Although I could only get a glimpse of her through the corner of a zoom screen, in my mind's eye, Margo Price was wearing a fabulous full length maxi dress, with arms strung out with bangles to compliment her beachy blonde waves. She is the human embodiment of boho-chic.

A quick scroll through Price’s Instagram and you will see the providence of where I formed such an elaborate image; beach pictures in tie dye bikinis, suede waistcoats and fringe jackets and warm Janis Joplinesuqe psychedelic browns and oranges. Price is, what they call ‘California sober’- a rare an exotic concept to an Irish person.

‘Yeah. I’ve had a lot of psychedelic mushroom experiences and I still smoke weed’, Price muses. ‘The mushrooms though, obviously I have taken them to party and to have fun on them in that regard, but a lot of times they do feel more medicinal. If I am microdosing, I’m not out of my head.’

Referring to alcohol specifically, Price continues: “It’s the only one where you have to explain why you are not taking it’.

‘At times I used to like to think I was like Hemingway or something like where it was helping me write. But actually I finished the book when I quit drinking!’

And indeed what productivity - after publishing her memoir Maybe We Will Make It in 2022, Price went on to release her fourth studio album Strays which deals with issues such as industry double standards, the gender wage gap, and the plight of the American farmer.

Price dropped out of college in Illinois to move to Nashville to establish herself as a musician- it took her 14 years to secure a record deal. Now, with five studio albums under her belt, a memoir, and a grammy nomination for best newcomer artist- she sits on the Farm Aid board, a non profit set up by Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and Willie Nelson to raise awareness of the loss of family farms across America, and provide support for farmers.

But how did Price's most recent project, Strays begin? ‘Well it all started with a mushroom trip’… Price laughs.

‘It was a lot of fun. We actually took a writing retreat where we could only focus on that. We went and stayed at an Airbnb in Charleston South Carolina. It is one of my favourite places in the world. We were right by the ocean, cooking a lot of food, playing a lot of guitar. It was during the pandemic too. It was still deep covid when we started writing everything”.

MARGO PRICE 2022

Creative processes influencing one another

But the book came first, Price began writing it before the 2020 lockdown. At a certain point though, one creative process began to influence the other: ‘Yeah they did start to totally influence each other. It was 2018/2019  when I started writing the memoir and then I set it down’.

‘I started working on the album but I picked up the editing process. I didn’t have any chapter titles when I first started working on the book so it was just all one big long manuscript. Going back in and deciding where the chapters were going to be and what they were going to be named, there would be a song I would  be working on and it would be like “oh, we should use this song title as a chapter title” and planting little easter eggs in there to see if anybody notices’.

And not only that, but, sometimes working on one rather than the other, acted as a break: ‘It was just nice too to not have to think about how you’re writing songs, typically- they rhyme, and they’re very structured’.

‘I don’t know, maybe the book even influenced that. Even with the song Lydia - it’s my first song that doesn’t rhyme and has no melody and it’s like seven minutes long as well’.

‘But it was really nice how if I was feeling stagnant on the record I could just lock myself up in a room and pull the book out'.

'It was like disappearing into the past. Which, when everything was so shitty during the pandemic, looking back I was like “Wow we thought these were the bad days?”. They were kind of the good days, when we were broke and struggling - there was kind of an innocence. I was able to look at it in a different way’.

Collaborations:

Another thing which pumps the creative juices is the opportunity to collaborate:

‘Yeah absolutely. My husband and I write very intimately. Because he knows me so well, he can write things like I am the one writing them. At the same time, I can be so transparent with him. If I don’t like something I can be very forthright and get the song really the way that I want it’.

‘I loved being able to write with Mike Campell for this record, Sharon Van Etten who is everything to me- I look up to hear so much, and Lucius and other artists.

MARGO PRICE photographed at Bentonite Hills, Utah 2022

‘Everything happened so organically though- I wasn’t like “ok I need collabs”. Because I feel like we live in the type of world where everyone just wants everything to be like one mashup collab of two people who don’t even seem like they should go together. All of it happened and hopefully none of it feels forced or strained because many times when I am looking at other people collaborate and I’m like ‘Ahh there’s something up’.

‘I’ve turned down a lot of collaborations that probably would have made my Spotify plays a lot higher but I just am like ‘ew’. If I don’t like someone’s art I am a purist and I can’t fake it. I can’t sing the harmony if I don’t like the song - if I have a conscience”.

There’s this stubbornness about Price that’s admirable, a defiance, a backbone. When I ask if she considers herself a country musician- the air swells, there’s a pause. ‘Ahhhh. Hmm. I think that’s a trick question right?’ she laughs.

'I think you know, once a country artist, always a country artist but at the same time I am a rock performer and a folk artist - I’m many other things. There’s many other pieces to my artist puzzle”.  Which to the question- country music still a counter cultural genre?

‘I think…’ Price pauses, hesitating, ‘I think country music as a word is a controversial word because some people think that they own it'.

'You look at the history and people like Johnny Cash and you look at people who were never really accepted by that mainstream and had to fight for it. I think it can be used as a tool to bring people together but it can also be a tool to drive people apart. It depends how you use it as an art form and as a weapon’.

I ask if she thinks it has strayed from its counter cultural roots: ‘Hmmm ... I sit outside of the National Country music establishment so I am completely an outsider'.

MARGO PRICE 2022

'I have no skin in the game. All I know is I love country songs, I don’t love the establishment. I wouldn’t know how to begin to explain all the things that are problematic and all the things that are good. I am just trying to love the music and the artists and not the people who pull the puppet strings and think that they own it because it really is for everybody’.

Well regardless whether she is a country musician or otherwise, does Price want to leave listeners with a particular feeling after listening to Strays?

‘I want people to feel free when they hear Strays. I want them to feel unbridled possibilities and I want them to…’

She pauses, and thinks to herself before continuing: ‘I think the last word that I say on my album is just the word love. I know it sounds cliché as hell, but we live in a world with so much violence and so much terror. There’s just all these ideas being enforced, even subconsciously to women and the way we have to be and to be subservient.  I wanted this album to be complete and total freedom’.

Tickets for Margo Price's Vicar Street gig on January 28th are available here.