Kelsea Ballerini’s highly-anticipated new album Patterns dropped on Oct. 25. Ballerini couldn’t be more proud of the transparent, reflective, courageous autobiographical set of songs she mostly wrote with her girl group of friends.
However, Ballerini said that she and the writers (Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild, hit songwriters Jessie Jo Dillon and Hillary Lindsey, and her producer Alysa Vanderheym) couldn’t have crafted Patterns if her Grammy-nominated Rolling Up The Welcome Mat hadn’t come first.
“Freedom is the perfect word,” Ballerini told American Songwriter, describing what she felt when making Patterns. She described Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, which was inspired by her divorce, as the “surprise of my life.” She didn’t make the album with commercial success in mind.
“I think the reason it worked like it did is because of the pureness that I made it with,” she said of Rolling Up The Welcome Mat. “It was selfish. I was going through it, and I needed somewhere to put it. Songwriting has always been that place for me. And I think not thinking about it, like making a commercial country record and just making a project, is what made it special.”
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She approached Patterns with the same mindset.
“It’s been interesting keeping that level of like, ‘It’s okay. It’s okay if the song is five minutes. If the outro feels good, put it on there,’” she said. “It’s okay if you curse on the record. Say it like you would say it in real life. It’s okay if this song leans really, really commercial country, and it’s okay if this song is locked to a grid with a beat drop. I think ‘Welcome Mat’ really gave me permission to do that.”
Kelsea Ballerini Judges Success Differently Now
Ballerini’s songs “Sorry Mom,” “Two Things,” and “Cowboys Cry Too” with Noah Kahan from Patterns are out now.
Rolling Up The Welcome Mat also reframed her idea of success.
“I get to bring this record to (Madison Square Garden),” she said. “I get to tour it in big rooms I’ve never gotten to do before on this level. I made a record that is honest, that I think is sonically a little innovative and fun, that is a story, and that has great songwriting on it. Wherever that decides to live is good with me.”
Ballerini also doesn’t want to tell fans what to think or feel when they hear Patterns.
“I think what I’ve learned is that music is subjective, and I know what I felt while I wrote it,” she said. “I know what I wrote it about. I know all the things, but that’s not mine to tell. It’s not mine to tell people what they should feel when they listen to it. I just want them to project it onto their own life and try it on, and they can feel whatever they want.”
Get tickets to Ballerini’s Madison Square Garden show in New York City here.
(Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
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