“I wanted to put out something that felt like [my fans] could just hit play and get to know me,” Ashley Cooke tells American Songwriter of her debut album, shot in the dark. First impressions can be hard. You only get one chance to make them and, inevitably, something pivotal is left out of the conversation. Putting out a debut album with the aim of it acting as a personal introduction to the world may seem simple, but how do you say everything you want to say?
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“I think if I thought about it as saying everything I wanted to say, I’d freak out a little bit,” Cooke adds, which is an impressive statement given she has 24 tracks on shot in the dark and still has more ideas to eventually get out of her system.
Much of the album is a page straight out of Cooke’s diary. She brought her personal experiences into rooms with some of Nashville’s most sought-after songwriters, including (but not limited to) Jordan Minton, Corey Crowder, Colbie Caillat, Nicolle Galyon, Jimmy Robbins, Mark Trussell, Matt Roy, Lauren Weintraub, and Emily Weisband – the collaborator that joined her for her American Songwriter interview.
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“I’d always dreamed of getting to write with Emily,” Cooke says. “I was so in love with her writing.”
Cooke and Weisband both attended Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee—a breeding ground for future country heavyweights. After running in the same circles for a while, the pair decided to hop in the writer’s room together.
“Everyone in town was talking about Ashley Cooke,” Weisband adds. “I remember thinking, ‘This girl has got her lane and she’s owning it.’”
Their collaborative efforts secured five cuts on shot in the dark, including the title track. “Shot in the dark” and many of their other co-writes, were written on a writer’s retreat at Weisband’s parent’s house. Judging by the rapport they had together during the interview, it’s no surprise they delivered the gems they did on Cooke’s debut.
The title track came out of a conversation Cooke, Weisband, Jordan Minton, and Corey Crowder had while on the retreat. “We started talking about TikTok and how it’s so volatile,” Cooke explains of the track. “[We said], ‘It’s like a shot in the dark.’ We immediately thought, ‘That’s the song we’re writing.’”
The lyrics evolved into a play on words of sorts about two strangers taking a shot in the dark of a crowded bar together.
Time stood still all at once
All those neon stars lined up
You leaned in, felt that rush
Last call, first kiss, a little bit drunk
Who knew two straight tequilas on a debit card
Would wind us up right where we are?
So here’s to two strangers in the back of a bar
Taking a shot in the dark
For Weisband the song holds dual meaning. “I was tickled when I learned [you were naming the album that],” she says. For the songwriter, naming the album shot in the dark, mirrors the inherent risk that comes with putting your art out into the world.
“Putting out your debut album is like the biggest shot in the dark you could take,” Weisband says.
According to Cooke, Weisband’s strength as a songwriter lies in her ability to fit wherever she needs to in the room. “That makes the most amazing songwriter,” Cooke says.
“If somebody is already on a really cool melody, Emily’s like ‘Okay cool, I’m going to think of some really dope lyrics,’” Cooke continues. “If somebody is already on a lyric, she thinks of a melody that could go with it.”
“I would rather connect with the artist or the other writers in the room than try to bring my ego into it,” Weisband adds.
Another one of their co-writes, “state i’m in,” is a stand-out on the record. The song is the perfect thesis statement for the season of life Cooke is in currently.
“I was in a van, traveling around the country,” Cooke says. “I was scrolling through Instagram seeing all of my friends getting engaged, having babies, and getting married. They are all in such amazing phases in their life. I can’t wait to be a bridesmaid or an aunt but, I’m in a van going to play a fair somewhere in Ohio.”
“That is the journey that I’m on right now,” Cooke continues.
I’ve been living my life
Counting highway white lines
I wake up and do it all again
And I know it ain’t the time
To get off of this ride
Yeah these wheels still got miles left to spin
And there’s some green eyes that’d do anything
To love me back to Tennessee
But that ain’t the state I’m in
Weisband, who recently got married, says writing this song brought her back to her younger self.
“I remember those days very fondly,” Weisband says. “For me, [this song] was like stepping into the shoes of my old self.”
Cooke says she has always been inspired by “emotional hitmakers”—the Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts, and Colbie Caillats of the world. These artists, Cooke feels, secure hit singles without compromising an ounce of their truth.
“I hope that you see some of that on this record,” Cooke says. “That’d be a huge honor to be compared to those people. [They] take emotions that are so generic and make them sound so specific.”
Cooke certainly follows their example on shot in the dark. Each of the songs was written with Cooke’s personal journey in mind, but they are relatable enough to be endlessly applicable. It’s as robust as anyone could hope to be on a debut record, with many could-be hits hidden within the track list.
“I started writing everything I possibly could,” Cooke says. “I’m really excited to get out a project that isn’t just singles and missing pieces of the whole puzzle.”
Check out Cooke and Weisband’s full interview with American Songwriter, below.
Photo by Robbie Klein / Oh Creative
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