Faye Webster bridges the gap between folk and Atlanta’s rap scene with soothing new album

Faye Webster is fiddling with her yo-yos when we sit down at her table at a London hotel. She’s brought her collection with her to Europe for this run of press, alongside her Nintendo Switch, camera and trusted baseball glove. Wherever the Atlanta native go, her life follows with.

It’s fitting then that her new album ‘Atlanta Millionaire’s Club’, out now on Secretly Canadian, is a patchwork of her life thus far – the relationships, the people and places that make her who she is. The results are gorgeous. It’s part folk, part country and a little bit R&B.

She’s had co-signs from some of Atlanta’s most important hip-hop figures, too. She worked with Father and his label Awful Records on early material, and that DIY spirit is something that she’s carried with her in her music.

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Once her yo-yos have been safely put away, Faye takes us through her hometown, her failed Nashville experiment and her mate Stella Donnelly.

What is it about Atlanta that makes you love it so much?

“It’s beautiful. I tried to live in Nashville but I hated it and what I missed about Atlanta the most was just the people. I mean, New York is really diverse also, but everybody in Atlanta is so different. Everybody’s so friendly and creative.”

The Atlanta Braves are a big part of your life. Why?

“Growing up in Atlanta, baseball is just part of the routine and watching a game at 2pm outside; it’s the best feeling in the world. I go to the batting cages a lot to play by myself and I bring my batting gloves on tour. I try to go to the batting cages on my days off. It’s just so therapeutic.”

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You left to study music in Nashville a few years back. Was that a tough time?

“It was the only college I applied to. Leaving high school with all that pressure of like, ‘what do you wanna do for a living?’ It was ‘music, music, music’. Nashville’s cool and I like to visit it, but I think I just hated living there. I felt like I was in Black Mirror. Everybody looks the same and everybody’s doing the same thing – it’s so competitive.”

Your self-titled album came out a couple years back – so you look back on it fondly?

“It was very western swing, but that’s just what I listened to growing up. So I was like, ‘well, that’s who I am’. So that’s all I had going there. My self-titled is my first real representation of me, so at that point I played it very safe.”

Is there a big difference between that and your new album?

“I don’t think there is a big difference. I think they’re both very obviously Faye Webster and songs from this new album could have been on that, songs from that could have been on this. I think they’re really, really similar. On this new one, I tried to be less vague and more detailed and honest. But I think they complement each other really well. I could put them in the same box. I think being more honest is something I had always tried to. It was honestly just a thing of me getting older. When I put out my first record I was 15, I had nothing to even write about.”

What’s the song you’re most proud of on the new record?

“I really love ‘Jonny’. It’s probably the one I’m proudest of. I also like ‘Hurts Me Too’, but the label tried to make that the first single I said no, ‘cause I didn’t like it, but it was a relief writing that song. I think the whole thing is very different. If you were to listen to a single song from the album, there’s no way it links together to any other random song. But then when you listen to the record in a whole it makes way more sense.”

What was it like touring with Stella Donnelly earlier this year?

“It was awesome. I think that tour was special because – people came to that tour because it was e and Stella. It’s rare as an opening act for people to be there to see you. She’s like my sister.”

Faye Webster’s new album ‘Atlanta Millionaires Club’ is out now

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