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Hailey Whitters is a part of Martin’s Showcase class of 2024: discover out extra in regards to the Showcase programme at martinguitar.com, and on this yr’s Martin Journal.

Born in a small city in Iowa, Hailey Whitters moved to Nashville when she was simply 17. She spent the following few years honing her songwriting and performing craft – whereas additionally working odd-jobs in diners and hair salons and receiving, as she places it, a “honky-tonk training”. If there’s a city to get a type of in, it’s, in fact, Nashville.

After over a decade of relentless work writing for different artists and performing her personal music throughout Music Metropolis, Hailey broke by way of in 2019 with the reflective Ten Yr City. The track seems again on her time in Nashville, and the work she put into ‘making it’ – becoming, then, that it could launch the following stage of her profession.

Along with her personal materials, she would go on to develop her sound right into a playful tackle country-pop together with her albums The Dream and Raised – the latter spawning her greatest hit but, the platinum-selling All the things She Ain’t. Most not too long ago, she dialed up the heart-eyes on her 2023 EP I’m In Love.

We spoke to Hailey about taking the leap of shifting to Nashville at 17, getting a crash-course within the music enterprise when she arrived, and the way she now approaches her artistic course of.

The place did all of it begin for you with music and the guitar?

I grew up in a small, blue-collar farming neighborhood in Iowa. I had a really artistic household, however nobody had made that leap to do it professionally. I at all times sang as a child – once I used to trip the tractor with my grandpa and my dad out within the discipline, I used to be at all times singing these little songs to myself. It wasn’t till my mother received me my first guitar once I was 14 that I used to be capable of begin actually taking part in alongside to myself. The guitar, for me, was once I actually began taking it severely.

What had been you studying if you received your first guitar?

The primary track I ever learnt on it was Three Wood Crosses by Randy Travis. I don’t actually know the place that got here from – I really like Randy Travis, I’m a giant fan of his, however it’s form of an uncommon choose for a 14-year-old woman!

However that was the primary one I actually keep in mind correctly diving into, and the primary track I carried out in public. However I used to be at all times actually drawn to feminine songwriters in nation music, too – I nonetheless keep in mind getting Residence by the Chicks, and studying the liner notes the place it mentioned they wrote a whole lot of their very own songs. So I used to be studying plenty of their songs, and Miranda Lambert, too, on the time.

What was your first efficiency?

I used to be like 15 on the time – I simply discovered these previous photos of that, I’ve like, full braces. It was in some health club at a church or highschool or one thing in Cedar Rapids. Simply me and my guitar. That was my first present in entrance of an viewers that wasn’t simply my household.

When did you progress to Nashville?

I moved to Nashville once I was 17. Proper once I graduated highschool, I used to be like, proper, I’m shifting, I’m gonna try to be a rustic singer. And that’s precisely what I did. The minute I graduated, I simply moved to Tennessee!

Was it intimidating to maneuver and try to enter such a aggressive music trade so younger?

For me, that’s the place ignorance was bliss. I used to be simply so younger and dumb and naive, I didn’t know the way nice the expertise pool was, I simply knew that I wished to do it. In my thoughts it was at all times like, ‘I don’t know when it’s gonna occur. I don’t know the way lengthy it’s going to take. However I simply consider it’s gonna occur.’

Nashville was in a whole lot of methods my honky-tonk training. Coming right here, it was the primary time I put a band collectively fairly than simply performed on my own. It was the primary time I ever did a co-write. My first few days on the town, I walked all the way down to Broadway, and that was the primary time I actually noticed it was a enterprise. Individuals working, taking part in the bars all day lengthy, seven days every week. It was a crash course for me, studying how the entire thing labored.

Inside a number of years of being right here, I wasn’t getting any conferences. It wasn’t like I had all these labels or publishers barking up my tree or something! So I put collectively this EP, recorded it with some associates of mine and booked a present at The Basement. That was what received me my first publishing deal. I used to be working at a hair salon on the time – and I used to be taken out to breakfast earlier than my shift began and supplied the deal. That was yr six or seven that I’d been on the town.

Inform me in regards to the writing of All the things She Ain’t. What about it do you suppose resonated with individuals?

Actually, it’s the hand claps, these catchy little suckers appear to be the thriller drug in that track! However, I wish to suppose a bit of little bit of it’s the sass, and the lightness, the enjoyable. Once we had been writing that track, it was my first writing session again in individual because the pandemic, and every little thing simply felt so heavy – the world simply felt heavy. And we had been on this co-write, onto this heavier form of concept. I used to be like, “guys, let’s simply write one thing enjoyable! That is an excessive amount of proper now.”

I threw out that line, “I’m every little thing she is and every little thing she ain’t”, and Ryan Tindall, my co-writer, began taking part in these chords to it. We wrote that track in like an hour and a half, it form of simply occurred – it’s one which caught me without warning. I believed my file was carried out already. However we performed that track for the label they usually had been like, “this has to go on it”. So the entire thing has simply been an entire shock to me – simply seeing how huge it received. It’s my first platinum file, and my first single on nation radio, which was one thing I’d at all times dreamed of as a child.

How do you view writing songs for your self towards writing for different individuals?

I at all times go in, with the mentality of, like, let’s simply write the very best track. I’m not essentially considering, “who would sing this?” Or, “we must always try to write a track for Kenny Chesney immediately” – to me, I really feel like if we write one thing that feels true and genuine, one thing that we will relate to, then another person has received to narrate to it too.

There are positively songs that really feel private to me, or a part of my story, that’s the place, know that I need to put the track on a file. After which there’s different ones the place I really like the track dearly, however I do know it may be for someone else.

I form of deal with it like a workers songwriter place. I really like writing songs – if my artistry goes away tomorrow, I’m nonetheless gonna write songs as a result of I simply love the method. After I’m not on the street, I’ll present up Monday by way of Friday, and write 5 songs every week. Not each single one needs to be this private track about me or my life – I like to have the ability to placed on a special hat, and write from someone else’s perspective.

I simply love all of it. I really like writing issues that really feel like they may change the world, after which I really like writing issues which are simply form of dumb and foolish, having enjoyable within the second.

What’s your relationship with Martin Guitars?

I went Martin and I by no means went again. I really feel actually drawn to Martin guitars. I received my first Martin guitar about eight years in the past. They’re every little thing I really like about music – they really feel very sincere. Authenticity is a phrase that involves thoughts once I take into consideration a Martin guitar. I’m drawn to voices like Vince Gill. To me, he’s only a pure, basic nation voice – and Martin guitars are like that in instrument kind.

Who’re some guitar gamers you’re impressed by?

I completely love Dave Rawlings. He sends you on a musical Journey, he backs himself right into a nook after which someway will get out of it. Bryan Sutton, too, he’s performed on a whole lot of my music, together with All the things She Ain’t. Each time we go into the studio, I’m identical to a child and a sweet retailer, attending to see what he’s going to do, you recognize? I’m simply utterly captivated by his taking part in. He tells tales together with his taking part in, and leaves you desirous to learn extra each time.

So I suppose I’m drawn to that pure, genuine factor – I’m a easy songwriter, I attempt to write easy songs. I believe Martin is form of rather a lot like that too. Not too many frills – it’s nearly easy genuine music. That’s why I really like them.

About Martin’s Highlight programme

Artists are the lifeblood of Martin Guitar. From Johnny Money to Joan Baez, numerous influential musicians helped make Martin what it’s immediately. Now, Martin has set its sights on the following era of musicians with the brand new Artist Showcase. This system goals to have a good time artists who’re making waves within the trade, and serves as a platform to attach the artists with Martin’s world viewers.

Six artists are kicking off the Highlight for 2024. They’re Drayton Farley, Devon Gilfillian, Ian Munsick, Pleasure Oldakun, Nate Smith and Hailey Whitters, and collectively they signify the huge span of music being made on Martin guitars: from soulful classic R&B to eclectically-influenced pop, and from uplifting nation rock to uncooked, unflinching Americana. On this sequence of interviews, Guitar.com sits down with the six artists that make up the category of 2024.