In case you met Cassadee Pope on The Voice a decade in the past, you then would most likely label her as a rustic singer. However her hardcore followers know she began her profession within the pop punk band Hey Monday — and for her new album, she’s going again to her roots.
Pope, 34, quietly returned to the style a few years in the past, however her new album, Hereditary, finds her diving again into the sounds that she first fell in love with as an adolescent. Whereas her nation albums all the time had a rock aptitude, listeners will discover that her new tracks would sound extra at house on the Warped Tour than at Stagecoach.
“I by no means was tremendous down the center nation, it was all the time a bit extra pop-rock nation,” Pope solely instructed Us Weekly forward of Hereditary’s Friday, July 12, launch. “I believe my complete profession, when you have a look at it and you actually hearken to the music and also you see the branding and even how I gown or how I used to decorate, I by no means match into one style or type.”
Absolutely embracing Hereditary as a rock album, nonetheless, allowed Pope — who gained season 3 of The Voice in 2012 — to put in writing extra candidly than she had previously. “Three of Us,” for instance, is in regards to the heartbreak of watching somebody near you wrestle with habit.
“Having family members who wrestle with substance abuse and habit, it’s not one thing that I’ve ever felt like I had the verbiage to speak about,” she defined. “In nation music, I simply couldn’t discover a solution to write about it in a manner that made sense within the style. I’m positive so many individuals can and have, however for me, it simply wasn’t clicking, and so as soon as I used to be in a position to strip all of the obstacles of nation music songwriting and what would work and what wouldn’t work, it simply opened my thoughts as much as so many various topic issues, and this was considered one of them.”
Working outdoors the framework of mainstream nation made Pope really feel extra at house in her songwriting, each due to the exterior stress to supply a success and the inner realization that her personal beliefs didn’t align with these of the powers that be. It’s a sentiment that’s been spreading amongst a number of up to date nation artists, lots of them girls — recall Maren Morris’ 2023 declaration that she not wished something to do with the business. (In 2022, Pope was a part of Morris’ well-known feud with Jason Aldean’s spouse, Brittany Aldean, who got here beneath fireplace for a social media publish referencing gender identification.)
“It was principally a societal factor and what nation music has traditionally deemed acceptable and inappropriate, however I believe a few of it was inner,” Pope instructed Us of leaving nation behind. “It’s arduous to be in a style the place you already know you don’t consider the entire issues that made it what it’s. Perhaps I’m not Christian, and I’m undecided that it is best to it doesn’t matter what say ‘household first’ as a result of some individuals’s households aren’t nice they usually’re abusive. There’s just a few issues in regards to the style and simply culturally that I haven’t ever aligned with, so when writing I used to be self-conscious about that.”
Pope stated that she tried to not let these emotions have an effect on her previous songwriting, however it occurred anyway.
“So after I left the style … it felt liberating,” she recalled. “I wasn’t making an attempt to overcorrect or write something that was simply so outlandish that it felt like, ‘OK, who’s she making an attempt to be and what’s she making an attempt to show?’ I simply felt very free. It undoubtedly felt creatively stifling generally in nation music … if I wrote one thing that felt slightly bit left of middle, like sassy or inappropriate, I might know deep down like, ‘Nation radio just isn’t gonna play this, and it’s not gonna most likely do what I would love it to do, success-wise.’ So, yeah, it affected me for positive.”
When Pope began engaged on Hereditary two years in the past, she didn’t got down to make a particular sort of report — and even an album in any respect. However as she began writing along with her collaborators, “it grew to become extra clear” that she was headed in the precise route.
“I used to be not feeling assured or in a superb place with something musically, so I went into it not fascinated with genres or what individuals would possibly like or if it was radio-friendly,” she recalled. “I may need stated sooner or later like, ‘Let’s write one thing within the rock area as a result of that’s how I’m feeling, a bit angsty, and I’m feeling a bit unhappy, so perhaps we write one thing in that vein. … It simply went in that route with out it being this super-calculated factor. As soon as I acquired the demo again, listening to myself in that manner gave me the boldness to maintain stepping into that route.”
Pope is completely satisfied to have come again to rock after her time within the nation world, however she’s supportive of artists who’ve gone the opposite manner — Beyoncé and Submit Malone, for instance. She additionally hopes that extra business decision-makers embrace the “fluidity” of style in the identical manner that artists and listeners have.
“It might be simpler for everybody to only settle for that artists have a whole lot of completely different influences,” she instructed Us. “They most likely didn’t sing the sort of music you’re listening to them singing now again after they have been of their bed room singing into their hairbrush. It might be clever for everybody to only open their minds to the truth that music ought to simply be loved and never categorized.”
Hereditary is out now.
In case you met Cassadee Pope on The Voice a decade in the past, you then would most likely label her as a rustic singer. However her hardcore followers know she began her profession within the pop punk band Hey Monday — and for her new album, she’s going again to her roots.
Pope, 34, quietly returned to the style a few years in the past, however her new album, Hereditary, finds her diving again into the sounds that she first fell in love with as an adolescent. Whereas her nation albums all the time had a rock aptitude, listeners will discover that her new tracks would sound extra at house on the Warped Tour than at Stagecoach.
“I by no means was tremendous down the center nation, it was all the time a bit extra pop-rock nation,” Pope solely instructed Us Weekly forward of Hereditary’s Friday, July 12, launch. “I believe my complete profession, when you have a look at it and you actually hearken to the music and also you see the branding and even how I gown or how I used to decorate, I by no means match into one style or type.”
Absolutely embracing Hereditary as a rock album, nonetheless, allowed Pope — who gained season 3 of The Voice in 2012 — to put in writing extra candidly than she had previously. “Three of Us,” for instance, is in regards to the heartbreak of watching somebody near you wrestle with habit.
“Having family members who wrestle with substance abuse and habit, it’s not one thing that I’ve ever felt like I had the verbiage to speak about,” she defined. “In nation music, I simply couldn’t discover a solution to write about it in a manner that made sense within the style. I’m positive so many individuals can and have, however for me, it simply wasn’t clicking, and so as soon as I used to be in a position to strip all of the obstacles of nation music songwriting and what would work and what wouldn’t work, it simply opened my thoughts as much as so many various topic issues, and this was considered one of them.”
Working outdoors the framework of mainstream nation made Pope really feel extra at house in her songwriting, each due to the exterior stress to supply a success and the inner realization that her personal beliefs didn’t align with these of the powers that be. It’s a sentiment that’s been spreading amongst a number of up to date nation artists, lots of them girls — recall Maren Morris’ 2023 declaration that she not wished something to do with the business. (In 2022, Pope was a part of Morris’ well-known feud with Jason Aldean’s spouse, Brittany Aldean, who got here beneath fireplace for a social media publish referencing gender identification.)
“It was principally a societal factor and what nation music has traditionally deemed acceptable and inappropriate, however I believe a few of it was inner,” Pope instructed Us of leaving nation behind. “It’s arduous to be in a style the place you already know you don’t consider the entire issues that made it what it’s. Perhaps I’m not Christian, and I’m undecided that it is best to it doesn’t matter what say ‘household first’ as a result of some individuals’s households aren’t nice they usually’re abusive. There’s just a few issues in regards to the style and simply culturally that I haven’t ever aligned with, so when writing I used to be self-conscious about that.”
Pope stated that she tried to not let these emotions have an effect on her previous songwriting, however it occurred anyway.
“So after I left the style … it felt liberating,” she recalled. “I wasn’t making an attempt to overcorrect or write something that was simply so outlandish that it felt like, ‘OK, who’s she making an attempt to be and what’s she making an attempt to show?’ I simply felt very free. It undoubtedly felt creatively stifling generally in nation music … if I wrote one thing that felt slightly bit left of middle, like sassy or inappropriate, I might know deep down like, ‘Nation radio just isn’t gonna play this, and it’s not gonna most likely do what I would love it to do, success-wise.’ So, yeah, it affected me for positive.”
When Pope began engaged on Hereditary two years in the past, she didn’t got down to make a particular sort of report — and even an album in any respect. However as she began writing along with her collaborators, “it grew to become extra clear” that she was headed in the precise route.
“I used to be not feeling assured or in a superb place with something musically, so I went into it not fascinated with genres or what individuals would possibly like or if it was radio-friendly,” she recalled. “I may need stated sooner or later like, ‘Let’s write one thing within the rock area as a result of that’s how I’m feeling, a bit angsty, and I’m feeling a bit unhappy, so perhaps we write one thing in that vein. … It simply went in that route with out it being this super-calculated factor. As soon as I acquired the demo again, listening to myself in that manner gave me the boldness to maintain stepping into that route.”
Pope is completely satisfied to have come again to rock after her time within the nation world, however she’s supportive of artists who’ve gone the opposite manner — Beyoncé and Submit Malone, for instance. She additionally hopes that extra business decision-makers embrace the “fluidity” of style in the identical manner that artists and listeners have.
“It might be simpler for everybody to only settle for that artists have a whole lot of completely different influences,” she instructed Us. “They most likely didn’t sing the sort of music you’re listening to them singing now again after they have been of their bed room singing into their hairbrush. It might be clever for everybody to only open their minds to the truth that music ought to simply be loved and never categorized.”
Hereditary is out now.