Hailing from Owasso, Oklahoma, Allie Colleen has set out to make a name for herself with her authentic style of country music and captivating lyrics. Named one of the 2022 Country Evolution Artists To Watch, Allie Colleen describes her music as Women’s Outlaw Country.
Garnering the attention of famed radio host, Bobby Bones, Allie Colleen was featured as the Artist of the Week on the Bobby Bones Top 30 Countdown this past May, where she performed her latest single “Halos and Horns”.
We caught up with Allie Colleen before her set at Cavendish Beach Music Festival to talk about “Halos and Horns” and to learn a little more about the artist behind the music.
Allie Colleen, Cavendish Beach Music Festival, Cavendish, PEI
Photo by Melanie Brown of Nashville Dream Photography
Growing up in a musical household, at what age did you know that you wanted to pursue a career in music?
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to sing and song write and perform. I fell in love with it. As soon as I could read, I started reading poetry. It’s always been the goal.
Who were some of the artists you were listening to growing up that shaped you into the artist you are today?
My mom always played Jo Dee Messina and Jamie O’Neil and stuff like that, but most of the time it was a bunch of 2000’s R&B artists. But then maybe as old as Cher and Michael Jackson, so a lot of pop influences for me. They’re just so rad. Jo Dee Messina is a big one.
You are a regular at weekly writer’s rounds in Nashville; where is your favourite place to play a round?
All the venues take way too good of care of you to answer a question like that. [laughs] They’re all so sweet, but two that come to mind immediately are The Local, which is what you would think it would be. It’s more local people and that crowd is so kind. As far as the commercial side of Nashville, Live Oak is a place for us that we like to go.
Of all the songs you’ve written on, which one are you most proud of?
They’re all kind of like your babies. I have some of the raddest cowriters on the planet on this album and all these projects that we do. With that said, there’s only one song that we’ve ever released that I was the only writer on, so I’m really proud of “I Blame it On The Weather” any time it gets responses. I always try to write with people that are better than me. That’s how you grow. “I Blame it on the Weather” is one that I’m very, very proud of.
Your latest single, “Halos and Horns”, which you wrote with Eric Dodd and Stephen Hunley, came out May 6th. Can you tell us a little bit about the writing process for that song?
We wrote “Halos and Horns” probably a year, if not a year and a half before this last May when we put it out. It’s had a lot of time to do its thing, especially acoustically before we took it into the studio. We have a song [called] “Stones” and there’s a couple other songs where looking back at them now, I have no idea where it came from. We just kinda walked out of the write like, ‘I think we have something super, super sick today’. It was just a really good write, so “Halos and Horns” kinda came from all of us individually and our look on good and evil and what that looks like for a cowboy. Eric and Stephen and I have a handful of songs together. We have a song we’ll play today that’s unreleased called “Cowboy As It Gets” that they’re writers on. We just write really well together.
You also had Lee Brice and Jerrod Niemann produce the song. What was it like working with them?
I’m such a fan of both of them in such a different way. I know Jerrod more as a songwriter as far as how I was first exposed to him and then got to really fall in love with him as an artist. Lee has always been a big influence and his wife Sarah is a really big influence on me. She wrote a lot of songs on the album with me, [so] that’s kind of how I got connected with them. It was just really cool to sit back and watch their ears and how they work and how Jerrod works much differently than Lee does, and it was again, just surrounding yourself with these people that are so much more educated, whether it be experience-wise or from where they come from. Just getting to sit back and watch them, I learned so much. They’re also just really cool dudes to be around.
What is the best piece of advice that you’ve received from someone in the music industry?
There’s been a lot of people that have been really, really kind to us and really championed us. Usually these two worlds don’t really mix together for me, but I think a lot of the biggest stuff that I’ve learned and been encouraged are the very few and very far between [music industry] conversations that I have got to have with my dad. I feel like it more so comes from his parenting side of just put your head down and work and as much as all the information and help that can be given in Nashville, it just comes down to put your head down and work and then just do it ’til you can’t. And then if you have the option to stop anytime, please for the rest of us, go on baby, do your thing. I don’t want to discourage anybody, but if you think you can do something else, I can’t imagine this town working for you. That’s what’s so cool about Nashville, you just have a bunch of people there doing what they have absolutely no other choice than to do, which is make music. I think if you’re meant to do this, you’ll do this.
That leads us into our next question, what is a piece of advice that you’d give to someone just getting started?
The biggest thing I pride myself on is the people I have around me. I think my friends are so overly talented and they all come from much different places, and so we all just look at everything differently. I think allowing yourself to learn from the creative process just as much as compete has been a really big deal for me. I feel like we all come in trying to prove ourselves, and sometimes it’s really cool to walk into a write and be like “I shouldn’t be here, so you guys do your thing and I’m gonna watch and then I’m gonna take everything that I learned from you”. I think Nashville is a really cool town to be able to do that in.
What can we look forward to from you over the next few months?
Lee [Brice], Jerrod [Nieman], and I, as well as a third producer, Cody Labelle, [who is] the man on the keys behind everything as far as the computer and the engineering goes, we did three songs together. “Halos and Horns” was the first of three [and] the second one is called “Feels Like” [and] it’s going to come out August 19th. Very excited about that! And then we have a third song that we have done with them as well and it’ll come out later in the year. All new music, we have a lot of tour dates coming up which you can find on my website alliecolleenmusic.com.
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