It’s been nearly a year and half since Bailey Coats has fed us new music. But the Birmingham singer/songwriter said she has two dozen songs ready for fans to feast on starting with the release today of “SNACK.”
“I’m looking forward to releasing those this year, but more importantly I’m looking forward to getting the single out this week,” Coats told Alabama NewsCenter.
Coats assembled those songs working with two production teams in Atlanta and Los Angeles the past year.
Alabama singer / songwriter Bailey Coats releases new single ‘SNACK’ from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
The first new release is “SNACK,” out today. It stems from a reference some make toward girls, including one of Coats’ friends.
Coats was hanging out with some friends and one of her guy friends was looking at girls on Instagram and said, “Dang, she looks like a snack.”
“I said, ‘Tyler, I know her. Why are you calling her a snack?’ and he said, ‘It’s just a saying,’” Coats said.
The topic of the word “snack” in that context got Coats thinking about making it into a song. She was getting ready to go into the studio with producer Wirlie Moris to write three new songs.
“I just called him and I said, ‘Wirlie, I have an idea for something,’” Coats remembered. She sang “Looking like a snack, ay” to a particular beat to Morris over the phone.
“He just took the idea and ran with it and had so much fun creating it and then my awesome co-writer, Traci Hale, came in and we just finished all the different lyrics and ended up recording it in my closet and ever since then we have just had the opportunity to see where this thing can go,” she said.
“SNACK” is a bit too quirky and tongue-in-cheek to be a “Me Too” anthem but it also has a message of empowerment that keeps it from being dismissive.
More than anything, it is Coats’ most pop release to date. Whereas her last single, “Deep Within,” found a home on country radio, there is little chance “SNACK” will do the same.
“It definitely is not a country song by any means,” Coats said. “But that’s what’s been so great about music in general is that it’s so subjective to the listener, rather than being something that is so concretely defined. And plus, with the way that barriers are being broken in the music industry today is that anything can cross over, which is so exciting and so fun for all artists.”
Coats said the sound of “SNACK” is true to who she is.
“Pop is pretty much my wheelhouse,” she said. “It’s always been my passion, always been something I’ve been very, very excited to pursue and now I have a single that really and truly gets to reflect me in the most authentic and natural way possible.”
In addition to recording 24 songs over the past several months, Coats graduated from the University of Alabama with a marketing degree. Since finishing college, she’s had more time to devote to her music career.
She plans on building up her fan base by releasing singles. At some point she hopes to be ready to work on constructing a whole album of songs.
The other songs Coats has helped write and record explore other sides of her personality. She said there is quirky, strange, weird, dark, emotional, happy, sad and a bit of everything in the songs.
She really wants to communicate to others through music and she’s approaching her songs with that intent.
So far, the reaction to “SNACK” for those she’s played it to has been what she hoped.
“It’s been such a great, overwhelmingly positive response,” Coats said. “It definitely is nerve-wracking, I feel like, whenever you’re putting new music out. I really and truly had not put anything out for a year and a half or so. This project has been under wraps for the last seven or eight months, and it’s something that’s like my baby. So, for me, getting this very, very positive response and people just enjoying the quirkiness of it and just the way that it really and truly is something so different and so strange, but also so much fun. I’m excited for more people to get to hear it and to see where this thing can go.”
As far as where Coats can go, she still has pop star ambitions.
“I definitely have my goals very, very big and very, very high,” she said. “I definitely want to be one of the biggest artists in the world someday and I 100% believe that the Lord put that on my heart where I can 100% do it. Just keep on fighting, keep on going and, most importantly, making music and getting to be my 100% self.”
You can stream “SNACK” on Spotify or through Bailey Coats’ website. She is also on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
(Courtesy of Alabama NewsCenter)
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