Lady Antebellum ‘Felt Permission to Be Fearless Again’ on Upcoming ‘Ocean’ Album

Lady Antebellum is a little more than a week away from releasing their long-awaited seventh studio album, Ocean. The record, their first on Big Machine, has a vulnerability and authenticity that weaves its way through all 13 tracks on the record. It’s a bold move for the trio, made up of Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, and one they aren’t entirely sure they could have done, until now.

“We felt a lot of permission to be pretty fearless again,” Haywood shared with PopCulture.com and other media. “We just signed with Big Machine last year, and to have that team surround us – we worked with [Big Machine label head] Jimmy Harden on our first record. Jimmy and Scott [Borchetta] were so encouraging about making an album that you want to be proud of for the rest of your career and we’ll support it. And so they gave us a lot of that freedom. And working with Dann Huff for the first time for us was great to have that outside perspective too of who we are as Lady Antebellum, what we do and vocally how we can arrange things.

“So, I just feel like there was this kind of environment that we cultivated of being fearless to kind of walk in and be vulnerable, have courage to do what we want to do, record the songs we want to record and put out the songs we want to put out,” he added. “So all that to say, the environment was very supportive of us digging deep and sharing kind of our deepest parts of the last several years.”

Writing and recording Ocean brought the three trio members back together in a way they never expected, allowing them to forge even deeper and more meaningful connections than they ever had.

“We’re in touch with ourselves better than we’ve ever been since then,” Scott explained. “It’s like we were so free on those first two records, and then life happens and we’re busy, and it’s trying to juggle more and more. Then we hit a wall and then we kind of broke through that wall, and now I feel like you’re hearing us free again in a way.”

Lady A found a comfort in the songs they chose for Ocean, believing others will have a similar experience as they listen to the entire project.

“I think our greatest goal and joy would be for people to feel comfort when they listen to this,” said Scott. “Feel comfort in that we’re being authentically ourselves, but that these songs are meeting you where you are.”

Order Ocean at LadyAntebellum.com.

Photo Credit: Getty / Rick Diamond