Tell us about the new Bailey. Why did you feel you needed a change?
At the time that I wrote RIP I felt that my surroundings needed to change, I had been living and making music in Nashville for 7 years and felt stagnant. My sound was changing and I wanted to lean into that. And in order to make all of that happen the change that needed to happen within me was that I needed to learn to trust myself a lot more.
What inspired RIP? Any specific life event gave you the idea for this song?
RIP was inspired by my decision to move to LA and to take control of my sound and my creative process. There were some people I worked with from a very young age that I felt holding me back from growing in this way for a long time, and I felt a lot of fear about other people in my life not supporting the risks I wanted to take. RIP was me letting go of that fear and learning to trust myself.
How do you see your new self approaching life and music?
I’m always striving to approach life and music with as much authenticity as possible. Fear and people please has been my biggest hurdle in that. I’m always growing and I feel like each new version of myself gets a bit better at getting over those hurdles.
What do you really want to accomplish in your career and life ultimately?
Ultimately in my career I think I just want to reach as many people who are like me as possible, people who feel deeply and constantly desire growth, and help them to feel less alone and like their deep feelings aren’t a burden but a super power. I want to write songs until I die. I want to perform all over the world for huge crowds. But the bigger goal behind that is to positively touch people’s lives in the way that only music can.
