THE SECRETS OF THEIR SUCCESS

Fast Facts:

Pursuit: Country-Pop Singer/Songwriter

Definition of success: The late Maya Angelou: “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

“They’re not even so much “fans” to me, but more friends,” Alayna replies when I ask what she attributes her phenomenal social media popularity to. 

This is the second time I’ve had the pleasure of talking to the country-pop singer/songwriter from Nashville. Last year I featured her as part of a success-in-the-making series, a little encyclopaedia of interviews whose aim was to capture the inceptive moment of rising talent. I had some advantages of course: take UK band Ward Thomas, who would go on to win UK Country Album of the Year 2014. The fact that they were all over BBC Radio 2 posited potential success, to put it mildly. In Alayna’s case I was even more blatant: by the time I came across her she had already been voted by Tennessee Songwriter’s Association International as Most Promising Female Songwriter.

Look it’s not cheating, okay? It’s just research.

But with Alayna there was another indicator of future success, and that lay in her astounding popularity. When we first spoke, she had an army of something like 90K people following her Twitter account. Less than six months on and the throng has swelled to 143K. In fact, by the time you read this, that figure will be incorrect. So how did Alayna Carroll, originally from Pennsylvania and now firmly planted in Nashville, get so popular?

For one thing her uniquely clear and powerful sound obviously appeals to the masses, but look past that and you’ll find an equally magnetic character. Example: go to the home page of her website and click on her Kickstarter video. It’s well produced, well written, and serves its purpose admirably. But for me the real charm is the subsequent outtakes. Of course we love outtakes – who hasn’t sat in front of YouTube watching hours of Breaking Bad bloopers? We enjoy them because they allow us to see through the patina of well-produced media to the nuts and bolts beneath. Outtakes aren’t original but in the case of Alayna there’s real candour. It’s not just stuttered words or sneezing fits but little hints that say: this is promotional material and I have to take it seriously but behind it all I’m still me.

It’s a cliché but perhaps popularity is one of those things that can’t be taught because with Alayna it all seems rather effortless. By being herself, by interacting in a genuine nature with her fans, she keeps attracting more. Alright not effortless, but with an enthusiasm and passion that seems to come naturally to her.

“I definitely attribute it to hard work and persistence,” she says. “It takes time, and I’ll always be working on it! I love people, and I love my Alayniacs! They are the best fans in the world! They’re not even so much “fans” to me, but more friends. I am extremely appreciative of how much they rally together. It’s just amazing!”

In any case, the real reason I’m back with Alayna is to find out how her music career has progressed, and I’m happy to announce that her EP The Wrong Side is due for release next month. She’s funded this through Kickstarter and, with such a sprawling fan – sorry, friendbase – why wouldn’t you? In case you’re wondering how Kickstarter works though, I ask the lady herself for a quick exposition:

“Kickstarter is a way to fund independent creative projects like music, movies, books, art, games and more,” Alayna obliges. “The project creator sets a goal, and as people pledge money to their campaign they get rewards in return. How big of a reward you get is based on how much you pledge, so the more you pledge the bigger the reward will be. The website it all happens on is www.kickstarter.com.

For my project, I had a goal set to raise $8000 in 30 days to fund my new EP and other merchandise, etc. Planning my campaign was probably the biggest task – I spent two months working on it (December 2014 and January 2015). I came up with all the rewards and set the budget for the EP, new merchandise, and things involved with my upcoming CD Release Party, also keeping in mind the fact that Kickstarter will keep a percentage of the funds I raise. I also hired someone to film the Kickstarter video of me on the main page.

My campaign went from February 2nd – March 4th, and the ending amount on my project page was $9450. Throughout the 30 days I posted my campaign on all my social media sites, including my mailing list. My friends and fans on Twitter rallied and did everything they could to share and spread the work about my project, which was amazing! I was extremely blown away by all the support shown for my campaign!”

The fruits of those labours are a six-track EP which features input from Country writing legends Steve Dean and Kirsti Manna, who between them have penned more number ones than you can shake a stick at.

And now, toting said six-shooter, Alayna finds herself fully armed for future objectives.

“Now that I have an EP, I have a couple certain ideas for it….I won’t say them here, but I plan on getting it out there as much as possible. One of my goals is to sign a record deal with a major label. This EP will be used as a way to pitch myself as an artist/songwriter to labels and publishers. I have several publishers right now that would like to hear my EP when it is ready.”

The future, then, is promising.

“I’m very optimistic about what the future holds and I will continue working and pursuing my dreams!”

If you want to see what makes Alayna so fan-friendly catch up with her on Twitter @Alayna924 or Facebook at facebook.com/alaynasmusic

Her EP The Wrong Side is released on 05/05/15 (I like that, it doesn’t matter whether I use the American or European date format) and will be available on iTunes and other online distributors. For a hard copy head to her website at www.alaynasmusic.com

Finally, I’ve asked Alayna for a breakdown of The Wrong Side and what her inspirations were for each track, so read on if you’d like to know something about the input that goes in to recording an EP.

Crazymaker (Alayna Carroll / Steve Dean)

“Last October I had the amazing opportunity to write with Steve Dean, a six-time number one songwriter. He’s written so many hits: “Cool to Be a Fool” for Joe Nichols, “Watching You” for Rodney Atkins, “Roundabout Way” for George Strait, and many more. We met at a writer’s round he was performing in. Someone from the round invited me up to play two songs, and afterwards he asked me if I wanted to write. Of course I said yes! When we sat down to write, I had this title, concept and some scattered lyrics. Steve is incredibly talented and intuitive, and writing this song with him was so fun! We wrote it about a guy I used to date. He said, “Yeah my daughter dated a guy like this once. I didn’t like him.” Ha ha! He and I were super excited about how this song came out when it was done. I knew as soon as we wrote it that I had to record it right away.”

Cold Front (Alayna Carroll / Adam Kowal / Daniel Reifsnyder)           

“Adam and I write a lot of songs together, and this was our first time writing with our new friend Daniel Reifsnyder, who also happens to originally be from Pennsylvania like we are. Daniel is super talented. He started playing some chords while I was looking through Adam’s hook list. I had my eye on his title “Cold Front” for awhile, and from what Daniel was playing I thought it might be a good match for this title. I knew what I wanted it to be about. I spit out a sketchy first verse, and we went from there. It was a lot of fun!”

Crime Scene (Alayna Carroll / Adam Kowal)

“This was the fan-voted song for the EP! While the Kickstarter campaign was happening, I created a survey and sent it out to my mailing list. They had the opportunity to vote for their top three choices for a song to be on the EP. This is the one that ended up winning! It’s one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written and gets a good response when I play it out. It’s been picked up by several major publishers. Adam is a lyricist (he only writes lyrics/titles/ideas, not music) had the title and idea and brought it to me and we finished it pretty quickly. We both love this song!”

Two Story House (Alayna Carroll / Adam Kowal / Dale Allen Pommer)           

“This was one of those songs that happened on a whim. Like I said before, Adam and I write a lot together and this was our first time writing with Dale. Dale is very talented and has a lot of great ideas. I was looking over his hook list and this one struck me for some reason. The three of us wrote this song in about three hours. I wrote the melody. It was one of the tougher songs for me to perform in the studio because I get emotional when I sing it.”

Trash (Alayna Carroll / Adam Kowal / Kirsti Manna) 

“Tons of talent in Nashville! I was blessed to have the opportunity to write with Kirsti Manna, who co-wrote “Austin”, Blake Shelton’s debut six-week number one single. Adam and I had this song started already, I had a sketchy idea of the melody and drive for the song and we had some lyrics written down already. We brought this to Kirsti and finished it in a few hours. I’m extremely proud of this one! We wrote it about someone I dated who talks trash about nearly every single person in their life! I think until the end of time people will talk about people though. Everyone has said something about someone. But this was an extreme case like I’ve never seen! It hit me so hard that I had to write a song about it.”

The Wrong Side (Alayna Carroll)           

“This song is actually the oldest on the EP. I wrote it by myself in the summer of 2013. It is a testament to my life and where I come from, which I’m very proud of. Although I’m not angry about what happened, the song does show a lot of attitude and thoughts I had when I was growing up and was in the situation I was in. I had an old acoustic demo of this song I did in a studio almost two years ago, and I brought it to Beard Music Group where I recorded the EP for the band members to listen before they sat down and tracked. I told them the direction I wanted to take it and I was so blown away by how much they nailed it, and beyond. I love it!”

“All of these songs have been rewritten/evaluated by music industry mentors in some form or fashion. I chose these songs because they all tie in together and are headed in the same direction that I wanted to convey for the EP. I love singing them and each one has touched my life in some way!”