When Morgan Wallen went into the studio to record his forthcoming, 36-track One Thing At A Time album, he had a special guest: his two-year-old son, Indie. The toddler joined Wallen and his producer, Joey Moi, while his famous father was recording songs for his next album.
“He started coming in there and banging on guitar strings and deleting songs for Joey and stuff like that,” Wallen tells Billboard with a laugh. “But honestly, he brought a lot of joy into the room. He brought a new energy that we hadn’t had in there before.”
Indie isn’t the only family member who joined Wallen in the studio. The 29-year-old was also joined by his younger sister, Ashlyne, on a song called “Outlook.”
“We’ve always been super, super tight,” Wallen explains. “We grew up in church singing hymns and stuff and learning how to harmonize with each other and sing three-part harmony.”
According to Wallen, who previously released “Don’t Think Jesus,” a song he did not write for the project, “Outlook” is one of the first songs he wrote that directly addresses his faith.
“It seemed appropriate from everything that we grew up learning and everything that we lived through together,” he says.
Wallen would have liked his youngest sister, Mikaela, to join him on One Thing At A Time as well, but she had just given birth, so wasn’t able to make it into the studio. Still, it was singing with both of his siblings in his formative years that helped instill in Wallen a love of music.
“I grew up in church singing three-part harmonies with my two sisters,” Wallen explains. “That’s how I learned to sing, so this was a full-circle moment for Ashlyne and me.”
One Thing At A Time follows Wallen’s 30-track Dangerous: The Double Album, which was released in 2021. It seemed fitting for him to return with an even bigger album in 2023, reflecting on the successes and failures he experienced in the previous two years.
“This record represents the last few years of my life, the highs and the lows,” Wallen says of the record. “It also brings together the musical influences that have shaped me as an artist – country, alternative and hip-hop. There are 36 songs on this album because we just kept exploring with fresh lyrics, music and production ideas and these are the songs that felt right to me. It was a blast to create, and I was so grateful to be back in the studio to lay this out for my fans.”
One Thing At A Time will be out on March 3. He will embark on his One NIght At A Time World Tour on April 15, performing 39 dates in four countries, spanning two continents, including 17 stadiums, plus numerous arenas and amphitheaters. ERNEST and Bailey Zimmerman will join Wallen for all dates, while HARDY and Parker McCollum will join the tour for select dates. Find music and tour dates at MorganWallen.com.