Ingrid Andress Talks About Her Upcoming Album “Good Person”
With Ingrid Andress set to release her sophomore album “Good Person” on 26th August, it was so exciting to get the chance to chat to her (for an all-too-brief 15 minutes) about the project which I’d had a sneak preview of before we spoke. All I will say is you are in for a treat, if you thought she dug deep and showed her vulnerable side on “Lady Like” then these 12 new songs take her music and creativity to a different level in so many respects which you may have already gathered from those already available, including “Pain” which she has described as the crux of the album.
On “Good Person” Ingrid takes the listener with her on her journey from a dark, toxic relationship with a narcissist to finding her light and falling in love with a good person, while at every stage questioning exactly what that means.
I hope you enjoy our conversation over Zoom… the time flew by for me and hopefully for Ingrid too!
1. LH Thanks for you time today! Can you start by telling me where you are, I like to paint a bit of a picture for those reading this.
IA Good to see you again! And sure, I just got back to Nashville, I’m currently on the Keith Urban ” Speed Of Now Tour” over the weekends, so during the week I get to come back, hang out and write more songs!
LH And recharge your batteries for the next weekend I guess?
IA Yes, and do laundry and other ordinary people things!
2. LH Last time I saw you was just a few weeks back at that amazing London fan showcase….you were practically exploding with excitement it seems, and appeared to genuinely love engaging with your fans in such an intimate setting. What are your favourite memories from that evening?
IA Yesss!! I mean my favourite was after I had performed, when I got to hang out with people and get to know everyone, because I feel like I haven’t been able to do that for the past two years! So that is the most exciting part for me, to meet and hear stories from people who can hear THEIR stories in my songs. That to me is why I write, to be human and present in our feelings, so to be able to share that with other people is my favourite part. Yeah but also just people singing along, that’s really fun too, some of these newer songs just came out and people knew the lyrics and that to me is so encouraging that you’ve written something that resonates with somebody …they may just have two days to learn it and they know every word and you’re like ” Wow, you’re way better at that than I
am!”.
LH Yes, we are very good at doing our homework here!
3. LH You’ve just brought up something I was going to ask further on, so let’s slot that in now! Although the songs you write for own albums come from a very personal place, at the same time they are often very relatable to others. Have any particular ones from “Good Person” that you’ve either already released or have played live seemed to resonate with fans?
IA That’s always a tricky one because I feel that everybody has their own favourite, which I guess is not a bad problem to have! I feel like it’s a fair mix across the board ….comments like ” ‘ Good Person’, I just listened to that song on repeat, it has a really interesting perspective! Or ‘Seeing Someone Else’ , I just got out of a relationship like that and have never been able to put into words why I was leaving or what was happening but this really spelled everything out! Or with ‘ Pain’ , I really needed this song today, especially for everything women are going through in our country currently” …..
LH … Yes absolutely!
IA It came out right about that time, which was not planned at all, but I guess the the universe just needed it to happen, to hear it at the time. So I haven’t been able to figure out which one is popping off more than the others because every one just has their own moment.
4. LH And of the songs that have yet to be released, which ones are you most excited for people to hear and to get feedback about when the album comes out?
IA Oh Man… I’m curious about what people think about “Feel Like This” because, well, I’m trying to push boundaries sonically and content wise, and to me it’s a different kind of love song that’s really specific and it’s probably the favourite song that I’ve written. Just because it speaks my truth so articulartely, the chords sound like you are falling in love, I feel like I captured that which is a great feeling. And also I want to know how the song ” Yearbook” makes people feel…
LH Wait, it’s so funny ‘cos they are truly my two absolute favourites on the album….
IA Really??? Great minds think alike! “Yearbook” is written from a perspective too that’s not really discussed in country that much. You know, if you marry your childhood sweetheart that supposedly is the best thing that can happen to you …but what happens when it’s NOT?
5. LH I really love “Yearbook” and it’s quite a different song I feel, the others on the album are written from a more personal perspective and come from your personal experiences, whereas it more observational?
IA YES! I think the first two songs, “Good Person “ and “Yearbook” are to showcase that observer in me who constantly wants to learn more. Once I get into that position I’m like ” oh let me take that information and apply it to my own life, let’s take this perspective and see what it means about my relationship… oh this is not the relationship I want to be in ” which is sort of how those songs are lined up on the album. All the songs go in the order in which they happened.
6. LH Yeah, track order to me on albums is really important and something I bang on about a lot! On albums like your new one it’s even more important I think, as you say it’s takes you on a journey and although they are all great stand alone tracks it’s a body of work rather than a collection of songs…
IA Yes! So it’s very intentional, it’s been really tough for me as an artist. I’m such a concept person as a songwriter and so the order in which songs are on the album, I’ve never been able to feel like ” there you go! ” as there’s so much meaning and story in the order. There’s room for everything, I know that listening to an album top down is rare these days but I think that’s because people aren’t doing concept albums. I would like to bring that back into the realm of music . Yes, obviously our attention span is getting shorter too but there’s really something magical about just putting the record on and letting it go all the way down without skipping or being like ” when’s the next happy song”. Let’s just take this journey together!
7. LH You’ve co-produced both your albums. How much do you enjoy bringing your songs to life, so to speak, from their stripped back acoustic beginnings to the full studio versions on the records? Is that a fun journey to take with your “babies”?
IA It is, yeah! I have to use a different pair of my brain which is exciting because my writing brain is way different to my musical, creative brain! So I get to experience the songs all over again in a cool way. And most of the time it’s like the most fun thing ever, and then sometimes it is the worst thing ever because you can’t find the sounds that you’re looking for. It starts to get really frustrating, like ” why isn’t this coming together?” but it’s usually a sign that you’re not taking it in the right direction and you just need to pivot, which is such a valuable life lesson as well! If something just isn’t working then maybe you need to admit that your idea just wasn’t great and try another one! I feel it’s another way for me to express what’s going on in my head ….people may say ” well this doesn’t sound super country” but that’s just what’s happening in my head, I don’t set up boundaries for myself .
LH People do like to put things in boxes it seems, but music can merge the boxes and still be great music…
IA Yeah I agree! Isn’t the point to create something new and different, something that parallels what’s happening in our world or society ? If you just stay in one place you start to lose touch with what people are actually enjoying and experiencing. That’s why I love travelling and meeting new people, there’s always something to learn and to write about.
8. LH As much as we all miss live music when the world shut down… just after ” Lady Like” was released too so you didn’t even get to tour that album properly… I guess we’ve got the pandemic to thank for your new album haven’t we, as it gave you the time to take that step back and do the soul-searching and self-reflection that inspired in the songs. Would we have had a totally different second album otherwise?
IA I’m sure! I’ve thought about that, it’s like a fun little mind game…” what happens if the pandemic doesn’t happen? Who do you think you’d be as a person?”. Yeah I probably would have written very differently, I think I wouldn’t have gotten to be as introspective as I’d have been really caught up in touring my debut album and everything that goes into that. Which is still a bummer but it’s the silver lining, sure you didn’t get to tour your first album but you got to write a f***ing awesome second album so I’ll take it!
LH And also it took you to a better place personally, so It’s a win/win situation on both levels.
IA Exactly. So I’m like, well if the pandemic never happened I’d probably have kept writing really sad songs and my life would have been so different! If anything I’m really thankful I got the time to psychoanalyse myself! And other people!!
9. LH Oh goodness I’ve only got a minute and a half left! And so much I still want to ask! I’m going to have to skip…
So, there’s another album track out Friday I gather…“Blue” which was beautiful and moving when you performed it for us in London….can you briefly tell me a bit more about it please?
IA So that song was written a while ago, I’ve been playing it live to test it out. That song was inspired by videos of colour blind people seeing colour for the first time which is so emotional. So that’s where that concept came from, it’s such a powerful sentiment to see a colour for the first time and we all take everything for granted. So ” Blue” is a love song technically but it was inspired by how beautiful colours are and how that one moment is life changing.
Stream/download ‘Blue’ by hitting the link below
https://ingridandress.lnk.to/blue
10 LH Two more super quick questions …..again, there’s going to be a visualiser to accompany the track, you’re so involved at every stage of the creative process, which part do you enjoy the most?
IA I definitely think the writing and producing part of it. Visually, think it’s just as important but I’m still learning about all of that, what I like and what I don’t like. Because I wasn’t able to shoot a ton of things during the pandemic this is like my first official time of trying to build a story through the visuals, I don’t want them to be just random things either I wanted them to tie in together. so that’s been a really eye-opening process for me. I was like ” let’s do a bunch of water things” because water is the ultimate medium, without realising I actually had to get IN water to do all these things and I’ve been freezing on every single music video! So no water next time!!
LH Suffering for your art!
11. LH Finally…I have to ask of course, although Keith is keeping you busy for much of this year are there plans afoot for a tour over here ? We were all so gutted that your dates earlier they year were cancelled.
IA Yes we have to make up for that! And play the first album and the second album! It will be a whole event and yes, it will be happening and I just cannot wait to tell people when!
LH Watch this space!!
Thanks again so much Ingrid, I’ll keep the other questions for next time, hopefully a face to face when you’re back here! It was a pleasure chatting to you!
IA Yes….thank you Lesley!
Pre-Order ” Good Person” here https://ingridandress.lnk.to/preorder-goodperson
Interview conducted by Lesley Hastings (twitter.com/lesleyhastings)
