Since she made her UK debut last March at C2C, Ashley Cooke has had something of a whirlwind year.
The singer-songwriter released her debut album, ‘shot in the dark’ – which features her latest single ‘your place’ – last summer, before embarking on her very first US headline tour as well as opening up for Luke Bryan. Now she’s back out on the road alongside the likes of Jordan Davis and Mitchell Tenpenny, including a spot opening up on Jordan’s current tour of the UK and Europe.
Ahead of her return to the UK next week, I caught up with Ashley to talk about the response to the album, life on the road and what’s next for her in 2024.
We last spoke just before the release of ‘shot in the dark’ – what’s been happening for you since then?
Oh my gosh, it has been so crazy. I put out my debut album, which was 24 songs, and it has been a whirlwind ever since. I went on my very first headlining tour which was mostly sold out, which was really fun. I went and opened up for Luke Bryan on tour, which was very full circle and such a dream to get to do, because he’s been an inspiration for so long. And it’s been fun. I just went to radio with my very first song called ‘your place’ off the album. So I’m very excited about that. It just broke top 30, so I’m really pumped. It’s been a crazy couple of months and it’s just getting crazier as the year goes on.
How have you found the response has been to the album so far?
It’s been really, really great. Speaking of ‘your place’, the single off of it, on my headline tour we were playing so many shows and I was seeing the real time reaction to songs like ‘your place’. People would learn it every single show and there was more people singing along and it was just this kind of natural progression of the song taking off. That’s been the case with the album in its entirety. When we put it out there was a lot of exciting things around it and a lot of playlisting and all of this stuff, but then getting to tour it and seeing the momentum build in real time was really special. It’s really cool. I’m fortunate to have great fans that want to learn all 24 of the songs and stream them and request them at every show. It’s really fun to see people love a long project, so it’s been great.
You’re out in Europe on tour with Jordan Davis at the moment and then coming over to the UK for shows next week…
Yeah, we kind of just like hit the ground running. We play so many different shows, it’s like every day is a travel day to another show. But I’ve got to do some adventuring which was very nice. It was crazy, [in Copenhagen] we did a boat tour, and on the boat tour I saw a cold plunge with a sauna on the side of the canal. I was like, “I have got to do that!” But I’m sure there’s places like that all over the place.
What can people who are coming to see you at these shows expect?
Well, it’s gonna be very fun. So the first half in Europe, it’s basically just me and a guitar player, so similar to what I did for C2C. But then when we get to the UK, it’s basically full band. So I have tracks, I have a drummer, I’ll have my guitar player, so it’ll be a lot more energy than what it was at C2C. And obviously a longer set ‘cause at C2C I only had a couple of songs. So I’m very excited. It’ll be a lot of fun, and it’s gonna be more similar to what we do traditionally throughout the year in the States, so I was excited to bring that aspect over to the UK and get to play that for people that maybe came to C2C and wanna see more of what we did.
Are there any songs you’re particularly enjoying playing live at the moment?
Oh man, there’s so many! I would say there’s one song in our set that’s more of a quote-unquote ‘deep cut’ from my album. It’s called ‘moving on with grace’. It’s a really fun song and it brings so much energy. Typically my songs like ‘never til now’ or ‘it’s been a year’ are heartfelt and meaningful and slower and more like singer-songwriter-esque. So I really love being able to run around a stage and own that badass-ness of ‘moving on with grace’. It just adds a really cool aspect to my set that I think maybe people haven’t seen before, if they’re fans of my other stuff. I love that song a lot and I think it just gives a cool dynamic.
While you’re on this tour, is there anywhere you’ve been really excited to visit?
Oh, so many places. Honestly I loved Copenhagen. It’s so funny, I could joke about it but I’m like “I wanna move here!” [laughs] London always is so beautiful, I think it’ll be a lot of fun to get to do that. I’m probably gonna try to ride the London Eye and do all the touristy stuff – even though it’s very cringe I’m just gonna do it anyway! [laughs] And then honestly, I’m pumped to go to Zurich. I’ve always wanted to go to Switzerland and I think it’ll be really cool to get to experience everything that Zurich entails. But I know there’s so many cities. I’m just pumped to go see everywhere and get to experience all the different cultures that this tour will entail.
We’ve already talked about ‘your place’ a little bit and I know you just put out the video for that song as well. Can you tell us more about that?
Yeah, so ‘your place’ the song is very special. Long story short, I was dating this guy and he cheated on me and he kept trying to come back into my life and asking where I was and what I was doing and who I was with and all this stuff. You get it. And being a people pleaser and also being in and out of toxic relationships in my younger stupider days, I was just sick of feeling like I was just going back to the same situations and I wasn’t being respected. So I finally was like, “You know what? No, I’m putting my foot down. You treated me terribly, you don’t get to know these things any more. You don’t get to ask and you don’t get to know who I’m with and what I’m doing and where I am, because it doesn’t matter. It’s not your place.” That was basically the bottom line. And also as a songwriter, I loved the play on words at the end of the chorus which is “you don’t get to care where I’m waking up these days because it’s not your place” – like your apartment or your house. I really loved the play on words of that.
And the music video was really neat. My initial thought was being stuck in the song itself. I was like, “we need a house” because that’s what the song is about. But Justin Clough who’s so talented, he’s the director of the video and he absolutely killed it, he had this idea about an elevator. And basically he wanted to put the actor who played my ex-boyfriend in the elevator and every time the elevator went to another floor it was another scene of something he’s no longer a part of in my life. And it was a really special video. Everything about it was very creative but still very much painted a picture of the song, but had a very unique feel. So it was very cool.
You also mentioned your US headline tour last year – how was that?
Oh my gosh. It was truly incredible. I’ve dreamed of getting to headline forever. And actually I’d played a lot of those rooms opening up for friends of mine, like Spencer Crandall and BRELAND and people like that. So I had played those rooms and I remember being in those rooms just a year and half, two years ago and dreaming of getting to do my own headline tour someday in those rooms. And seeing those rooms packed out, sold out, filled up and screaming the words to my music…
There’s a lot of times in the industry where you feel like you’re not achieving or you’re not moving forward because it’s hard to zone out when you’re in it so much. And that was one of the moments where I really was able to sit back and say, “oh wow”. Like in real time, I could tangibly feel this growing and momentum picking up. It was one of those moments that I was like, “wow, this gives me so much excitement for what’s happening and what I feel like I’m now seeing in real time”. So it was very, very cool and I’m honoured people wanted to come see my headline tour.
How did you find the process of putting sets together? Was that quite a challenge for you?
100 per cent. It was really tough. And honestly, we still couldn’t even fit a lot of the songs on the album into the show because when you think about it, 24 songs, you just play them back to back to back, it’s not a very interesting set. You wanna talk to people, engage, play a cover or two, put on a show. It’s not just playing the album through, that’s not what that’s about. So having to formulate the way that sonically it needed to sound and the storyline I wanted it to tell and all of those things, it was definitely a struggle with all of the songs that I’ve put out.
Not to mention a lot of people, which I’m fortunate about, were fans since the very first song that I put out so they’ve been through that ‘Already Drank That Beer’ EP and they knew all of these songs. So a lot of people in VIP when I was playing songs were asking for requests. I love to just one-on-one hang out with people at VIP and just play whatever they wanna hear, and I would get so many requests for my first EP songs. So that was a good middle ground of getting to still play for people that were die-hard fans. But it was definitely tough to have to fit everything into an hour and a half or hour and 15 minute slot. But we got it and I think the show feels really, really great now.
In the middle of the set I do an acoustic set where I take suggestions. I’m like, “hey, what do y’all wanna hear?” and I take from the crowd what they wanna hear just in case it’s like a deep cut from the album or something. I try to give people free rein in the show in case I’m missing their favourite song or something that means a lot to them. But it was definitely tough to fit it all into a smaller set, but I think it’s really great.
You’ve mentioned going on tour with Luke Bryan. I saw the video of you pranking him – how much fun was it getting to do that? Because he’s got form on this sort of stuff…
Well that was the problem. That was pressure. Because I know he’s the king of pranks. Like when I went out with Cole Swindell he didn’t like pranks. Brett Young, same thing, doesn’t like pranks. So a lot of people I’ve toured with are not big on pranks, and obviously out of respect you go with whatever precedent they set because it’s their tour. But I knew that Luke is the biggest goofball prankster in the whole world, so I was like, “what can I do to prank him?” I still feel like my prank wasn’t up to standard with what he deserves as a prank, but I had to do something.
And so I bought these blow-up horse costumes where it’s like you’re riding on a horse, and myself and my label-mate Hailey Whitters came out during his set and rode the horse around on stage. It was funny but I kept trying to think of something funnier. It was great, but also earlier in the day during my set his music director Mike came out in one of my outfits [laughs] and surprised me on stage. So it was a very fun night of pranking each other. But next time I play a show with Luke I’ll think of something even better, just you wait! [laughs]
You were also recently named as iHeart On The Verge artist and got the handover from Lainey Wilson. Tell us more about that…
That was truly one of my favourite moments. I had no idea, I didn’t expect it at all. I was in my green room playing at the Grand Ole Opry, which is also a cool statement to give [laughs]. We walked into the green room and Lainey was in there, and Jackie from iHeart was in there and they were like, “hey, we have something for you”. I honestly thought it was like a Christmas gift. I was like “oh sure, people are nice in country music!” Then Lainey said, “what do you, Carly Pearce, Megan Moroney and myself have in common?” I was like, “I don’t know” and then she said, “iHeart On The Verge”.
The cool part about it, honestly iHeart On The Verge is such a big honour for any artist to get to have, but for me getting to hear that from Lainey and also hear her say “this is what put me on the map, iHeart On The Verge really sparked my career and all these opportunities that I have”. And Lainey’s obviously killing it. She’s a great friend and mentor to me in so many ways, so it was really cool. And my whole team was crying, and my team doesn’t cry. So just the weight of what it meant. iHeart is such a massive company and for them to champion an artist like myself, it’s a big shift in what I’m doing and it felt like we had a big champion, which we do. It’s exciting. So I’m very honoured that I’m in this position.
What’s the rest of 2024 looking like for you at the moment?
Yeah, so honestly it’s crazy because we just had a team meeting about 2025! [laughs] It’s wild how everything is so planned out. So this year is mainly touring with Jordan Davis and Mitchell Tenpenny which will be very cool. We wrap up the UK and European tour this month and then we go US tour for pretty much the whole year. Then we go into festival season with Stagecoach, and I’m playing my hometown for a radio event so a lot of radio shows. It’s gonna be a pretty busy year with Faster Horses and a lot of stuff coming up in the summer. And then it’s holidays again and hopefully put out another album. But I think this year really is about balance, getting rest where I can and then taking my album and all of the opportunities that come with that and just doubling down and getting out and playing the music for as many people as I possibly can. And hitting new markets like Europe and the UK, and we’re hoping maybe Australia. We’re going to Canada as well. So my hope is just to reach as many people as I possibly can with the music that I’ve already released in 2023.
Have you started thinking about the next record yet at all? Or is that too far down the line yet?
I’ve gently thought about it, and honestly I’ve written enough to fill a second album. But it’s a matter of what’s right. I think I wanna live with it for a minute, live with the songs and really understand. Because the reason why I put out a 24 song debut album was because I love albums. I love the stories, I love they’re just a body of work you can put your name on, and like the eras as we’ve learnt from Taylor. I just love a body of work that makes you understand, “this is a project, these songs go together, this is what I wanna say, this is the branding around it, this is the era I’m in”. I don’t wanna just throw songs that I love on a project and call it a project. I wanna really understand what I wanna say and who I want to let the world know that I am. And I think too, my second album, I want it to be more about myself and explaining more about me. So we’ll see what happens. I have a lot of songs and a lot of ideas and cool branding ideas, but I haven’t quite vision boarded it yet. So we’ll get there eventually.
And lastly – have you got plans to come back to the UK after this trip?
We’re talking about it. In that 2025 meeting, we were talking about a possible headline tour over here sometime. So yeah, we’ll see what happens. I would love to. I’ve said it once I’ll say it a million times, I love the crowds in the UK and it’s truly a pleasure getting to get on stage and play for the people and the crowds. They’re just so attentive and kind and respectful. They do their homework and they learn the songs and I think it’s really cool. It’s an honour to get to play for a crowd that really respects the artist on stage. So I would kill to do a headline tour over here and it’s definitely in the works, so stay tuned!
Ashley Cooke’s debut album, ‘shot in the dark’, is out now on Big Loud Records.
See Ashley live in the UK with Jordan Davis on his Damn Good Time World Tour this month:
13 February – Eventim Apollo, London
14 February – Corn Exchange, Cambridge
16 February – O2 Institute, Birmingham
17 February – O2 Academy, Bristol
18 February – O2 Ritz, Manchester
20 February – O2 Academy, Glasgow
21 February – Ulster Hall, Belfast
22 February – Ulster Hall, Belfast
