Every artist has their own unique story. This week’s spotlight artist, Erin Alvey is one of those artists. We chatted with the newcomer about her love for music, her journey, and what she has planned moving forward in her blossoming career, as she navigates music, motherhood, and her dreams.

“I was born and raised in South Georgia,” began Alvey. “I grew up loving music, but just as a casual listener, I was really into sports and playing sports. Music was something that something that kind of fell into my lap a little bit, I started getting into it in high-school, I started singing a little bit here and there, but then I really showed interest in college when sports were no longer apart of my life as much. I started playing guitar and I grew up playing piano, so I had music in my life, but not as intensely as I decided to jump into it in college.”

Despite loving music, including Irish musicians like Enya and artists like Paul McCartney and Alan Jackson, Alvey was not focused on music until college, when music kind of revealed itself as an important outlet.

“I kind of showed a little interest in music, and my cousin who was in the boy band O-Town, from MTV’s Making The Band, he said, “I’ll take you to Nashville if you write five songs, I’ll take you to Nashville to record an album or an EP, and we can get you started.” So I wrote songs in about two weeks, about five songs, and then he took me to Nashville, and that’s where my story in music starts.”

The Turning Point:

With the support of her cousin, Jacob Underwood and her parents, Alvey decided to give music a real shot “My dad, at the time, sat on the front porch with me and wrote love songs about random things. […] My sweet dad saw I had a dream and he’s so great with word crafting, and he saw I had a dream and he sat with me, and helped me write my first song. He didn’t have any music background, so I was just plucking away on the guitar trying to come up with the melody, but it’s so fun looking back at the origin of it all,” shared the singer, reminiscing about writing her first few songs.

Eventually, she headed to Nashville to record her first project with her cousin’s support. “Believe it or not, [my cousin] Jacob helped me find country. I was born and raised South Georgia, and it kinda made sense. I’ve done a little bit in the pop realm since then, but country is my roots, and I keep coming back to it. When I write, my style of writing is more country. It was the fit that made the most sense.”

Alvey continued making trips back and forth to Nashville throughout college. My parents begged met to stay, and said I could spend my summers traveling to Nashville and whatever I needed, but really wanted me to finish my degree, so my first four years, I was actually in college, during balancing my career,” she shared, adding, “After college, I started really touring. I toured the southeast for a while and many years I spent doing that up until COVID.”

Like many of us, the pandemic forced Alvey to look at her life and career and make decisions that fit who she was becoming and the dreams that were taken shape. “I decided to reevaluate my life as an artist and even my artistry, and what I wanted to write. I kind of felt like I was touring so much, and I became a glorified cover band, I was proud of what I was writing, but it wasn’t really anything super substantial, so I took that time to stay back here in Nashville and write with songwriters in town, and write with songwriters in town.”

Today:

Flash forward to today, Alvey is finally sharing the music she worked so hard on. “I did that for many years, and during that time, I met my husband. And we got married, had a wedding, had a baby, and now I decided that I’m going to start releasing this work that I’ve been working so hard on the last couple of years.”

Most recently, the singer-songwriter released the first single off her upcoming project Questions + Answers. Alvey’s  single is called “End Badley”, which was inspired by love with a new twist.

“‘End Badly’ is the first track of ‘Q&A’ as a whole, so Questions + Answers. The whole EP is based off the quote “there’s years that ask questions and there’s years that answer” and “End Badly” is definably a question year, and luckily I married my husband who I’m talking about in the song, but when I first met him and we first started dating, I remember thinking “I really, really like this guy. He’s special. He’s different.” And I was horrified actually. Instead of a typical love song, it’s kind of a darker take on the idea of what it’s like when you first get into a relationship with somebody. […] It’s like if you’re going to end this at some point, please don’t be the one that got away.”

For Alvey, it’s important that her music represents her as a person and as an artist. She wants her music to tell authentic stories and to feel like her. The upcoming project will feature six songs that showcase that “With the new EP coming out, there are a lot of songs that are happy-go-lucky love songs, but there’s also a lot of heartbreaks because just because I’m in this side of life now, doesn’t mean that I didn’t experience every bit of what it’s like in your 20s, falling in love and having your heart broken and the excitement and sadness of it all. That’s what the EP is just a jumble of the past ten years of my life.”

Fans can look forward to the project, as well as, hopefully some shows later this summer. Stay tuned!

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