Conversations with Maddie Lenhart

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maddie Lenhart.

Hi Maddie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember—one of those quintessential ‘sang as soon as I could talk’ stories. I grew up surrounded by music in my home. There wasn’t a family event without a guitar and a singalong. My dad was a teacher during the school year, and played gigs throughout the summer, so we had a music room set up in the garage where he was like a live karaoke machine for me. When my friends were playing sports, I was finding ways to perform. From school talent shows to local events, my love for singing and making music just kept growing with me as I grew up.

After graduating high school, I made the traditional move to college. I went to James Madison University in Virginia and although I stayed involved in music and continued to write on my own, deep down I knew I wanted to be pursuing it more seriously. By my senior year, I was at a crossroads: pursue my education further, or take a leap of faith and move to Nashville. Of course, I took the leap and here I am. But even once I got here, it took me a little bit of time to find the courage to fully chase it. There’s a theme in my life of wanting to feel safe, and I took the first job I could find on music row for stability that I could support myself. I worked at SESAC in licensing and couldn’t have been further removed from the songwriting world. The COVID-19 pandemic was the turning point that gave me the push I needed to quit my job and commit to songwriting full-time. I found a few part-time gigs to stay afloat, and haven’t looked back since. It’s so ironic—I fought this path with back-ups for so long, and yet this is the one thing that always just made sense. It’s like once I accepted it, everything fell into place. Songwriting has always come so natural to me and I’ve never felt so sure of the path that I’m on.

In September 2023, I released my first single as an artist. Since then, I’ve played all over Nashville and began releasing more music this past September. My biggest goal right now is to secure a publishing deal, but like everything else in my Nashville journey, I know it’ll come in its own time.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I think confidence has always been my biggest obstacle. Like I mentioned earlier, I’ve always known this was the career I wanted, but it took me too long to fully commit to chasing it. I think a large part of the hesitation came from the fear that if I gave it my all and it didn’t work out like I wanted it to, I’d feel like a failure. But now that I’m in it, for one, I define success differently. Following a dream in any capacity automatically takes being a failure off the table. For two, I’m in it for life now and I’ll find a way to make it work for me, no matter how long it takes or what shape it takes — despite the voice in my head reminding me the odds that I’m stacked against.

One of the biggest challenges I face currently (along with every other independent artist) is finding enough time in the day for everything. When people say pursuing a career in music is difficult, you expect it to mean staying resilient and working hard, but I didn’t fully realize how difficult it would be to have time for it all. Especially if you are a songwriter and an artist, you have to balance writing every day, playing shows, creating content, going to shows and networking, working enough side jobs to pay the bills—all while also trying to be a person and have some semblance of a normal life. It’s worth every minute, but I definitely look forward to the day where music can be my sole income and I can look back on this time and be proud of how hard I worked to make it happen.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As a writer, my goal is to be a Swiss Army knife—reading the room and serving the song in whatever way it needs. Whether it’s top-lining, driving the melody, or simply being a sounding board, I want to be the songwriter people trust with their most cherished ideas. I care deeply and give my all to every co-write, and I hope that comes through in the writer’s room.

As an artist, I’m really just focused on creating music that feels authentically me. I grew up listening to a lot of different styles of music so it’s taken a little bit of time to figure out the pocket of country that feels the best to me. I would describe my sound to be in a similar to The Chicks and early Kacey Musgraves with a lot of melodic inspiration of the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. All rooted in country story-telling.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maddiel0u
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Maddie-Lenhart-Music/100084818540104/
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2vqBHPrnigNJCWusHebgMV?si=OihBxUH6TTmOZlHbXvPedQ