songs together and she's just always in my rights. Most of you look through
02:10the credits on all the records, she's probably in almost every single one of the songs.
02:14So this is our first one to radio together too. And it's just so exciting.
02:19Very special. I was cracking up earlier this week. You shared that video of the little girl
02:23singing, you look like you love, oh my God, I died. And I was thinking about how it's got to be so
02:30funny for you night after night singing like little girls or little boys singing this like very risque
02:34song in the crowd. Yeah. I've seen a couple of variations, like I'm tired and I'm ready to sleep
02:41or something, you know. But most of the time they just rip the actual lyrics. And I think it's
02:47hilarious. And I kind of relate in the way where my favorite song when I was a kid around that girl's
02:52age was Mama Tried. And there's this part that goes, got runned over by a damned old train.
02:59And I would always get to say that was like my one way I could cuss as a kid, got run by just saying
03:05damn, you know. And so I kind of, maybe it's their song that they get to say what they want to in one
03:11song, you know. Yeah, that's so funny. And with that song being your first number one, I always like
03:16to ask this because I know, you know, for the longest time as an artist, you are kind of a starving
03:21artist living like barely paycheck to paycheck. You get your first number one song. It's like the first
03:25time you can like take a little bit of a breather. Did you mark that with like a special first number
03:30one purchase? Or did you treat yourself something small, something big after that?
03:36It went number one around December. So
03:40I don't know. I think I treated myself to maybe like a couple weeks off
03:46and then right back at it. I think I have got a couple of things. I've been, I've slurred a little
03:52bit. I actually just got my first house in Alabama. You did? Congratulations. That's huge.
03:59I'm close. We haven't been close yet, but it's just, you know, exciting to see, you know,
04:04so many years you spend not making anything and then everything, putting it right back into
04:09what you're doing here. And so to be able to kind of enjoy the fruits of your labor for the first time
04:15is, I love it. It's so cool. Has it been stressful going through the process of buying a house? I just did
04:20it in November, but mine wasn't bad. I've honestly been having a blast. I have great business
04:26management. So I just get all the phone calls of yes or no, or this is what I want to do. And
04:33they figure out all the little logistics. So very thankful for them. For sure. What do you love
04:38about this house that you're buying? It has a horse barn on it. It's on the lake. I'm not going to say
04:46which one, but it is on a lake in Alabama and it has this horse barn. It's just like, man,
04:54it's such a special piece of property. And, um, it's close to my parents and I don't know. I've
04:59just, I think I'll always have to live in Tennessee and to some extent in my life, but being from
05:06Alabama, it's so close. It's under four hours to get there. And I don't know. It just, it brings me
05:12back to who I am at the root of me every time I go back there. And, um, you know, when it comes to
05:19writing songs and being in that state of mind, I think it's important to have a place like that.
05:24No, for sure. I was talking to Blake Shelton about how, like when Austin went number one,
05:28he bought a little piece of land for himself. And like, I think anybody will tell you having a
05:32place that you can go like that and just like get away, that's going to become a sanctuary for you.
05:36So yeah, Blake Shelton, um, definitely has a couple more number ones under his belt to be
05:41able to purchase things like a piece of land for his congratulations. I'm still in the phase of
05:45I'm trying to get a bus, you know? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I know. I really want, um,
05:51I want a sixth band member really bad on stage right now. So that's how I treat myself.
05:56I love that. Speaking of the band, I know that you guys you're on the tour right now with Riley,
06:00you mentioned that, but then you're also playing a bunch of dates this summer with Morgan,
06:03which I know like you've got to be so excited about that. What are you guys looking forward
06:07to about those big dates? Man, we're, we're just such big fans, my, um, of him and his band.
06:13Um, his, his band has been really awesome, uh, to us and they're, especially to my, my band,
06:20you know, they all talk and, um, you know, they, they see videos of my, we were just talking about
06:25how some of his band members were reaching out to someone and be like, man, we've seen videos of
06:28y'all, y'all are crushing it. We're so excited to have y'all on the road. And so,
06:33um, that's always, I love that. I love how when putting on a show, it's not just you're singing
06:38down a set list of songs. Like it's an actual, it's a show, it's entertaining. It's, you know,
06:43a whole thing. It's a whole production. So I always love to see what he does out there with that.
06:47Yeah. I mean, also playing stadiums, you know, that is playing stadiums is such a step up from
06:54any other stage ever. It's just different, you know, and you think if you could play an arena,
06:59then the stadium feels sitting now, it just, it's different. It's so different.
07:03Are you feeling nervous about that? I mean, I know you got to play the stadium at CMA Fest,
07:06so you've like gotten to do a little bit of that, but this is,
07:08well, I was actually, I was on tour with Morgan last year too. We did.
07:13I forgot about this. You're right.
07:16Seven or eight shows. I can't remember somewhere in there. It's all a blur. We played so many shows
07:21last year. And so we got our, some stadiums under our belt with that, but now we're, you know,
07:28further up on the bill and closer to the headliner. And so a little more full in there.
07:32Hopefully when we get, when we step on stage and it's just different, you know, taking each step up
07:37the ladder, you know, I think it's going to be very full by the time you get in there and you just
07:40wait. I was curious, do you guys with the band, I know you guys are all very close to there. Like all
07:46the guys are like always in your videos and stuff, but do you guys have any pre show rituals that you do?
07:50Like before you go on stage, is there a prayer? Is there a shot? Like, what do you guys do every
07:54night? Um, we've been doing very consistent, consistently, um, peppermint oil. Really?
08:02And yeah. And we just put a little bit in the palm of our hand, rub it together and
08:07kind of talk about our intentions on the show and like, you know, what we want the show to be for us,
08:14for them, for the crowd, you know, what, just all the good vibes that you could possibly think of
08:19for walking out there and then rubbing your hands together and then taking three massive breaths.
08:23And we also do something sometimes called loose body dancing. Um, and just put on some great tunes
08:32and like, just loosen, loosen up, loosen your body up. I love this. What is peppermint oil supposed to
08:38be good for? I don't know. I think, I mean, there's probably a million different ways that
08:43peppermint oil is good for you. But, um, personally when we do it, it's just like,
08:47you know, just opens, opens everything up and it's kind of like, Ooh, like a little bit of an
08:51adrenaline rush almost, you know, like, it's kind of how, like, it's how people have those
08:55smelling salts before they go out and play sports or whatever, you know, it's kind of a similar
09:00thing to that, but probably not as intense. It's just a little more natural. Don't get it in your
09:04eyes though. If you do it, it's like, it stays on your hands and we've all done it where we,
09:09before the show. And then we're all like in the show, like our eyes are watering because there's
09:13so much peppermint oil in our eyes. I'm dying. I also, I love that you've got this like really
09:18beautiful, holistic, spiritual thing that you do. I talked to Corey Kent earlier this week and I was
09:23asking him about this and he's like, we play taser roulette. They literally go out and they spin a
09:28taser and then whoever it lands on gets tased before they go on stage. I was like, you, what?
09:34It gets boring out here, believe it or not. It really does. You have nothing to do all day.
09:38And so at some point it's like, yeah, I mean, that kind of sounds fun to me. We also take a
09:42shot. Don't worry. We, we have our fun. We had this thing for a while called the drinking horn.
09:49Do we have the drinking horn in here? I had a dream last night that the drinking horn broke
09:53and I don't know what that means. Right. Like what does that symbolize?
09:57Something you can look up on Google. Right. ChatGPT will tell you.
10:02Yeah. I need to, I need to get that. My little brother was talking to me about it. So this is,
10:06this is funny. This is the drinking horn. Oh my God. And I got it in Arkansas and I was like
10:14some witchy store. I went in and was like looking for stones and different things. And, uh, I asked
10:20the guy, I was like, does this thing actually work? Because in my mind, like it was like, you know,
10:25one of those like horn things. And he was like, yeah, you just pour the drink in it and drink out
10:31of it. And I was like, Oh God. Okay. Yeah. And so for the rest of the tour, the whole hungover tour
10:37I've made us all take shots out of this for stage and on stage. I love it. Cause why not?
10:44That's incredible. Like a little horn beer bong. That's amazing. We, um, we've got you on the show
10:49the week of the 4th of July and I was looking at your tour schedule and I was like, Oh my God,
10:52you're off. It looks like for the 4th of July, right? Are you excited for this? What are you planned?
10:57I'm actually going on vacation. I haven't been on vacation in so long and I'm so excited. I'm going
11:03with my little sister and some friends from back home and my stylist is coming. Um, we're going to
11:09Hawaii and we're just going to have a blast. Oh my gosh. Wait, are you going to Maui for the songwriter
11:13thing? Is that what I heard? Oh no. I thought I had heard that maybe you were doing something
11:18that I did something with the Maui songwriter festival earlier this year. And I thought that maybe
11:21Oh, you have. Okay. Got it. Got it. Got it. I have before I gone to that. Yeah. And
11:26I'm probably will go in the future. It's such a beautiful trip. It's so cool.
11:30Hawaii is amazing though. Like you guys are going to have.
11:32My first time getting to go to the songwriter festival. Um, and, um, Yvonne is just like
11:39an incredible human being. She's so incredible. Um, and yeah, no, my little sister, she's eight
11:45years younger than me. Um, and when I graduated high school, she was like, Oh my God, I can't
11:53believe I'm here for eight more years. And, uh, I don't know why I was just like, you know
12:00what, Katie, if I make it in music at the time you graduate enough where I can afford
12:06for us to go, I'll take you to Hawaii. She, um, literally painted a Hawaiian flower on her
12:10parking spot. So she has taken it very seriously. And, um, I don't know why I just like, it's
12:16kind of pushed me a little bit the whole time, you know, because I started playing shows right
12:21out of high school. I played some weddings and stuff in high school, but I really started
12:25to play shows right out of high school. And it's just cool to see like in eight years,
12:30what has happened from literally walking into the bar with a tip jar and a guitar. It's like,
12:37please, Hey, please. And actually like getting to the point where like, Oh wow. Surprise for your
12:44graduation. I'm taking you to Hawaii. It's actually happening. Right. That's a really special thing.
12:49I mean, when you think about like, even just this, what's happened to you in the last like
12:52year and a half has been crazy. Being able to take your sister to Hawaii now, buying a house,
12:57like she's very proud of yourself. Yeah. Um, really, it's really cool. It's cool to see what
13:04happens, what can happen, you know? Yeah, for sure. Um, after weren't for the wind, are we getting
13:10another single off of still hung over or is there new stuff in the works? I heard that maybe a little
13:15bit of both. I think there might be a little bit of both. Um, I, you know, I worked so hard on that
13:22record and my team worked so hard on that record and songs, you know, those, there's some
13:27many special songs on that one and my next record is not going to be out until, um, 2026. Um,
13:34so, you know, I really, I feel like people move on from the record so fast, you know,
13:40they're like, here's a whole record of 20 something songs and then we're going to give
13:43you one single off of it and then move on to the next record. And I think that's some,
13:47there's something to be said and like taking your time with making the record and putting
13:52all those pieces in place where it can last long, a long time, you know, last in a way where fans
13:57can keep digging into it and digging into it and finding new songs that they love and finding new
14:01little pieces about the record. That's, that's different. And, um, yeah, I mean, I would love
14:06to try for another single off of hung over. Um, but there's, there is new music coming out because
14:12I'm not going to go a year and a half without putting anything out. Um, but it's going to be kind
14:16of a separate little thing. I think I'm really just trying to do what feels right to me. You
14:21know, I'm not really paying attention to what other artists have done or, and, and, and, but
14:27also doing that, but I'm still keeping my blinders up in the way where it's like, all right, this is
14:33my art. This is how I want to put it out. This is, you know, and the way that I think is, would be
14:38best for my artistry. And that's, what's so cool about the team that I have is everyone really does.
14:42They, they see the vision with me and they believe in it and execute it. That's awesome.
14:47I think that's so special too. I'm so glad you're doing that. Cause like, there's so many people
14:50who put out a great album and I'm like, wait, you got like half of a single off of that. And
14:55you're onto the next one. And there's, it's like you said, there's so many good songs on here.
14:58Like I was like, I rock out to blame it on the bar all the time. And I don't know if it'd ever be a
15:02single, but the, you gotta be tough. If you're going to be dumb is just like one of my favorites.
15:08Yeah. Well, that was my goal of this record. Like I didn't, I wanted to,
15:12if I, if I could, if I wanted to, I could have singled any one of those songs, I think
15:16off of that record in a different way. And they, and there's just like, it could have
15:19gone a million different ways. And what is cool about that is, and I mean, that's what
15:23I'm going to do with this next one. I mean, every song off this record will be able to
15:27be a single if I wanted it to be. But what's cool with doing that is I really give it up
15:32to the fans at that point. And I give it up to the listener because, you know, I believe
15:36in all the songs and there are songs that I think, but you know, when we wrote, you look
15:39like you love me, I didn't think that song was ever going to leave my audio recordings.
15:45It was a joke. And then fast forward to writing work for the win. I like, I thought about that
15:50song, but it wasn't like one of the top songs in my brain that I was excited for. I was
15:53excited for better be tough. And I thought love you tonight was like the one that me and
15:58my team were like, man, like, that's kind of a single one. Girl Who Drank Wine was another
16:06one I thought was like going to like just hit and go off, which we wrote, girl, you drink
16:11wine and work for the win on the same writer's retreat, actually. But yeah, that's just nuts
16:16when you give it to the fans and kind of just like put a record of songs that all I love
16:20all of them and just let them take it and the listener take it. It's crazy to see what
16:25weren't for the win. Like I did not expect people to grab onto this song the way that
16:28they have. And it's so cool to just see. I love how many people I see covering it and
16:33wanting to sing it and like making it their own. I've seen a lot of covers of it already.
16:39And I think it's that's one really incredible thing about music is like that song, you could
16:44produce it a million different ways. And just to see everyone's variation of like my song
16:48is super cool.
16:49Yeah, that's got to be the best feeling in the world. You mentioned a little bit about this
16:53new music and what you're trying to do with the next record. Can you has it taken a shape
16:56yet? Or do you feel like you know what you want to say with these new songs? What can
17:00you say? Yeah, I know what I want to say all the time is the problem. Good problem. It's
17:08a good problem to have. But this next record, I've known the title for it. I actually got the
17:14title for it. Well, it was like 100% concreted. This is the title for the next record the day
17:20we shot the music video for you look like you love me. I can't tell you the title yet. Sorry,
17:26but that's okay.
17:27Um, it is definitely taking shape. And it's like, I know exactly what I want in it and
17:33how it sounds. And I just have such a clear vision on this record. I mean, it's it definitely
17:39like hungover felt like a little bit of me figuring it out, like, you know, picking my favorite songs
17:44and then creating a concept around it. And this time, I have a concept and I'm writing
17:49towards that concept and kind of just but still letting songs that need to be written
17:55come out, you know, and then I'm just kind of picked it picking the best ones out of that.
17:59But there's I mean, this record, I understand people are like, I had a child because that
18:04is how I will feel after this record comes out, because it's all I've thought about every
18:08day all day. And I can't wait. But there are some other songs that I've written along the
18:12way that I that don't fit on this record, because I do have such a clear concept, musically
18:16or conceptually. So there's a couple of them that are going to come out that I think that
18:23are definitely different tastes to what the record is, but a side of me that fans know
18:31and have, I've dabbled in before. And it's gonna it's exciting. I'm excited for these.
18:36Yeah, I'm really excited for that. We're playing a couple of your other songs while we have
18:40on the show. So I just want to have you do like quick story behind the song of Girl,
18:44You're Taken Home.
18:44Cool. So Girl, You're Taken Home, I wrote with Zach Kale, John Knight and Joy Beth Taylor.
18:51And we wrote that on the same retreat we wrote Nicotine on as well. And so Girl, You're Taken
19:00Home. This story is never fun for me to tell, but I'm sorry.
19:05Well, it's just one of those. It's just, you know, it's it's like imagine that one heartbreak
19:09that got you like everyone I think has that one heartbreak. You're like, I don't really
19:12want to think about that all that much. And I happen to ride. I mean, like, that's just
19:17how I write my songs. You know, I just write what comes out. And that's how I work through
19:20a lot of the emotions. And so I was down on this writer's retreat with them and my girlfriend,
19:25Joy Beth Taylor. I was just so bummed out riding the whole way there. And she came in my room
19:32and we were talking about it that night. And she's like, you know what, we're gonna write
19:38we're gonna write a song that makes him regret it one day. It just just makes him we're gonna get
19:44you over it with the song. And I was like, okay, I just like rolled over in my like bed of starburst.
19:50And the next morning she came in and she's like, I've got the title. It's called Girl,
19:54You're Taken Home. And immediately I was like, oh, and it just kind of fell out. And I really just
20:01worked through all those emotions when I was writing that song. And so it's really, I mean,
20:06just to see the people out in the crowd that guys and girls, the amount of guys that sing this song
20:11with like all of their heart, like same, freaking same. Because it's like, it is more about the
20:17emotion, you know, and that is what I think is so cool. What I'm learning about my fan bases
20:22and what they are getting from me. It's not as much always about, you know, girl guy or this,
20:28this, that is, I just think that's what's cool about music is you can pull what emotion you want
20:32from that and just like make it for you, you know, give you words to sing when you don't have
20:36them to speak. Yeah, that's so true. And it's such a, such a great song. And then we're also going to
20:41play the song that you do with Cameron Marlowe, Strangers. Talk about that song. Strangers. So
20:46I wrote that song with Will Bundy, Cameron Marlowe, and Chase McGill. And I had that title
20:54for a minute. And I walked up to Cameron one day, we had a festival together. And I was like,
21:00we need to sing a song together. He was like, okay. And I was like, well, I want us to ride it
21:05together. And he said, okay. And he's just a singing son of a bitch. I mean, my God, he's so his voice
21:13is insane. And so I knew I wanted it to be a song that like really just like pushed us to our limit
21:18into this. I mean, it did. I mean, that song, him and I both say it's the hardest song to sing
21:22in our set. And it's kind of one that it's a true duet. It's really hard to do by yourself. It's not
21:26one that you can really do. It doesn't sound the same when you sing it by yourself. You need a duet
21:32partner for it to sound exactly like the song does. But yeah, we just, the way we arrange the vocals
21:37on it and the harmonies, those are my favorite parts of producing music is arranging all the vocal
21:42parts. And that was really fun to do on that song. And that was like one of the first times that I felt
21:47like, oh wow, like I really enjoy doing this part of the production and everything. That's awesome.
21:53It's such a good song too. Thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it. Thank you.