Megan Moroney is on cloud nine. On Feb. 20, the country darling released her latest album, Cloud 9, a confident, happy, and pink-toned masterpiece.
Videos by American Songwriter
“I feel like my feet have really been planted in my career, but also I’m adjusting to this new life of being an artist,” Moroney told editor-in-chief Lisa Konicki on American Songwriter’s Off the Record podcast. “Now I feel used to those changes, and it’s allowing me to just be confident.”
“The past year has been so happy,” she continued. “I wrote a lot of the album on the Am I Okay? Tour. That tour brought some of the biggest joys of my life, being on stage and singing those songs with my fans.”
Penning the LP on tour put Moroney in a “very confident, happy headspace,” which was a new experience for the singer.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever made an album in that kind of headspace,” she said, before explaining the pink hue of the project.
“Pink is strong and confident and sassy, but soft, and allowed to be soft because of the confidence,” she said. “I feel like, because now I’m so sure of myself, I can allow that softness.”
Megan Moroney Breaks Down Tracks on Cloud 9
Moroney created the album in a happy headspace. However, she assured fans that “emo cowgirl songs” still appear on the LP.
“‘Waiting On The Rain’ is definitely devastating,” she said. “I was really heartbroken about a relationship ending, but it wasn’t the end of the world. Where in the past, it has been the end of the world.”
Then there’s “Table for Two,” a song that nearly caused Moroney to backslide into a past relationship.
“I was drunk. I was like, ‘I have to send it to him,’” she recalled. “So I called him, but fortunately, I had just gotten a new number.”
“I woke up and had the utmost scaries. I found out that I had called him from my new number, which he didn’t have yet,” Moroney continued. “Scaries, be gone. He never knew that I called him.”
“Wedding Dress,” meanwhile, explores the false realities people create in their heads.
“I was just so down astronomically bad about this one guy,” Moroney said. “I had already had in my head ‘I’m going to marry him’ after meeting him twice.”
Moroney noted that “those heartbreaks hurt worse because they weren’t real. You never get to live up to the potential that you created in your head.”
Megan Moroney on Her Collaboration With Ed Sheeran
The 15-track album also features two duets—one with Ed Sheeran, and another with Kacey Musgraves. The former track, “I Only Miss You,” came to fruition after Sheeran asked Moroney to sing alongside him at the Bluebird Cafe. Afterwards, they began sending songs to each other.
“Ultimately, it ended up being the last song I ever sent him,” Moroney said of Sheeran. “It was very traditionally country. I didn’t know if he would like that. Before, the songs I was sending… were pop songs.”
“This was a Hail Mary. I had no idea if he would even be interested in a song this country. He loved it,” she continued. “He rewrote his verses, and now I’ve got a song with Ed Sheeran. Crazy.”
Overall, Moroney said, Cloud 9 is “a confident take on trying to figure out your life.”
“[It’s not about] having it all together, but being confident that it’s going to be OK,” she said. “I feel like that’s the story of my life… It’s just honest and vulnerable, but confident and sassy. It’s very me.”
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.