MacKenzie Porter Shares Six Years Of Confessions On Debut Album [Interview]
MacKenzie Porter. Photo: Bree Marie Fish
Country singer-songwriter MacKenzie Porter has been making waves in the industry since she started her career in Canada.
After some success up north, the Big Loud singer cemented her success in the U.S. with her hit duet with Dustin Lynch “Thinkin’ Bout You,” which spent six weeks at No. 1. Now she’s ready to make an even bigger splash with her debut album Nobody’s Born With A Broken Heart, which released on Friday (April 26). Prior to its release, Porter took some time to speak with MusicRow about how the record came to be.
Born and raised in Alberta, Canada, Porter cut her teeth there before heading to Nashville. “I started playing songs up in Canada. I’ve had a lot of success up there and the goal was always to come down and have a single at U.S. radio, but also build this other fan base at the same time,” shares Porter.
“I feel like I’ve learned so many things through touring and radio up there that now I feel really equipped with the tools [I needed] go into my first record here,” Porter expresses about her move to the U.S. country scene.
While up in Canada, Porter saw not only the growth of her Canadian fan base, but also that the U.S. “Because streaming services are worldwide, I have been able to build both [fan bases] simultaneously.”
When discussing the making behind the project, Porter describes it as six years in the making. “Six years ago is roughly when I signed my record deal. A lot of it at the beginning was developmental. I was trying to get into the best writing rooms and figure out what my sound was and what my brand was.
“At the same time, I was also doing a lot of acting,” she says, referring to her time on the television show Travelers where she played the main role of Marcy Wharton. “I was on a TV show for three years that took up a lot of my time, so I was filming that for five months out of a year and trying to develop [as an artist] at the same time.”
While filming took up a lot of her time, Porter was able to discover her artistry slowly, and felt ready to introduce herself musically when the television project ended.
“I say six years because that’s when I started writing for my debut record, even though there was no [intention to write an album then],” she says. “It was all just writing towards who am I and what my sound is as an artist.”
Reflecting on that time writing for her sound, she revealed that some songs from that time made it onto this record, but she also found inspiration in the studio while recording.”I would say the majority [of the songs] are newer, but there’s a couple that just lived in my catalog that I would come back to all the time, such as ‘Sucker Punch.’”
The album includes a total of 19 tracks, with Porter as a co-writer on nine of those. Working with a host of her frequent writing partners, such as Parker Welling, Lydia Vaughan, Luke Niccoli and more, the album features vulnerable lyrics and clever lyrical hooks such as “Pay Me Back In Change,” “Strong Things,” “Foreclosure” and more. She also introduces newer writer Emma Klein, who solo-penned “Pay Me Back In Change.”
Picking the title of the record, Nobody’s Born With A Broken Heart, was an easy choice for Porter. The songs show someone’s journey through life, cultivating from her own experiences.
“The message I want to get across is in life we all have these experiences, whether it’s actual heartbreak in a relationship, work heartbreak, family heartbreak or whatever your situation may be. You always feel a little broken from different situations that you had envisioned to go a different way in your head, and overall that builds who you are as a person,” Porter reflects. “All of these songs are like little moments of heartbreak for me that have really built who I am proud to be today and that was the whole meaning of the record.”
Sonically, Nobody’s Born With A Broken Heart bridges the gap between country and pop, but as Porter points out, there is plenty of fiddle, mandolin and banjo. She calls it a, “new age, young, honest sound.”
When asked about a hidden gem on the record, Porter pointed out that she was most excited for listeners to hear “Coming Home To You,” the one love song on the record.
“I’m in this phase of life where [that song] really hits home for me,” she says. “I think people in the same phase of life that I’m going through will also really relate to it.”
Porter’s most vulnerable track on the project, “Nightingale,” was a song she wrote for herself about her journey in the industry.
“When I first moved to Nashville, I was so confident in myself, my story and my ability to write. I would just go up to anybody and say, ‘You should give me a record deal because I’m awesome,'” she quips. “After years of hearing ‘no’ a million times, there were moments where I had lost that. I don’t want to be like that—I want to be the girl who is totally carefree and has no doubt in her mind. I wrote ‘Nightingale’ to myself to keep singing, keep writing your songs and have no fear in this industry.”
When looking at all the writing credits on the record, Lainey Wilson‘s name definitely pops out on “Chasing Tornadoes.”
“My producer Joey Moi sent me that song one day,” Porter shares. “It was before the record was finished, we were looking for the next single and I loved the energy of it. I didn’t really have anything that sounded like that or had that kind of energy. I’m a big fan of Lainey, but it felt like a song that felt like me too.”
The project wraps up with the title track “Nobody’s Born With A Broken Heart.” Porter felt that it was a perfect way to wrap up the album because of the very last line of the song, “Maybe this love will put back the parts because nobody’s born with a broken heart.”
“It gives this hopeful outro to the entire thing. Even though the songs are about heartbreak, I’m a very positive person. I can be so upset about something and then the next day, I get back up and try again. That’s how I wanted to make sure I left the audience—knowing that I feel that way and that’s how they should feel in life in those situations too.”
Porter also shared that the meaning of the project changed during the creation process, when she found out she was pregnant with her first child.
“Now [the title] means another thing. My daughter [was] born so perfect and she’s going to experience a bunch of things in life that are probably going to chip away at her little heart,” Porter shares. “It will be good for her. It will show her that she went for it in life, she took risks and she loved people—and maybe they didn’t pan out the way she wanted, but that is a beautiful thing too because it’s always better to go for something and fail than not go at all.”
Porter is gearing up to take her new music out on the road this year, with scheduled festival appearances and headlining dates across the U.S. and Canada. She will also serve as support on select dates of Parker McCollum‘s “Burn It Down Tour.”
She is most excited to play up-tempo tracks “Rough Ride For A Cowboy,” “Have Your Beers” and more to amp up the crowd during her set. She also will share some acoustic, honest moments with the crowd with tracks such as “Pay Me Back In Change,” “Confession” and “Coming Home To You.” With her eyes on the road, Porter can’t wait to see how fans resonate with Nobody’s Born With A Broken Heart.
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