Leaving Austin and Cassadee Pope are opening up about their new collaboration, “American Avenue.” Leaving Austin, made up of Austin Machado, Michael Stevens and Davis Forney, already had the song written, when they realized that a female voice would work well on the song, and immediately thought of Cassadee.

“We had played a show with Cassadee about four or five years ago,” Austin recalled to Everything Nash. “We had our BMG Christmas party, and she walked in and I was like, ‘I’m just going to ask her. Why not?’ I went up to her, and I said, ‘We have this song that we think you’d fit perfectly on. Can I send it to you?’ And she was like, ‘Yes, absolutely. I’d love to hear it.’ So we sent it the next day. We didn’t hear anything until like 5:00 PM and then she wrote back and she was like, ‘Yep. I love it, man. Let’s do it.'”

Cassadee knew as soon as she heard “American Avenue” that she wanted to lend her talents to the tune.

“I had played a few shows with Leaving Austin over the years, but we really got to hang out more at the BMG Christmas party last year,” Cassadee told Everything Nash. “That’s when they approached me about singing on ‘American Avenue,’ and I said I’d listen to it and let them know. Fast forward to a couple of days later, I got the song and knew I wanted to be a part of it.”

“The second I heard that chorus hit, I couldn’t help but sway with the beat.” she continued. “It’s got this incredibly infectious groove that makes you happy instantly, and I know that’s something people really look for in a song, especially during these difficult times. I love the lyrics, too. It tells such a relatable story that we’ve all felt some way or another.”

Leaving Austin also got to film the video for “American Avenue” with Cassadee, which felt much like good friends just hanging out than an official video shoot.

“That was some of the most fun we’ve ever had,” Austin said. “We have the same personalities, all of us and her. So it was just joking and having a blast all day. It was literally the most fun.”

Leaving Austin recently had the chance to perform “American Avenue” live on the Today Show, which they had to do remotely because of COVID-19.

“I think that it probably makes a pretty big difference as far as being nervous because we were a little more comfortable,” Michael maintained. “Everybody that we would want to be around is there, and we were able to rehearse before, which made it feel better, but it’s still live. So there’s a little bit of nervousness that’s there, but I think it just felt more comfortable having the people around. It felt more like a show.”

Leaving Austin recently made the decision to leave California for Nashville, after several years of traveling back and forth. With the success of “American Avenue,” the trio already feels validation that the decision, although difficult, was the right one for them.

“It does validate the decision,” David admitted. “We’ve been talking about moving for almost a year now, and being fully engulfed in this community is just what you have to do. When we started coming to town three and a half years ago, Nashville accepted us immediately. It just felt like home away from home. So when we decided to make the move, it was during the pandemic, so that was kind of crazy, but it’s been awesome and things have happened very quickly.

“We stuck to our release plan and when we get to look at our analytics and stuff, it shows a huge support of Nashville,” he added. “That just makes us feel really good.”