“Me choosing ‘Girl’ as the first single, it’s about transitioning from someone who felt like she didn't need anybody into someone who very much needs people and is okay with admitting that,” Morris says. “That really frightening vulnerability that I've been trying to avoid, I’m not doing that any longer.” Indeed: “Girl,” co-written with pop hitmaker Greg Kurstin (Adele, Kelly Clarkson) and Morris’ “The Middle” collaborator Sarah Aarons, is a lighter-waving mid-tempo track that owes as much to smoky rock’n’roll as it does classic country, thanks to a zig-zagging guitar riff. But Morris also teases orchestral string sections and a “straight-up pop-R&B” jam on her next LP, as well as introspective lyrics about life as a newlywed. (She married fellow musician Ryan Hurd last spring.) Below, Morris tells Billboard about working with Kurstin and Aarons, how her songwriting has evolved since Hero and what to expect from her next record. You co-wrote your new single with Sarah Aarons, who also co-wrote “The Middle.” Has she become a close collaborator since that song brought you together? Yeah, we’ve written together a handful of times. I met her at the Grammy Awards this past year at the Sony afterparty. From there, we got a few writes on the books. I obviously had already fallen in love with her songwriting and her songs, but until you get into a room with somebody, you don’t really know how the chemistry is going to work out. Luckily it was just a match made in heaven, because we’re both inspired by a lot of the same artists and have similar vocal tones and styles. So it was just a really great collaboration with her and Greg Kurstin, whom we did these songs with. I feel like I’ve made a friend for life, a songwriter friend for life, with her. She really brought some different facets of truths out of me that I didn’t have before. Lyrical truths specifically? Yeah, I think just more introspective lyrics. And also, just on a technical level, her melody structuring is so unique, which is why I fell in love with “The Middle” -- it's such a melodically interesting song, and she knows when to leave spaces. You don't just fill the entire three and a half to four minutes with noise. Sometimes what you're not saying is more interesting than what you're saying, and I think I learned that from her. And she's a few years younger than me, so it’s a testament to her craft and how much of an old soul she is. The songs I wrote with her on the [new] album are really introspective, really raw. They just feel elevated in a weird way. I'm not sure if it's just the lyrics or Greg’s production on those songs, it just felt like a more distinguished, refined album that came together. What led you to seek Greg out? Amanda Berman-Hill, who is at Sony ATV in L.A., she’s Sarah Aarons’ publisher and also Greg’s publisher. Obviously I wanted to write with Sarah, and she and Amanda had the idea. Amanda was like, “Sarah has written a bunch with Greg -- you should do a trio and get in a room together and see what happens.” That's how it came about, and it was really natural. We were paired together for a couple days. That first day, we got the song “Girl.” So right off the bat, the chemistry of the three of us in the room was making something different that my ears haven't heard before with my own music. That really intrigued me. Sometimes when people know your music and your album so well, they want to recreate that. There’s almost a greater quality in someone that isn’t completely familiar with your work, because they can help you create a new, more defined sound that doesn't sound like something you’ve done before. I feel like I really got some deeper, more interesting instrumentation with Greg than I’ve gotten to do before. Did you have a specific musical blueprint in mind for this record, or did you just see what happened in the studio? I think the songs dictate the sound. Greg is really interesting in the studio, because he never really stops moving. He has this incredible studio in L.A. He has so many synthesizers and organs and pianos and guitars and amps. He was constantly moving around the different rooms of the studio, building a song, while Sarah and I would work on concept and melody and lyrics. We all had very defined roles, which was cool. Whatever he was creating, whatever we were singing was inspiring each other as the hours went on. At the end of the day it was like, “Ready to sing a vocal?” This bed of beautiful instrumental layers had been laid down, and we had the melodies to go with it perfectly. I didnt even re-sing the vocals from our demo. There was just no need to. Those are my vocals from the day we wrote it. How often does that happen? Sometimes the first time you sing something, because you don’t know it yet, it’s got this nuance -- you’re still trying to find the melody, and some really beautiful things can happen when you don't know the song yet. I sometimes find it hard to go back to songs and recapture the magic the original demo or worktape had. If there’s something needing to be fixed, obviously you can go back and comp it, but there’s a magic in those original raw vocals. If it ain't broke, don’t fix it. Why did you want to kick off this new album with “Girl”? Hero was a chapter of my life where I was going through a “first love falling apart” phase, and figuring my early 20s out. It’s that stage in life where you're not ready for marriage yet, you're not ready to settle down, but you're not a teenager anymore. You're in this weird in-between that can be really fun and also really heartbreaking. That’s what the last record was about. And I feel like the last two years, after touring and growing up a bit more -- and obviously I’ve found somebody that understands me now, and have fallen in love and gotten married -- my [perspective on] songwriting is just a little different. It’s a little lighter than it was the first time around! [Laughs.] I’m not quite as bitter. Me choosing “Girl” as the first single, it’s about transitioning from someone who felt like she didn't need anybody into someone who very much needs people, and is okay with admitting that. That really frightening vulnerability that I've been trying to avoid, I’m not doing that any longer. This album is really about self-acceptance and partner acceptance. The first half of the album is very self-reflective, and it's more about me. Then the second half of the record transitions into me being the counterpart to somebody else. I didn’t have any love songs on Hero, so there are a lot more on this one, and I think that’s been a really beautiful side to being a touring musician: You never see the person, you miss them all the time, and he’s a musician as well, so we’re constantly writing with each other or about each other. A lot of these songs reflect that. He actually wrote a couple of songs on this album with me. I feel like I’ve grown up more in the years since I released that album. And this is the timestamp of that. Has “The Middle” changed your approach to crossing genre lines? My first record had a little bit of everything: country, R&B, soul, pop. That was just me trying things out and being inspired. After “The Middle,” I've just become braver, and I don’t really care so much about the thing that may end up happening that I’ve already dealt with in the past: [People telling me,] “You’re not country!” And that’s okay. I’m a little bit of everything. I’m myself. I’m an artist. I’m not going to be one color.<doc-sep>“I was thinking about it when I was choosing this as the first single. It’s kind of ironically hilarious that you can look at the country chart at any given moment and see there are tons of song titles with the world ‘girl’ in them, and they’re all by men,” Morris said. (As Morris’s single was released, the chart included Dustin Lynch’s “Good Girl”; Jason Aldean’s “Girl Like You” and Riley Green’s “There Was This Girl.”) “Wouldn’t it be funny and really taking it to the next level if a girl released a song just called ‘Girl’?”<doc-sep>Maren Morris has announced dates and venues for a headlining 2019 trek, dubbed Girl: The World Tour. The series of shows shares its name with Morris’ new single, “Girl,” set for release Thursday afternoon. Girl: The World Tour officially launches on March 9th in Chicago, Illinois, stretching more than 40 dates and visiting venues like Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and Los Angeles’ Wiltern along the way. Making good on the ‘World’ portion of its name, the tour will also take an extended trip through Europe, visiting Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Cassadee Pope will open shows on the tour’s March shows, while RaeLynn will take over that role for shows through the end of May. Tickets go on sale to the public Tuesday, January 22nd at 10 a.m. local time. Additionally, Morris will be a visible fixture on the festival circuit this summer, with confirmed appearances at Bonnaroo, Faster Horses and LakeShake. “The Middle,” her breakout dance collaboration with Zedd and Grey, is currently nominated for Record of the Year at the 2019 Grammy Awards. Morris also scored nominations for Best Country Solo Performance for her cover of Elton John’s “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” and Best Country Song for “Dear Hate.” The upcoming single “Girl” is the first glimpse of Morris’ follow-up to her acclaimed 2016 debut Hero. That project scored her an Album of the Year nomination at the 2016 CMA Awards, where she ended up winning New Artist of the Year. Girl: The World Tour dates: March 9 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre March 13 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium March 15 – Kansas City, MO @ Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland March 16 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion March 18 – Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium March 19 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union March 21 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom March 23 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo March 26 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic March 28 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues Anaheim March 30 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern April 11 – Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy April 18 – Houston, TX @ Revention Music Center April 19 – Dallas, TX @ Bomb Factory April 20 – New Braunfels, TX @ Whitewater Amphitheatre April 25 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE April 26 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore April 27 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues May 2 – Washington, DC @ Anthem May 3 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel May 4 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5 May 9 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant May 10 – Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room at Old National Centre May 11 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit May 17 – Berlin, Germany @ Columbia Theatre May 18 – Cologne, Germany @ Kantine May 19 – Zurich, Switzerland @ Mascotte May 21 – Hamburg, Germany @ Gruenspan May 22 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso May 24 – Dublin, Ireland @ The Academy May 25 – Leeds, U.K. @ O2 Academy Leeds May 26 – Glasgow, U.K. @ O2 Academy Glasgow May 27 – Manchester, U.K. @ Albert Hall May 29 – Bristol, U.K. @ O2 Academy Bristol May 30 – Birmingham, U.K. @ O2 Institute May 31 – London, U.K. @ Royal Albert Hall August 16 – Auckland, New Zealand @ The Logan Campbell Centre August 17 – Christchurch, New Zealand @ Town Hall August 19 – Brisbane, Australia @ Brisbane City Hall August 21 – Melbourne, Australia @ Forum Theatre August 22 – Sydney, Australia @ Enmore Theatre August 23 – Canberra, Australia @ UC Refectory<doc-sep>
When Maren Morris sat down to write her new song “Girl,” the first taste of her anticipated second album, she had confrontation on her mind. But midway through, she experienced an epiphany. “I was writing it as a letter to another girl who I felt had disrespected me and was constantly trying to be competitive with me when I just wanted to exist in my own space,” she tells Rolling Stone. “But as we kept writing it, I realized I’m not talking to someone else — I’m talking to myself.” That moment of self-discovery reshaped the tone of “Girl,” transforming it into an upbeat, optimistic single with a strutting, indie-rock guitar sound. Written with Sarah Aarons (who co-wrote Morris’s dance smash with Zedd, “The Middle”) and Greg Kurstin, the track seeks to remind Morris — and anyone who faces seemingly insurmountable odds — to never give up. “I am talking to my inner critic that says I’m not good enough,” she says. “This is me telling myself it’s going to be OK and to chill the fuck out. Just write your music and put your blinders on. Don’t worry about what other people are doing or saying about you. Don’t water yourself down to appease them. Just focus on your art and the rest will fall into place.” Morris admits the song is particularly potent in a time when women aren’t represented on country radio or even streaming services. “Looking at the country radio chart the last year, more titles had the word ‘girls’ in them than actual girls on the radio,” she says. “I think in my head I wanted to buck the trend a little bit and be like, ‘I’m a girl, and I’m going to sing about a girl, and I’m the girl.” But the 28-year-old, who is nominated for five Grammys at next month’s ceremonies, was adamant that “Girl” focus on the positive. And she doubles down on a message of coming equality. “[‘Girl’] speaks to a time where every woman that is in music, or not even in music, is dealing with issues that face women. We’re so overly well aware of what we’re up against, it’s almost like we’re sick of hearing it and I just want to look to the future and stop being in the present,” she says. “I’m constantly asked on every carpet, in any interview, ‘What’s it like facing the adversity of the lack of women at radio?’ There are only so many answers I can give, so I decided to put it in an album answer.” Morris will launch her headlining Girl: The World Tour in March.