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Lauded by the media for her stunning performance at California’s famed honky-tonk, The Palomino, songstress Alice Wallace is ready to carry forward the West Coast country legacy that the legendary venue embodied with her new album Into the Blue – set for release on January 18, 2019. The album will be Wallace’s debut on Rebelle Road Records, a Los Angeles label founded by women and dedicated to balancing equity for female artists and keeping alive the California country sound. Her style on this latest effort reflects distinctive musical evolution and places Alice squarely among a host of West Coast artists who are finding success in the Americana scene with songs that are definitively coastal. The 10 songs (plus a bonus track) shine an even brighter light on this Golden State singer, whose luminous voice and soulful, tremulous delivery is reminiscent of classic country icons but imbued with her own vocally rich, modern style. Here, Wallace graciously answers her Essential 8 where she shares the story behind Into The Blue as well as the song "Santa Ana Winds," discusses her songwriting process, the Ryman, and much more. Is there a story behind your album’s title? The title comes from one of the songs on the album - “The Blue.” It’s a song I wrote after having conversations with fans and friends about the desire to pursue your passions even when the outcome is unknown. I quit my full-time job several years ago to throw everything I had into my music. It took years to get up the guts to do it but I’ve never regretted sailing away “into the blue” to chase this dream of mine. The best part of this song is that my family added vocals at the end, which means so much since they’ve been the ones supporting me all along. The album title also relates to living on the West Coast - so it’s about California, and the southwest, and all that the environment here entails. The ocean has been a constant presence in my life, and “Into the Blue” captures that aesthetic perfectly. Please choose one song and tell the story behind it. The first single on the album is probably the song that hits me the hardest right now - “Santa Ana Winds.” I wrote this song with my good friend Andrew Delaney while watching the horrific Thomas Fire in 2017 that caused so much destruction. This year’s fires have proven to be even more deadly and terrifying. It’s becoming a fact of life for us here in California. Typically, the catalyst for these fires is when the Santa Ana winds come through - hot, dry winds that blow in off the desert. Just one tiny spark can wreak incredible havoc. We are facing natural disasters with more frequency and strength across the country than ever before, so I wanted to capture that experience in song - from the perspective of watching a tragedy unfold and being helpless to do anything to change it. 
Why did you choose to anchor the album with the songs you did? These are songs about me, even if they aren’t all about me. They are songs about being a woman, living in California, navigating the music industry, wanting to be heard. Some of my previous albums leaned more into the classic country sound, but I grew up with such a wide variety of great influences - from Linda Ronstadt, to Emmylou Harris, to Bonnie Raitt - so I wrote these songs drawing from different musical places. These songs touch on all of them. And with the great production guidance from Steve Berns and KP Hawthorn, I really feel that these songs pay tribute to all of my influences, while still being undeniably me. When/where do you do your best writing? Usually I’ll get my best ideas when it’s nice and quiet -- most often when I’m just about to drift off to sleep at night. Too many times, I’ve thought I would remember that great idea when I woke up and, of course, I don’t. So now I force myself to get up and write it down. I also love spinning song lyrics in my head on long drives by myself. Again, it’s quiet. Just me and the road. But sometimes inspiration will hit at random times. And you just try to grab hold of it when it does. Do you write about personal experience, the experience of others, observations, made-up stories, something else or a combination? Every song I write tends to start from a personal experience. Even if the song isn’t actually about me, it might be from a story I’ve heard, or a dream I had, or an effort to put myself in someone else’s shoes. The longer you write songs, the more you see the universal elements to any situation - even if it’s very personal. So a song about me could just as easily be about the person I’m singing for. What’s the best advice you have ever gotten from another musician? Something I’ve heard many times from fellow songwriters is to stop self-editing and, yet, I still struggle with it. Songwriting can be an elusive art, and the longer you do it, the more you realize how many ways there are to approach it. One way that my new album is different from my earlier ones is because several of the songs were co-written with writers I admire. A few were written with Texas songwriter Andrew Delaney, who can turn a phrase in such a beautiful way. I also co-wrote one of my favorite songs on the album, “The Lonely Talking,” with my producer KP Hawthorn. With the co-writes, I found I was able to stretch myself lyrically and musically in ways that I might not have on my own. What’s your dream venue and why? As a country/Americana artist, it’s not hard to choose the Ryman Auditorium as my dream venue. That room bleeds country music history. There’s a reason it’s known as the “Mother Church” in Nashville, and I hope to share my songs on that hallowed stage one day. Who would you love to collaborate with? Oh, where to begin! The two songwriters who have influenced me the most and whom I’d absolutely love to work with are Brandi Carlile and Patty Griffin. They are both master songwriters and create gorgeous productions. But there are so many others - Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Willie Nelson, and Bonnie Raitt are a few of my longtime idols and it would be surreal to even be in the same room with them. There are also artists like Sara Watkins, Margo Price, Courtney Marie Andrews, Aaron Lee Tasjan and others in the Americana scene right now who are also doing some incredibly creative things. It would be an honor to work with any of these artists. Website/Facebook/Twitter/IG/Pre-Order
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