EXCLUSIVE: Haley & Michaels Talk New Single ‘Born Yesterday’

When country singer/songwriters Haley & Michaels welcomed their first child; daughter Keira they celebrated the precious arrival with the release of the heartfelt ‘Born Yesterday’ which is a truly beautiful reminder of the treasure a newborn brings to a family and allowed for the duo to also showcase their stunning harmonies.

Here we catch up with Haley & Michaels to discuss the track in further detail:

Congratulations on the birth of your baby daughter, how have you found the experience of being new parents?
Thank you! Being parents has absolutely been the greatest joy of our lives. Our daughter Keira has opened our hearts in ways that we could not have imagined and has already added special inspiration not only to everyday life but also to our music.

Your latest single has been inspired by your baby, and the pregnancy, what was the driving force behind putting those feelings into a song?

It wasn’t something we had necessarily planned on. That said, as songwriters we’ve always written about the things that are most prominent and personal in our lives. In this case, we believe the “driving force” was all of the excitement, anticipation, and emotion we were feeling before Keira was born. One day we were sitting in the living room and the melody and lyrics of the chorus just came, and the rest of the song followed pretty quickly. It was fun to write because of all the excitement and anticipation of having her in our arms!

How have you found the response to the track so far?
We have been overwhelmed with the response to the song which is of course extra meaningful to us for this one. We were so excited to have “Born Yesterday” originally premiered on BBC Radio 2 on “The Country Show” with (the legendary) Bob Harris. Since then it’s received 300K+ streams online. It’s been so rewarding to receive messages from people who are using it for their father/daughter dance at their wedding or shared with us that the song has reminded them of when their child was born and growing up.

Can you tell us a little about the overall writing experience was like for Born Yesterday?
We like to say our best songs always feel as if they fall to us from the sky…in this case, Shannon originally had the title and chorus written and we sat down together and wrote the rest much like the way we wrote our wedding song “Giving It All (To You)”, we talked through how it would actually feel to be parents together and hold our baby and the rest of the song pretty much spilled out. We produced the song in a way that felt in line with the sentiment of the lyrics but also in line with our sound. Hence, there is no shortage of electric guitars and a Rock n’ Roll inspired solo.

Who did you work with to bring the vision to life?
We produced the song together and had the opportunity to work with some of our good friends and incredible musicians on this track. Once we had all of the parts produced we worked with an incredible mix engineer/producer Justin Cortelyou at Soultrain Studios in Nashville and had the record mastered by Randy Merril at Sterling Sound, NYC. It’s an incredible feeling to work with musicians and people who understand our vision and help bring it to life!

How have you found sharing new music during these trying times?

It’s more important than ever to write songs that feel important, personal, and honest. The greatest gift of music is to connect and let people know you understand where they are. We have been so blessed to have so many wonderful people who believe in us and continue to help us have a voice and expand our platform.

Can we expect Born Yesterday to act as the launchpad to a full-length project?
Yes! “Born Yesterday” will be the first song from our next full-length project. We also have some exciting things coming soon with music from our album “Hail Mary” which we released right before the pandemic; that said it’s always important to keep writing and recording and we have been working on several new tracks that we’re looking forward to releasing next year!

Looking ahead, what else can we expect from you this year?
We are very excited soon to be releasing a music video for “Born Yesterday” that we made with our good friend/producer/video editor Andy Calmes. It’s all footage that we shot on our iPhones throughout the pregnancy and the first few weeks of Keira’s life. We wanted to invite everyone into our home and the most personal and important part of our journey! We have a holiday medley we’ll be sharing in the coming weeks as well as some big announcements for early 2021! Thank you for all of your support, it truly means the world to us and we look forward to seeing you in the UK in 2021!

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