{"id":7327,"date":"2025-09-23T15:42:50","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T15:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/?p=7327"},"modified":"2025-09-23T15:42:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T15:42:54","slug":"blog-interview-mary-hatley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/2025\/09\/23\/blog-interview-mary-hatley\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog interview: Mary Hatley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/odesli.co\/embed\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Falbum.link%2Fs%2F0gjEhESi0HbMyFQTe1VulU&#038;theme=light\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-presentation allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" allow=\"clipboard-read; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Hello Mary how are you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I am great, thank you!\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Congratulations on the release of The Poison I Choose how does it feel?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It has been surreal, I have been working towards this release for some time now. Having the album out everywhere has been a dream of mine and I am excited for what\u2019s next.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>It\u2019s a 12 track album what\u2019s your favourite track?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I always have a hard time picking a favorite song, it\u2019s like picking a favorite child, you may like one more than the other on certain days. If I have to choose I would say \u201cDog Days\u201d because it is the very first song I demoed for the album and it is a very vulnerable one. It is an ode to my mom, siblings, and anyone who stayed with me through the toughest period of my life.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>It\u2019s quite a project as you used it to process grief and healing, what was the easiest and most challenging part of the process?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The hardest part for me is choosing which songs would make it to the album. I write a lot and being vulnerable through songwriting isn\u2019t an issue for me, I tend to dissociate from what I write. The easiest part surprisingly enough was tracking the vocals. I knew what I wanted and Matt is always super supportive of the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>You recorded it with Matt Qualls what was the biggest lesson you learned from him?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Matt taught me that it\u2019s ok to be a professionalist and to be in control of my own art. Matt is a huge supporter of women in music and he gave me a safe space to produce my album. I am forever thankful for what Matt has done for me and look forward to continuing working with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>What\u2019s your favourite memory of the sessions?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Hanging out with everyone in the studio during the initial tracking days. It was a real team bonding moment and I built a lot of relationships with some great musicians.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>You\u2019re an artist from Memphis, how did it all begin for you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I started writing my own music during the 2020 quarantine time. After that I started attending open mic shows around town and that is when it all started to unfold. I always knew I wanted to be a singer-songwriter\/performer so I knew the next step would be recording my own material and releasing it. I started recording demos and sending them around until I got the team I work with now.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>What did you listen to growing up?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">My mom was always listening to John Denver, Tracy Chapman, and Fleetwood Mac. The singer songwriter influence with rock bands such as Fleetwood Mac and Lynyrd Skynyrd inspired the music I write today.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Memphis is a city known for its rich history of music, what are your three favourite things about it?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The community, the soul, and the food are all things that keep me here. Memphis is a great city with a bad reputation. It is my home and it will have a place in my heart forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>If you could go back to your younger self at the beginning of this journey, what would advice would you give yourself?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I would tell myself to not be afraid of taking charge and setting boundaries. I look up to artists like Dolly Parton, Stevie Nicks, and Alanis Morissette because they\u2019re all strong independent women who have made names for themselves in this industry. I am in charge of my career and always aim to keep a certain level of professionalism.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>What are you listening to at the moment?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I am listening to the Buckingham Nicks album that was just released (Great album! Del) and a lot of Chris Stapleton, Amy Winehouse, and Marcus King.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>What are you looking forward to doing next?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I am looking forward to getting back into the studio for my second album that I am recording soon and playing my music live. It is always a great time working with Matt Qualls and I can\u2019t wait to see what we produce this time.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello Mary how are you?\u00a0 I am great, thank you!\u00a0 Congratulations on the release of The Poison I Choose how does it feel?\u00a0 It has been surreal, I have been working towards this release for some time now. Having the album out everywhere has been a dream of mine and I am excited for what\u2019s &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[161,225,218,52,247,132,30,142,73,150,243,126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acoustic","category-country","category-folk","category-guitar","category-interview","category-lyricist","category-music","category-producer","category-singer-songwriter","category-songwriter","category-u-s","category-vocals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7330,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7327\/revisions\/7330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}