Maren Morris is “writing a ton” of songs as she gears up for a new era of music — especially after tossing an album’s worth of songs.
“I feel like I’m still in the early stages of figuring the sound out,” Morris, 33, told Us Weekly exclusively while promoting Visible Wireless’ Singles Awareness Day campaign. “I had basically a whole record done, and then my life imploded.”
Within the last year and a half, Morris found herself in a headline-making country music feud with Jason and Brittany Aldean over transgender rights. Then, in October 2023, she filed for divorce from husband Ryan Hurd after five years of marriage.
“I sort of am back to square one, which is not that scary to me anymore because … nothing could shake me at this point,” Morris continued. “I’m in the fun stage of figuring out what the sound is.”
In September 2023, Morris released The Bridge EP, featuring the songs “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here.” Some fans speculated that the EP’s lyrics confirmed she planned to leave the country music genre entirely. Morris later clarified in an October 2023 appearance on The New York Times’ “Popcast” podcast that she’s “just doing [her] own thing.”
“I tell myself … just don’t worry about the end result or don’t worry about the audience’s view of it,” Morris told Us about making genre-bending music. “I feel like if you bring that into the room or in the studio, it instantly kills the creativity, because you’re facing outward already and you should be facing inward while you’re creating it.”
The singer added that it’s “never served me well” when she focused on the charts — or what other people think.
“The best work I’ve made is when I’m truly being original and unique and not letting outside influence or perspective shade my creativity that day,” Morris said. “Also, dare to suck sometimes. It’s not going to be brilliant. So, you have to let all of those measures happen for the good stuff to get in.”
To keep her fans “fed” while she’s working on a new record, Morris released a cover of Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself” on Thursday, February 15. The song was recorded in collaboration with Visible Wireless — the Verizon-owned, all-digital wireless carrier — for her recent campaign.
“I feel like it’s such a fun song to sort of celebrate, not being single, but just owning yourself and not needing another entity to validate your existence,” she told Us, noting that the track is “perfectly encapsulating where I’m at in my personal life right now.”
