Like many other country artists, Nicolette Hayford – better known as Pillbox Patti – got her start in Nashville as a songwriter, working alongside the likes of Robert Counts and Ashley McBryde.
However, more recently she’s begun her own journey as an artist in her own right with the release of her debut mini-album ‘Florida’ (named after her home state) in October last year. The album won rave reviews for its raw, honest depiction of Patti’s childhood in the Sunshine State, and she’s also recently collaborated again with McBryde on the critically acclaimed ‘Lindeville’.
Whilst she was in the UK earlier this month to play at C2C, I caught up with Patti to talk about the album, how she approaches her songwriting, her experience of the festival and what’s coming next for her this year.
Welcome to London!
Thank you!
How are you finding it so far?
I love it. Like I thought I would love it, but I’m even more surprised. I came from Paris, we were in Paris for a couple of days, and the contrast of energy, I’m like, “this is like a big hug”. Everybody is so fun and funny and sweet and helpful, thankfully. The Tube, I was like – I got it down now, but at first I’m like, “Ohhhh… I need help!” [laughs] It’s amazing.
Have you had any time to explore whilst you’ve been here?
The first day, yeah, I kind of bounced around a lot. And I did a little tarot card reading and a bookstore in a little nook, and we went to Camden and bopped around quite a bit.
Do you mind if I ask whether your tarot reading said you’d have a good C2C?
They said it looks successful and really good, and that things are coming and to be mindful of letting some people go in my energy, which I’ve kind of been doing anyway. So it is more reassuring than it was telling what was gonna happen. But it was right on! It was great.
For people who haven’t seen you live before, what is a typical Pillbox Patti show like?
I mean, it’s high energy. It’s really fun. It’s, man, it’s my truth, always. And so sometimes I’m a dork [laughs] because I am that, and sometimes I’m a little warm from vodka. But it’s really loose and it’s fun and all the songs are me, and they’re true and they’re honest and there’s something that really happened to me that’s coming out in that, y’know?
Are there any songs you’re particularly enjoying playing live at the moment?
I’m really loving playing ‘Die Alone’ and ‘Low Life’, which they’ll be added to the deluxe edition of ‘Florida’…
Ooh, that’s exciting!
Yeah, I know! So we’re gonna do a deluxe of ‘Florida’, which is my album that’s already out, and that’ll come out at the end of April. So I’m loving seeing the response to those songs. We also tried out a couple of new ones that will be on the next album.
Can you give us any hints about the new ones yet?
Um, no. I mean, I’m playing them out. So one of my new favourites is a spin on ‘All My Exes Live In Texas’ and it’s called ‘All My Exes Still Be Texting’. It’s very true. I wrote it after literally two exes texted me the same morning, before I was going to a write, and that song popped in my head and I was just being silly. And then wrote that song and it’s a new favourite of mine, for sure.
We’ve already talked about ‘Florida’ a little bit – was it difficult to narrow it down to just eight tracks? Or did you have a clear idea of what you wanted on there?
I’m really weird about the number eight. I was born on the eighth of July. When I was, like, making this record and I wasn’t sure if anybody was gonna care, because I went all in with my money to make this record and I could have bought a house, I could have done some adult things to make me feel a little more like I got it together, and instead I made a record. And I would always ask for a sign in eights. And so I really like to keep it to that number. And I also think it’s a good way to, like, condense it. You can always come back and add a deluxe, a couple, and I think it keeps my calibre a little higher.
Were there any songs that were particularly easy or particularly challenging in terms of the writing process?
Um, all the writing came very easily. I think because I was finally getting to tell my story and my truth. And so the writing came really easily. There’s some songs that I’m like, “I can’t even release”, they were like out of body, we wrote that, y’know? So nothing felt over-crafted or like we had to try too hard, ’cause really it’s all just the truth and that tends to come out way easier.
Do you have a typical way you approach your writing? Or does it vary?
I like to write… for my music, for me, I like to write on a retreat. So I like to get out of Nashville, because I don’t love scheduled writing. I mean, that’s just a personal preference but it’s a little presumptuous to tell a song at what time and how long it would take to write. We’re at the mercy of the ether, y’know? So I like to create a really, like, high vibration energy with people that I love, that I love to be around, and I think the higher the vibration the closer you are to the ether and it just makes it easier.
Speaking of retreats, I know you worked closely with Ashley McBryde on ‘Lindeville’ – what was that like?
It was hilarious, insane. But same way, like, you know, Ash sometimes will ask me to set up these retreats and we knew we wanted to do that. So I found this very weird house [laughs], a very weird house. And, you know, same as how I like to write, we sat at a table for sixteen hours a day, twenty hours a day, who knows. Barely got any sleep. And we worked all day long, and we drank and we smoked and we got very loose, and it was just free, creative energy. We’d go out and smoke cigs and write a jingle, y’know. So we really wrote that whole record on that retreat minus ‘Jesus Jenny’ which Aaron [Raitiere] wrote.
I was talking to Caylee Hammack about it yesterday and she said it was the most fun time…
I’m so glad that Ashley asked Caylee to sing on it ’cause she’s just been such a perfect fit and I love her so much. She’s been so much fun to do these performances and stuff with. I love her.
Is there anything from working on that record that you’re taking into your future projects?
I mean, no. That’s kind of, like, with ‘Lindeville’ I set it up that way ’cause that’s how I like to write. So I’ve already been doing that for my own stuff and how I like to write. So I just will keep on doing that. That’s kind of my vibe.
With writing as a character for ‘Lindeville’ and then with Pillbox Patti as a sort of alter ego, does that give you opportunities to maybe approach things in a different way compared to how you might write in other situations?
Well, for me, Pillbox Patti is just my artist name, but that’s me. So I was a songwriter for 12 years in Nashville and I sort of got put in a box of the kind of music that I write and things I say. A really good box, a very pretty box that I’m proud of, but sonically and what I’m saying isn’t me. But I kind of got typecasted in a way, and so I sort of had to become something else, like a different name just to be able to be myself. Because it’s so sonically different. So I knew I wanted the separation between the writing and the artist so I changed the name to be myself, which is ironic but that’s the way it’s went.
One thing that always strikes me about your music is the honesty and rawness of your lyrics. Is that something that’s really integral to you, both as an artist and a songwriter?
Yeah. That’s super important to me. I mean, I’ve lived a lot of lives and I’ve been through a lot of stuff and I’m trying to make music that I wish was around when I was going through it, y’know? And my growing up in the country wasn’t quite as romantic or pretty or whatever, and I wanna speak to all the people that felt like me growing up, and that’s real important for me – to be honest and show that side of it.
If there was a piece of advice you could give to yourself when you were starting out, what would that be?
Love yourself. I mean, the shame will go away [laughs]. Just tell the truth. I mean, I hated myself for so long, I was so ashamed of so many things and how I grew up, and now those same things I was ashamed of are the things that made me the best possible me. So, love yourself.
What song do you wish you could have written?
Today? [laughs] I mean, there’s a million of them. [pause] Today, it’s, only because it’s fresh on my brain, but ‘Someone Like You’, the Adele song, is like the most perfect love song. That and ‘Ex Factor’ by Lauryn Hill. Brilliant songs. Like, ugh. If you ask me that tomorrow it’ll be two different ones. There’s so many songs I wish I wrote.
What does the rest of the year look like for you?
Yeah, looks like a lot more shows, a lot of festivals that are bucket list festivals for me that I’m really excited about. I’m finishing up working on a new record, I’m really excited about that. And yeah, reintroducing ‘Florida’ with the new songs, working on the new stuff that we’ll let some stuff out later in the year and a lot of shows.
Do you have plans to come back to the UK?
I hope so! I wanna come back immediately. I am obsessed.
Like, next week?
I mean, I would! If they were like, “Can you stay another week?”, I’d be like, “Absolutely”. I am obsessed. It’s amazing.
Pillbox Patti’s debut album, ‘Florida’, is out now on Monument Records/Sony Music Entertainment.
