INTERVIEW: Amelia Day Claims Country Music For the Queers
Amelia Day moved to Nashville – and then everything turned to shit. In our interview, Day dishes on everything that led up to the revenge tracks in her new EP EGO TRIP, how she approaches songwriting – and why country music belongs to the queers.
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Amelia Day moved to Nashville – and then everything turned to shit. On her EP EGO TRIP, Day recovers from a painful breakup and the whirlwind of trying to make it as an artist in LA. EGO TRIP is a '90s rock and country-fueled howl of betrayal and determination. In our interview, Day dishes on everything that led up to the revenge tracks boosted in the song, how she approaches songwriting – and why country music belongs to the queers.
Do you have any go-to albums to listen to in the van?
YES absolutely — though more often than not, I listen to podcasts, albums I'm completely unfamiliar with, or whatever the band's listening to. A few favorites when I have the aux are Sheryl Crow by Sheryl Crow (who would've guessed), Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin (another shocking reveal), Revealer by Madison Cunningham, and The Crux Deluxe by Djo!
Explain the title of your album.
The title EGO TRIP holds several layers...both a breakup EP and a critique of fame and self-obsession in favor of authenticity. This project follows the emotional aftermath of a deeply painful breakup with my last girlfriend (also an artist) who I realized — through a lot of therapy and late nights talking with friends and family — wasn't the person I believed she was. The EP follows my process of grieving both the relationship itself and the version of her I thought I knew. We had just taken a 5-day cross-country roadtrip together to move my things to Nashville when two days later, I was surprised by a sudden breakup, so the "TRIP" in the title is also a little nod to our very last days together.
On the music industry side, she also held a very different perspective on what career priorities a musician should have, and I started to see the more performative and attention-seeking parts of the industry up close (both through my relationship with her, but also becoming more successful as my own artist.) On the other side of the breakup, I could see the inauthenticity of some people in the entertainment industry clearer than ever, and became even more consciously committed to not letting that side of the industry ever change how I make art.
Lastly, the "TRIP" of "EGO TRIP" is also in reference to a bad drug trip. Not only do some of those '70s-inspired psychedelic sounds find their way into some tracks, but I truly felt like reality had turned absolutely upside-down for me in a day. I didn't know what was real or who to trust anymore and it took a while for me to find my footing again.
How have you healed or grown your relationship to country music/Americana?
It's been really helpful to explore the history of the genre and see that not only have queer people always been making country / Americana music, but we've been a fundamental part of it from the very beginning. From Lavender Country, Joan Armatrading, and Holly Near in the 1970s (and queer Blues musicians even earlier) to current mainstays like Brandi Carlile, Joy Oladokun, and the Indigo Girls, our music is central to this genre. So let's keep making it unapologetically and honestly ours!
Tell us about the first song you wrote.
My family was really involved in the church all the way up until I left for college (and we each independently decided to leave.) One tradition our church had was "Vacation Bible School" every summer. For anyone unfamiliar, it's essentially a way parents can get a break from their kids for a week, and the day is filled with Bible lessons, worship songs with awkward dances (which I led one year, yikes), games outside, and snacks.
During my 4th grade year in VBS, I remember being struck by how genuinely simple the songs were that we were learning and thought "surely I could write something at least as good!" So I went home and wrote a song about "forgiveness" in my little journal to prove it – just following the modern Christian song formula of taking a moral buzzword and constructing a whole song around it.
The song was pretty bad, and 4th grade me truly couldn't have cared less about forgiveness when writing it, but I still think it would've been pretty indistinguishable from the other VBS songs that week!
Do you have any songwriting tips you can share?
I think the biggest tip I have would be to just finish the damn thing! It doesn't have to be perfect! It doesn't need to be anywhere near the final version! But finish that first draft. And I'm absolutely speaking to myself here as well (I have at least 50 half-finished songs I love just sitting in my voice memos, because I will fight tooth-and-nail against actually completing an idea.)
The most enjoyable part of songwriting for me is that initial spark when you've first thought of a melody or an interesting concept or a series of lines. But the real work comes in after that inspiration fades, when you truly need to just sit down and grind out that first draft. As a perfectionist (as I think many songwriters are), I struggle to set down that first version, as I want everything to be perfect from the jump, but you'll have absolutely nothing to work with if you never set down those last lines! Editing is always allowed and whatever melody or lyric idea you're not the most excited about now, you can always tweak later.
I find it helpful to take yourself to a different environment (it could be a park, another room in your home or apartment, etc.) with the intention of working on a specific song. Even if you don't progress at all on the song that day, setting aside that intentional time and trying is an accomplishment in itself...do that enough times and eventually the ideas will come.
EGO TRIP is out on Friday. Pre-save it here.
