Maggie Rose is a Tour de Force on ‘No One Gets Out Alive’—“I Feel Renewed in My Enthusiasm for Making Music”

With a career that’s seemingly been on the ascent ever since her first single release back in 2010, you wouldn’t think that Maggie Rose would have to make any bold moves with her new music. But that’s just what she’s done on her new album, No One Gets Out Alive. Let’s just say the risks she took were rewarded with a moving, triumphant album, her first for new label Big Loud Records.

Broadening her sonic horizons into sophisticated pop and symphonic rock territory, Rose, with the help of several ace co-writers, also digs deeper lyrically than she has before. She took the time to talk to American Songwriter about making this tour de force, with a Zoom chat that covered what inspired the songs, how the production touches were inspired by everyone from The Beatles to Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra, and who the targets for all those negative relationship songs really are.

American Songwriter: Did you have a game plan in place for making this record, or did the songwriting dictate how it came out?

Maggie Rose: All the songs but one were written within a span of six months. I didn’t know I was making a record until a couple of songs were finished, and I saw this theme starting to come together. When I talked to Ben Tanner, the producer of the album who also produced my last album, we had a whole organization and approach to it in terms of who we wanted to have in the room and how we wanted to take time with the tracking sessions. Typically, in Nashville, you can do four songs in one day with a band, but we had such amazing players: Sadler Vaden, Chad Gamble, Peter Levin, Zac Cockrell, Kaitlyn Connor, and Kyle Lewis from my own touring band. They’re all such creative people that we wanted each song to really have its time to evolve in the studio.

The production we approached with a cohesive idea. But because we were in the middle of the pandemic, or, as I like to call it, The Great Separation (laughs), the writing approach was different than in previous projects. Because of logistics, I was forced to create and start a lot of these ideas on my own, and then realize them with a pretty small group of co-writers.

AS: How did the choice of co-writers play into the finished product?

MR: I had certain people who were already in my bubble and then people I wanted to write with again after many years. Natalie Hemby and I hadn’t written in a while, so this was a beautiful reunion for us. The themes I was writing about were things like getting older and realizing what’s important in life, relationships running their course, incorporating loss into my life, and being intentional and present with my time. All those people that I wrote with were people with whom I was familiar. So, this wasn’t like I was bringing these intimate ideas to people I had never met before. I felt like I was in a safe space. But it was a different approach, in terms of having ideas that come from a more introspective inspiration. There’s a vulnerability to it that, even though this is not my first rodeo, felt like a beginning in a lot of ways. Like an exercise in discomfort (laughs).

AS: Many songs deal with relationships that have either broken apart or are on the verge of doing so. Were you intending a thematic approach in that respect, or did you even notice that was happening as you were collecting the songs?

MR: I didn’t really notice it. “Fake Flowers” and “Vanish” were two songs that came together pretty early on. And that was me finding catharsis about friendships that had become strained in what we’d been through and knowing that we could never return to the state we were in before the pandemic. I think that so many people sustained that kind of tension in relationships, whether they were working relationships or platonic or romantic. When I realized that the writing was doing what it was supposed to do in making me feel better and processing things, especially in certain scenarios where I knew that I wouldn’t ever get closure from the other person or entity, that’s when I was like, “OK, this is obviously the trail that I’m on right now.”

There were also songs about the general discord, like “Lonely War.” I remember writing that with my friend Henry (Brill) on this very computer where we’re doing Zoom right now. That song was written when George Floyd had just been murdered, and it was Henry and I trying to find a little solace in all the chaos. It was kind of a selfish effort at the time because touring wasn’t thriving. It was just something that I had to do, and I feel like that’s what so much of this album is about—kind of swinging for the fences and not being outcome-oriented but doing it because you love it. And because this is precious time that we have, and it’s finite.

AS: What was it like taking those songs and building them up into such go-for-broke productions?

MR: I credit Ben Tanner and (audio engineer) Bobby Holland a lot for that. On “No One Gets Out Alive,” it was originally written as just a piano and vocal that Natalie, Sunny Sweeney, and I put together. And there wasn’t this big outro, this dramatic “Live and Let Die” kind of sendoff. That song is about going for it, and when we put it together, I was so excited in the studio when this 007 outro just came together.

But I got scared of it. I was like, “People are going to think I’m overblown, the melodrama of it all. I can’t pull this off.” And I had such great people around me, and they were like, “No, let the dog eat” (laughs). They bolstered me up and said this is exactly the drama we need right now. This song is about imminent death and not going quietly into it. I hope that it’s still a very, very long way away. But so many people got a little more intimate with the concept of loss, especially the last couple of years. It felt like I owed it to them to give them this big orchestral drama.

AS: I kept using the word “Beatlesque” when making notes about the production of certain songs.

MR: I will not fight you on that. We listen to that so much in this house. There’s Carole King’s Tapestry on repeat, and that’s where a lot of the songwriting approach came from. Her songs are so timeless that you can produce them any way, and they would still resonate. Then, I tried to follow in the Fab Four’s footsteps and adorn them the way the songs deserved.

AS: Did you immediately know upon finishing the song “No One Gets Out Alive” that you had a centerpiece for the album?

MR: I did. At that point, I had a few other songs that I really loved, and I knew I was saving that phrase in my mind for writers like Natalie and Sunny. I think it could have gone too general, but there are these really beautiful snapshots in the song. How do you condense the whole experience of life into a few good phrases? I knew they’d be writers who’d take things seriously and find something relatable that you could immediately cling to. Even though the title sounds kind of scary. I think if you haven’t heard the song, and you don’t know anything else about the album, it sounds very ominous. But it’s anything but. It’s a song about how precious this opportunity is, all the joy that we can find if we look for it.

AS: Tell me about “Mad Love,” a track that sounds vintage and ultra-modern all at once.

MR: That was the one song that was written much earlier than the six-month period where these songs came together. I wrote it with K.S. Rhoads and Sad Penny, who are two super-accomplished artists in Nashville. I wanted to write a Tarantino soundtrack, Lee Hazelwood-Nancy Sinatra-type song. And also create a fictional story where I got to be this badass character that maybe I wasn’t quite feeling, at the time that I wrote it, that I could embody. When you write these songs, and you create the character, it’s like that fake-it-till-you-make-it thing. At the time this album came together, I was ready to step into that role. I think musically it just fits with all this cinematic production, and it just felt like the right attitude and the right character to inject into this collection of songs.

AS: On songs like “Underestimate Me” and “Dead Weight,” you deviate from the ballads and get to show a feistier side of your vocals. Were you consciously looking to showcase that vocal variety with those songs?

MR: I felt like I owed it to people who’ve been following me for years. I didn’t want to abandon that spunky-performer attitude that I’ve had on other records, especially having made my last record at FAME (Studios in Alabama), where Aretha and Etta and all these artists that influenced my music sang. I wanted to keep some of that energy. But I felt like that energy was evolving. Because the themes to these songs are still relevant to this album. Like leaving behind what you don’t need in “Dead Weight.” “Underestimate Me” was my kind of Field of Dreams—pretending I’m this confident, and maybe that will happen (laughs).

Also, I have a podcast called Salute the Songbird, where I interview all these women in the industry. I like to leave the conversations on a high note, and I ask, “What’s your favorite part of being a woman in the industry?” And everyone pretty much paraphrases the answer, “Being underestimated. Because whatever low expectations they had for me, I can easily surpass them.” And I think that happens for everybody. We all need a little reassurance and gassing ourselves up for something big and scary, which is what this album felt like (laughs).

AS: You’re happily married, so am I right to assume that some of these songs where you’re expressing displeasure within a relationship might be directed at being doubted or pigeonholed by folks in the music industry?

MR: You nailed it. When I said “entity” earlier, I meant more like ideas within the industry, or a feeling that you’ve been passed over or misunderstood. This album was an answer to that. And I think the best way to answer that challenge is to firmly root yourself in who you know yourself to be. That’s what I feel this record allowed me to do. Big Loud is such the opposite of those doubters. They heard this record after it was completed and signed me as I am and as this record was. They didn’t ask me to go write a bunch of singles or say, “This is almost there.” There was this full embrace.

I definitely had a couple of things to say about this industry that I’ve been a part of for so many years. But I feel like this whole process has also taught me that there are believers out there who want to be progressive and promote the art that someone like me is making.

AS: You mentioned earlier that this record feels like a new beginning. In what ways?

MR: I feel really renewed in my enthusiasm for making music. We’re about to kick off this tour, and I know that I’ll probably meet a lot of new people with this music, which I feel totally at peace about. If they discover the music that I’ve released prior to this album, which I hope that they do, I think they’ll see that it makes sense as part of the thread that got me here. But I’m really excited about the possibility of beginning a relationship with a lot of new listeners based off this music. Because it feels positive, and I feel like I’m in a very happy place. And that’s a great way to meet new people.

MAGGIE ROSE ON HER RELATIONSHIP WITH GIBSON:

“I have a Hummingbird guitar that I love. My guitar player, Kyle, just got this beautiful honey-blonde Les Paul, and every time we’re backstage, I just see him shining it. It’s nice to feel legitimized by a company as iconic as Gibson because it’s just another way of feeling bolstered when you go to these sessions. It’s like Gibson has got my back, and they’ve had the back of other really great people who made me want to make music in the first place. So I’m proud to play it, and especially that guitar. I feel like I’m so comfortable playing it that it’s probably facilitated a lot of songs that I wouldn’t have otherwise written.”

Photos by Sophia Matinazed