“Every good song starts with a meme”…or at least that’s what Mackenzie Carpenter discovered when she stumbled upon the inspiration for her newest release, “Dozen Red Flags.”
The song which is a clever play on words was penned around two years ago by Carpenter with award-winning singer/songwriter Nicolle Galyon and frequent collaborator Brandon Hood. The trio of creatives had already found a strong groove of writing together when the songstress found a meme that would become a highlight of their next session.
“I had seen a meme that was a guy on his knees with these flowers and some of them had some red flags in it. And I was like, ‘oh my gosh, I have to write a song about that,’” Carpenter told Country Now. “I got it to them, I showed them the picture and I was like, ‘I feel like we have to write a song about this.’ And I had kind of taken the meme and was like a dozen red flags instead of a dozen red roses, and they were like, ‘oh my gosh, that’s so fun.’”
At that time, Carpenter was still dating her now-husband and fell into a conversation about the journey of getting to know someone on a deeper level and learning about all their red and green flags. With the addition of an acoustic guitar being played on Galyon’s back deck, a relatable and fun song started to come into fruition. It then evolved into an empowering anthem that encourages listeners to finally open their eyes to the fact that they deserve so much better.
Carpenter exudes sass and wit as she confesses to clinging to a guy who gave her countless reasons to walk away—so many, in fact, that he “could’ve made a bouquet” out of red flags instead of flowers.
“But, man, he was cute and, damn, he was funny/ My brother thought he was the man/ If violets are blue, then I’m such a dummy/ To think he’d have roses in hand/ I would’ve settled for tulips or daisies/ I ain’t picking petals ’cause all that he gave me/ Was reasons for running/ And a couple dozen red flags,” she delivers on the hard-hitting chorus filled with epic guitar riffs and revengeful drumbeats.
One moment in the song that brings the creative process full circle is when Carpenter lets her frustrations out through a talking bridge that almost didn’t make the cut. She pauses her vocals to express disbelief over the fact that she actually fell for a guy who shows up half drunk with a six-pack in his hands.
“A funny part that I haven’t really talked about yet is there’s a little talking bridge and that’s the way that we wrote it day-of, but then I kind of chickened out and I was like, ‘ah, I don’t know if that’s cool or not. I am going to go back and just write a melody to it,’” she recalled. “And so there’s the day-of work tape where it’s the talking bridge, and then there’s another version where we sang it and then we were like, ‘no, we got to go back to the talking.’ It’s one of the coolest parts of the song.”
The new tune was also paired with an accompanying music video that taps into a bright red color theme. Shot in Austin, TX, the footage places a bright red convertible at the center with roses sitting on the trunk as Carpenter delivers the tune in her matching long fringe gloves and red cowboy hat with the words “Hey Country Queen” branded on the brim as an easter egg for her upcoming debut album.
A Look Into Carpenter’s Debut Album, Hey Country Queen
“Dozen Red Flags” debuted via Courtesy of The Valory Music Co., marking yet another look into Carpenter’s debut album, Hey Country Queen, dropping on March 7. This project is set to feature 13 tracks, each of which Carpenter is a co-writer on. With this being her debut album, fans will have the opportunity to connect with the rising star and experience her versatility as a country artist on a deeper level.
On each of these songs, the Georgia native is singing to all the country queens out there who might need a post-breakup pick-me-up, an excuse to shed some tears, or a love-filled tune to soundtrack their happiest relationship moments. Listeners will find everything from confidence-soaked girl anthems like “Cowgirl Like Me,” to powerful moments of reflection on “Jesus, I’m Jealous,” somber acoustic ballads like “The Other Side” and so much more in between.
“I think one thing that people will find from the album is it’s very diverse and all over the place in the best way, because I wanted it to be kind of like, listening to my album is kind of like listening to music in my car. I’m changing the station all the time, I’m listening to all different genres. I’m listening to the saddest song ever and then I’m listening to the most female rage power anthem. So there’s a lot of different feelings and vibes and emotions because I feel like that’s relatable to me and relatable to my friends. But we’re talking about all of our ups and downs.”
Unreleased Collaboration With Midland
Plus, the album wouldn’t be complete without a duet to round it all out. On this project, fans will find Carpenter collaborating with Midland on what she dubs a “spring break beach anthem” titled “I Wish You Would.”
“I think it’s all the things that you would expect and that you would want it to be. It is like vibe central,” she said with a laugh. “When I wrote the song a few years ago, I wrote it with Jonathan Hutcherson and he was singing on the duet and he’s super talented himself, but I kind of had this vision For Midland to be on it. Thankfully, I had the right people in place to make the ask and we were labelmates and so they were all about it. As soon as they heard the song, they were so pumped and we got to record vocals together and they honestly just took the song to the next level.”
The Women Who Inspired The Title
The title, Hey Country Queen, is based off the project’s final track, “Country Queen,” which serves as a tribute to all the strong women Carpenter has encountered throughout her life who have encouraged her to speak her truth while also allowing herself to have some fun.
“When I was thinking about the title on my record, it was really hard for me. Honestly, in the beginning I didn’t necessarily know that ‘Hey Country Queen’ was my album title, but as I was digging through, you know, what do I want people to know about me and what do I want to build a brand around, I feel like a lot of my moving forward has to do with where I came from,” Carpenter reflected.
“I absolutely love my family and the people in my life that have made me who I am today. And that’s my great grandmother, whose name is Ruby Jo, and my grandmother Nancy, and my mom (Lisa) and her best friend Christy, and my Aunt Mirm, my Aunt Jane, all these people in my life. Sadly I lost all of my grandparents by the time I was 16, but in my childhood, they were the country queens that were teaching me everything that I know now,” she explained. “My grandmother played the piano and she was a poet and she’s who kind of, I say that I got maybe the songwriting gene from, and singing in the choir in church. All of them were so involved and made me who I am today.”
In addition to the family members who Carpenter sees as the “Country Queens” in her life, she also credits the title to the female artists like Shania Twain, Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert and more who impacted her journey just by listening to their music throughout her upbringing.
“[They] helped hone the inspiration for, ‘oh, you can just grow up and be a singer. You can grow up and be a songwriter. You can grow up and perform and wear what you want to wear and be who you want to be and have that confidence,’” she pointed out. “And then the girls in my circle, who are my country queen besties, who get me through the modern day. So it’s kind of like me saying, ‘Hey, country queen’ to all the country queens out there that I don’t know trying to show them all these different pieces of who I am and where I come from.”
What better way to capture the essence of girlhood than highlighting these female powerhouses through the emotions that come with falling in love, getting your heartbroken and all the in between. Mackenzie Carpenter is excited to offer an introduction to her world by telling these stories based on real-life experiences that she’s gone through or helped others get through. At the end of the day, she says she hopes everyone can find a song on the project that they can relate to.
The post How a Meme Inspired Mackenzie Carpenter’s Empowering New Song, ‘Dozen Red Flags’ [Exclusive] appeared first on Country Now.
