1 of 2
CLAIRE SCHAPER
2 of 2
CLAIRE SCHAPER
Nicolle Galyon is one of Nashville’s hardest working women.
As a songwriter she’s worked with some of the best and brightest in the business, crafting chart-topping hits and anthemic refrains beloved by industry insiders and listeners alike. She’s written nine #1 singles including Miranda Lambert’s ACM Award-winning “Automatic” and Dan + Shay’s multi-platinum, ACM Award-winning “Tequila.” She’s also received a Grammy and CMA Awards nomination, earned a Triple Play Award, and was honored by BMI as their 2019 Songwriter of the Year.
As a record exec, she saw a need to bring female voices to the forefront and paved her own way to make it happen. Galyon launched the female- focused label and publishing house, Songs & Daughters, in 2019, which includes artists Hailey Whitters, Tiera Kennedy, Madison Kozak, Lauren Watkins, and more. Now she’s stepping squarely into the spotlight with her own debut album, firstborn, released last month. From her humble beginnings in the Midwest, to a life of overachieving, to grappling with knowing only half of her family tree, to the constant juggle between motherhood and career and everything in between, the album is Galyon’s lyrical autobiography. It’s a raw and real look inside her world told as only the woman who lived it can.
And in the midst of all of her work, Galyon took the time to give us some insights into her climb up the music industry ladder. Here, she shares the story of her rise and shines a light on some of her a-ha moments.
You’re the definition of a multi-hyphenate. How do you describe your ever- evolving career?
In one word, I’m a storyteller. I have been a staff songwriter for Warner Chappell Publishing on Music Row for 15 years, helping artists write their own stories. Then, three years ago, I founded my own female-focused record label, Songs & Daughters (a joint venture with Big Loud Records), to use my newfound platform to give other female artists more of a voice. After a few years into my role at the label, I realized it felt disingenuous to have founded a company for women telling their own stories when I had not yet told my own. So, this year I wrote my own “audiobiography” and released my first record, firstborn., on my own label in July. For me, no matter which hat I’m wearing, it always goes back to telling a story that is worthy of being told.
The album addresses a lot of experiences from your early life. Could you have foreseen this career path growing up in small-town Kansas?
I had no idea that songwriting was even a real job until I moved to Nashville, so I definitely didn’t grow up dreaming of being one. But in hindsight, it was the access that my small hometown in Kansas gave me to participate in everything—band, choir, volleyball, basketball, yearbook, musicals—that has all paid off in different ways in my career today. The thing that seemed to set me apart from my classmates was my classical piano, though. No one else in my town was learning how to play Beethoven or Chopin, and that ultimately gave me the tools to privately start trying to write songs in the Belmont practice rooms long before I was brave enough to show anyone.
How did you establish yourself in Nashville’s music industry?
Truth be told, I have jumped into every role I’ve ever had cold turkey. I had never sung a song in front of someone the first time I entered a song into a songwriting contest. I had barely been in the studio when I co-produced Wild Horse for Raelynn on Warner Bros. I had not so much as even interned at a record label when the opportunity to start Songs & Daughters came to me. I think my style has always been more jump, then learn to fly on the way down. And what I’ve found so far is that the openness to learn and to be humble enough to admit what I don’t know has made me resourceful and honest in business.
What challenges have you had to overcome as you’ve made your way in the industry?
It has been challenging to learn to be an employer as opposed to an employee. Being raised blue collar in rural Kansas, I still identify so much more with the girl fresh off the bus in the tape room than the one running the meetings. So, I’m still very much growing into that space. The biggest challenge, though, is that to be a great songwriter I have to stay soft, but to be effective as an executive you have to have some level of hardness to you. I can’t be teary-eyed in a conference room, but I can’t be overly guarded in a writing room. Trying to move back and forth between those rooms feels complex, but also kind of a metaphor for the human experience.
And now you’ve just released your first album, firstborn, after 20 years in Nashville as a songwriter and label head, what has that experience been like?
This is the most me thing I’ve done, and in turn, I feel the most me I’ve ever felt. Making this record was a lot less about music and more about the importance of communicating why I am who I am to my kids and their kids. I think for all the emphasis we put on different ways of improving ourselves in society, we really underestimate the simple power in reconciling our own stories and how powerful that can be to our bloodlines. I didn’t realize what a bold move it was until we started previewing the record for people in our industry and they would declare how brave I was. To which I was like, ‘I wasn’t scared, but now that you say that I might be now!’ There’s a myriad of takeaways from the process, but overall, I just have the greatest empathy for artists that really live out their truth publicly. It’s easy to sit in a conference room and discuss releasing music, but until you’ve really done it yourself, it’s harder to have a full appreciation for the vulnerability artists are choosing. I feel I have some unique tools in my tool belt now that I can offer to my own artists having now walked in their shoes for a few minutes.
What do you hope that listeners take away from the album?
I hope my record inspires everyone to reconnect with themselves in ways they’ve lost over the years. In order to write this record, I had to take long hard looks in the mirror and in the past, and that can be vulnerable and scary for some. But nothing has made me stronger or more resilient than having spent this time with myself.
How do you define success?
To me, success is when my actions and my values are aligned.
What do you love about what you do?
With Songs & Daughters I most love getting to be a part of the beginning of someone’s career. Anytime I’ve ever gotten to experience a mountaintop moment of my own, I immediately go into nostalgia overload for the humble beginnings when everything seemed like a miracle. Once that chapter’s over, it’s over forever. So, it is an honor to get to experience those moments for others now. Like when Hailey Whitters’ first radio single dropped this month or when Madison Kozak made her Opry debut. Or most recently, Lauren Watkins got asked to open a few shows for one of her favorite artists and she cried in the record label parking lot. Someday when she’s playing an arena, we’ll get to remember that parking lot cry. That’s what it’s all about.
What role has Nashville played in the story of your life?
My first time on an airplane was to Nashville at 13 to come to Fan Fair with my mom. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I’ve always said this town gave me wings. We only get a few chances to truly start over in our lives and moving to Nashville at 18 gave me a real chance to design who I wanted to be from scratch. I feel like Nashville and I have also kind of grown up together. In the 20 years I’ve been here, we’ve both changed a lot. And we both are definitely much busier than we used to be!
What advice would you give to young women who want to have a career like yours?
My advice would be don’t try to have a career like mine. Mine doesn’t look like anybody else’s and neither should yours.