Dalmatian
Willa Mae Interview
by Joseph McCain
4 July 2026
What's your favorite part about Nashville?
My favorite part about Nashville is how much of a community it feels like. I live in East Nashville, and it's a pretty small community. Everyone here is an artist, and it's somewhat walkable, which I really like. It just feels like everyone is creative, and everyone's always working together on something. It inspires me to be around creative people all the time.
Are you from Nashville?
I'm from Knoxville, which is around three hours from here.
What are your thoughts on the country becoming a trend these past couple years? People here love to dress up in cowboy hats or wear the Canadian tuxedo.
I feel like that's all cool, except the way people talk about the South doesn't necessarily justify people being able to cosplay it.
Sometimes I'll travel up north or something, and someone will find out I'm from the South and be like, "Are you okay?" Like, "I'm so sorry." I think people just have a really set idea of what the South is in their mind, which is for good reason. It definitely can be kinda scary. But people think that Southerners are stupid and unintelligent, stuff like that, but then they wanna be like us. That's interesting to hear that people are dressing up as cowboys and stuff; I didn’t know that.
Yeah, it's a huge thing right now, to the point where it’s kind of a meme to go down to the South and take pictures and be like, "The South from my eyes," or take a picture with a rifle or something like that.
I did not know that.
I'm glad you're tapped out of it because it's so annoying to see people do it here.
When people are cosplaying the white trash aesthetic, it's like, "Okay, what are you doing?" That's really weird, and it's not chic.
I guess I do know what you're talking about, and that's interesting to hear about people in New York City. But the South is beautiful, so I understand why people would be intrigued by it. But it's complicated, for sure.
What is your ideal number of members in a band?
I love my band, so four. But I also love when I see a five or six-piece band with a synth player or something. Sometimes the more people you have, the easier it is to create a sonic world. But for rock music, the four-piece is tried and true. I saw this punk band the other day that had a saxophone player.
What's the most important instrument on stage?
This is corny, but your stage presence and your ability to connect with the audience. Also lowkey bass and drums- the rhythm section.
Do you view your music as more of a new sound, or is it more something familiar that you're making your own kind of style from?
I think that in general it falls into the indie rock category. But I do have a lot of influences, and I like to combine them. I love '90s rock and grunge, but I also love electronic music. FKA Twigs is probably my favorite artist of all time. And when I was younger and first started making music, I was obsessed with bedroom pop and DIY music in general. So I like to experiment with combining this rock sound with the guitar music being really lush and loud, but then also mixing in electronic elements.
But also, I think that doing it at home, I like the way that it affects the sound, even if it's not super high-brow. I like knowing it's DIY. I like doing it that way, and I like the way it's sounding. If that is a new sound, it's hard to say because a lot of people are tapping into that.
Can we expect another full-length project soon?
Yes.
What are you doing for the rest of today?
I think I'm gonna go to the gym and work on a new song. That's really all my plans.
Willa Mae on Instagram
Her single Gisele on Spotify and Apple Music.