Yes, Orville PeckHis masks have gotten smaller and smaller lately. No, it's not an accident.
“For those who are very hands-on, they'll notice that I actually did it from scratch,” says Peck Advertising sign. “I'm slowly changing my masks and showing more of my face on each album. I think a change is good.”
This spirit helped the little girl to get out of her own box and create album/5xmQFJ2yArFC5glJ3xclfE?si=eZHvQpJMSXCD6KFUi4aynQ” target=”_blank”>Panic, His genre-spanning duets album, with a parade of collaborators from across the music industry. The album's first volume (released May 10 via Columbia Records) featured duets with legends such as Willie Nelson and Elton Johnas well as newer figures such as Noah Cyrus, Allison Russell and Bu Cuaron.
Every song above Volume 1 aimed to expand the boundaries of Peck's sonic universe, bringing new fusions to Peck's classic country sound, including pop, rock and in his case “Miénteme” with Cuaron, Latin. “I never thought I'd do a reggaeton track sung entirely in Spanish, but that's what the song called for,” says Peck.
The goal, he explains, was not to create a curated, musically cohesive album that would just become “an Orville Peck album with a bunch of features.” Instead, Peck wanted Panic to consist entirely of true collaborations: “I wanted every song to be a 50/50 collaboration between me and any other artist,” he explains. “People will see this especially with Volume 2 [due out later this year] — every song is completely its own, because I wanted it to be like me and every other artist having a baby.
While Peck has yet to set a release date for the second part of his album, the singer gave fans a sneak peak of the upcoming second part when he debuted “Midnight Ride” live at Outloud Fest at WeHo Pride alongside Kylie Minogue and Diplo. The song, which officially arrived on Friday (June 7), delivers on Peck's songwriting promise as he masterfully blends his commanding sound with his collaborators' dance-pop stylings.
When he says Advertising sign about his new track, Peck says the vision was clear from the start. “When we wrote 'Midnight Ride,' we knew we wanted to make a disco country banger,” he says. “Something that felt wild and free and dangerous”
Panic she's been pregnant since Peck left Pony Show, His sparkling 2020 EP featured his first major collaboration with country legend Shania Twain on “Legends Never Die.” The now 36-year-old artist knew an A-list duo album would be a hit with fans and an item to check off his bucket list.
“I started thinking about what I used to call the 'Orville and Friends' project — who would I want to work with?” he wonders. “Honestly, I predicted it would happen much later in my career.”
Then, Willie Nelson called. In 2022, the country legend contacted Peck, asking if he would be interested in recording a duet version of “Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Found of each Other,” the 1981 western waltz about gay cowboys that Nelson covered in 2006.
It helped that Peck was already very familiar with the song. for years before Nelson called him, he was already covering it in his live shows. As a fan of hokum songs — a branch of country music that incorporates “comedy, stand-up, wordplay and characterization” — Peck has always found “Cowboys” to be a particularly compelling song.
“He's using that humor to talk about something really blatant, and he's giving people a little one-two punch,” he explains. “For those of us in the community, it makes us smile because we understand it intrinsically. For those who aren't, it's almost like an easy, interesting way to perhaps grasp the concept. how there's still a lot of suppression, suppression, oppression, all the pressures that have to do with queerness in these more mainstream spaces of the country.”
To bring that narrative full circle by performing it alongside the country legend who made it famous, Peck says, stands out as a special honor. “As a queer person who grew up loving country, I didn't see a country artist like me when I was younger—I still have that longing inside of me to find acceptance in country,” she says. “Between Willie and Dolly, there are only a few true, untouched country legends left. So to get that personal validation from Willie…he healed a lot of things for me.”
Working with so many new partners throughout Panic, Peck focused on “evolving” his craft, from the way he performs his new songs to the way he presents himself to his fans. Evolution has always been part of his plan, he explains, because some of his favorite artists have always managed to push the envelope forward.
“David Bowie is a huge inspiration to me because there are distinct periods in his career,” he says. “Ziggy Stardust, for example – his persona, his costumes, his charm, his knowledge, it's such an incredible feat. But I think if Ziggy Stardust had stayed for his entire career, I don't know if I or anyone else would have loved it as much. You just get to enjoy this thing in this particular moment, before it changes again.”
Of course, Peck understands why “seasons” for pop stars have become increasingly popular in recent years. “Change is good for artists – to challenge myslef and be more vulnerable and put myself out there a bit more. But I think it's good for the fans too,” he explains. “I think people are really comfortable with a lot of things that I do. Changing it up and seeing what else they might be up to is good. I think we can all embrace change.”
However, one area where Peck has yet to see enough change is the country music industry. While the genre is currently enjoying new levels of success thanks to mainstream lineups from artists like Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan, and Luke Combs, Peck also acknowledges that the genre isn't currently set up to support talent from marginalized groups.
“The fact is, there's an intensely politicized grip on country music,” he says. “For some people, this is a species that represents a type of American way of life, a type of belief system, religion. They think country music is supposed to represent these things to them. They don't realize that the country is the most diverse American species because it has been built from so many different cultures. That should be reflected in the people who make it and enjoy it.”
It certainly doesn't help, he adds, that country music remains largely isolated from the music industry at large. “Country, more than any other genre, is really controlled by the machine that is Nashville and country radio. There's kind of a void where even people very high up in the music business who work in the pop world don't know how to approach Nashville.”
But Peck remains confident that change is coming — slowly, but surely. As the number of artists speaking out in support of a more inclusive vision for country grows — including Mickey Guyton, TJ Osborne, Allison Russell, Maren Morris, Kelsea Ballerini and more — the singer says record labels should start to they hear soon.
“There are some of us trying to peel off the wall that is Nashville, and I think there's enough of us now that they can't hold the barricades anymore. The floodgates will open,” he says. “And that's great.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/culture/pride/orville-peck-duets-album-willie-nelson-country-interview-1235702116/