Carolynne Chats to VIVA about Manchester Gig, Music and Marriage

Kate Noble | 25th May 2017

Country singer songwriter Carolynne spoke to VIVA about her upcoming gig in Manchester on 1st June, her recent marriage to England cricketer David Willey, and the exciting news of a little baby boy due in October.

The 36-year-old singer has been in the business since she was 17, finishing in third place on Fame Academy in 2003 and has taken part in X Factor. Recently, she released her new EP, Coming Back To Me, which went in at #2 in the country music chart.

 

First of all I’d just like to say congratulations; you’ve got a baby on the way!

I do, yeah, he’s wriggling away now driving me bonkers – he won’t stop moving!

I’m lucky that I’ve managed to marry the best man on the planet so I know he’s gonna be the best dad. I’m worried about what kind of mum I’ll be, I think I’ll be a bit too strict ‘cause I think David will be quite a softie with his son. I’ll be honest with you, I’m nervous about being a new mum, I wanna get it right. I am really excited I’m just nervous, I wanna be a good mum but I guess that’s what happens with all mums.

With a baby on the way, will you be taking a break from music?

I’m due in October so I’ll have a few months at home with the baby, over Christmas and New Year. I’m hoping to have my own tour going so I’ll be taking the baby with me. It’s not really phasing me thinking the baby is gonna be with me, he’s already doing these gigs with me – he’s already a country music fan. Hopefully it’ll inspire me some more ‘cause I wanna make him proud. I’m gonna take a couple of months to get rid of the jelly belly and recover cause I’ve not had the easiest of pregnancies so far – I’ve been quite poorly – but it’ll be fine.

Do you have any ideas for the name?

Well, he’s definitely not gonna be called Bear or anything like that! We’re quite limited with a surname like Willey, the poor kid is gonna get bullied anyway. We find ourselves thinking of all the daft names and saying “we can’t have that!” instead of the names we actually like. We’ve got a bunch of names that we like, but I’m not deciding until he arrives but it won’t be all fancy like River or Mountain or Blue or Apple, nothing like that.

You recently got married as well…

Yeah, 7 months ago now, the new Mrs Willey; that’s why I’ve dropped my last name cause it didn’t sound right being introduced on stage as Willey, I don’t want penis in the title!

People have been a bit negative about that, saying “who do you think you are, just having your first name” – why not? I didn’t do it to be arrogant; I just thought it was easier. Shania Twain’s real name is Eileen!

How did you meet David?

We met through a friend, it was just one of those things where we just instantly fell in love. I’d been single for three and a half years, wasn’t really interested in men at all, and I was really enjoying living on my own in Manchester. Then suddenly, David came along and everything had changed. We’ve been together two and a half years now, things seemed to happen pretty fast, he’s my little soul mate. Things happened really naturally and my feelings became really strong really quickly, luckily we both felt the same and we didn’t want to not be with each other. Literally from the day we met we didn’t want to spend a day apart we were just together all the time, and without sounding cheesy, that is rare, so I’m winning.

David proposed to you under the tree where you scattered your Nan’s ashes, what did that mean to you? 

I can’t explain what that meant. We’d been all around the world that year, we’re lucky enough that with David’s career we’ve been to South Africa, Cape Town, Australia, the top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and he decided to propose under a tree in Scotland and that was just the best thing ever.

It was just me and him at the top of a hill in Crief. I’d written this card to my nana and I’d put it in the tree branches and when David proposed to me, after we’d stopped crying and stuff I said “go get that card in the tree, I’ve written a little note to my nana, I just want you to read it” and he opened it and I’d written to my nana that I’d met somebody and I’m gonna marry him and sure enough he proposed.

I love it up there, that’s where most of our families’ ashes are, I’ve been climbing up that tree since I was little. It will be one of my most favourite memories and in the nursery we’ve got a big picture of that tree.

You’ve also just released your new EP, Coming Back To Me, how was that?

It’s gone really well; it went in at #2 in the country chart and sat at #3 for most of the week. I was really pleased with it, it was good to feed some more of my original material to the listeners and maybe drum up some new followers, and my plan is just to keep doing that whilst I’m growing a human!

What was it like making your new EP?

I really enjoyed that ‘cause the songs are from different backgrounds. There’s a song called Cupid Must Have Been High and I wrote that with Jeff Silbar and he wrote Wind Beneath My Wings, I wrote that in LA with him and a friend of mine Sandi Thom, so I’ve got fond memories of writing that. The title song, Coming Back to Me, is quite a poignant song for me because it’s about me coming back to music, reigniting what I fell in love with about country and letting myself fall back in love with it again. For me it’s about not becoming the person I thought I would be when I was young and having to deal with that and then music bringing me back to life, when you listen to it you’ll understand what I mean!

You said earlier this year that you’d fallen in and out of love with music, what did that feel like?

The music industry is hard, it’s hard emotionally, physically and mentally, you have to be in love with it. For me it’s been a tough journey, there’s been lots of knockbacks and I don’t mind admitting that. About 18 months ago I came very close to signing what would have been my dream deal and I missed out to someone else at the last minute, it hurt me again. When something hurts you, you turn your back on it, you’re scared of being hurt again.

It always finds its way back to me again; somehow I’ll end up writing another song or I’ll agree to do another gig and I’m back in the thick of it again. You’ve just got to make a new path, make a new plan, everything changes. It’s different every couple of years; there’s something new: social media, YouTube, reality TV shows, and you’ve got to try and keep up but still be authentic. Over here with country music it’s got a bit of a cliché and it’s a bit of a novelty. Years ago, it was hard to walk into a record company and say “I sing country music” – you’d get laughed out of the office.

The songs on your EP must have some interesting stories behind them. Cupid Must Have Been High – is this about an ex boyfriend?  

It was inspired by somebody who was completely different to me. He was really posh and up his own a**e, I was thinking “what am I doing in a bar with this guy?” It isn’t about him because we didn’t do loads of shots and start grinding on the dancefloor cause he was mingin’. We sat around, me and Sandi, and we were chatting about this guy going “God, who does he think he is this fella, to go there you’d have to be really p***ed or high” and then the song just came from that. Some people are together that are complete opposites and it works but what it came from was me saying “bloody hell I got it wrong with this one”.

In the song Real Man you described dating disasters and your perfect guy, does this song come from personal experience?

That song came from a conversation I had with my friend in Swansea about all them posey creeps that you see on Instagram nowadays. Any guy that posts selfies to me just makes me cringe and I was like “where are all these real fellas, all they do now is put stuff on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter and they’ve put a filter on it and they’ve hashtagged muscle power or on point”. It’s not for me so that’s where the conversation came from, and we said we should write a song about that. It kinda came from the idea that it’s very rare you get a man that’s not in love with himself, all over social media. It’s wrong, to me; I just can’t handle it. Maybe it’s the Yorkshire in me. My husband is not that kind of guy, he wouldn’t know how to pluck his eyebrows!

Are you excited for the gig in Manchester?

I am, it’s my only one up north for now while I’m growing a human, I’m looking forward to that. The last time I played in Manchester was at Gorilla and Emma DJ’d for me there!

Do you enjoy touring?

I love playing live, that’s where I get my best feedback, I like to meet everybody afterwards. I’m not too good on social media, it’s so hard to keep up and tweet all the time, I think it’s better to chat face-to-face to the ones who’ve come to the gig. The songs come across very different when it’s live – you can never tell how you’re gonna do them. I never plan on what I’ll do during a song; I like to engage with what I’m singing. It’s always exciting to know what I’ll end up doing cause I’m a bit of a livewire on stage. Sometimes I’ll be lay on the floor and wonder how the heck I got there and it’s because I’ve got so into the song…I get so into the song, I just get carried away. That’s the exciting bit for me, even though I do get very nervous before I go on.

What does the future hold for you as a musician? 

I know for sure it holds more music releases, I will be putting more music out there. I’m hopeful that we’ll have a tour next year around April time so I can take music up and down the country and be playing lots of live shows; I know that’s what the short term holds, who know what the long term holds. We shall see!

Carolynne will be playing Gullivers, Manchester, alongside The Abrams on 1st June

Tickets avaliable at songkick.com

Follow Carolynne on Twitter, Facebook and keep up to date and via the website.