Maren Morris on her newest album, ‘Dreamsicle’ : World Cafe : NPR

Maren Morris not often walks into the studio with a blueprint.

“It is a block of stone, and I’ve received the chisel,” she says. “I’ve no thought what is going on to be on the opposite facet, however I’ve to get to work.”

Her newest “sculpture” was carved out of a very robust little bit of rock. Her fourth studio album, D R E A M S I C L E, is the Grammy Award-winning nation star’s first launch since her divorce from fellow songwriter Ryan Hurd.

“He is been part of all my albums. This was the primary that he isn’t,” Morris displays. “In a bittersweet means, I needed to say goodbye not solely to that relationship but additionally him being my soundboard by way of this entire course of.”

However, the divorce additionally made area for brand new gamers. Morris enlisted a few of pop’s brightest hitmakers on D R E A M S I C L E. The credit embrace Jack Antonoff, Greg Kurstin, Julia Michaels and a very particular collaboration with MUNA.

Morris recollects working with the Los Angeles-based indie pop trio, all of whom establish as queer.

“It was like going to a masterclass on how one can date a girl,” Morris mentioned. “It was a miracle we even received a music that day as a result of we simply gabbed for in all probability six hours within the studio.”

D R E A M S I C L E can be Morris’ first album since popping out herself. “Pleased to be the B in LGBTQ+,” she shared in an Instagram submit in June of 2024.

“There was some nagging weight on me, and I could not pinpoint what it was,” she says. “You suppress a lot as a result of there are such a lot of different issues on the forefront occurring, and you do not need to jeopardize one thing or make any person uncomfortable. [Coming out] was me accepting and celebrating in a public means that a part of myself that has at all times been there, however I did not really feel courageous sufficient to share.”

One other first Morris chronicles on D R E A M S I C L E? After a number of years of marriage, she’s relationship once more.

“I really feel like a Martian,” she says. “I do not understand how something works, how dynamics work. Relationship is an fascinating funhouse mirror of the way you understand your self. It is an audition or an interview.”

That form of unfiltered self-awareness exhibits up all over the place on the album. On “mattress no breakfast,” she extolls the enjoyment of waking up in your personal mattress, alone.

“After I’ve had an evening with somebody, I actually need them to return to their very own home,” she says. “I do not need them staying over as a result of I feel I’ve reclaimed this independence. I’ve my very own place. All the pieces in the home is mine. All the pieces within the toilet counter is mine. Within the kitchen. The espresso I like. I do not need to get up tomorrow and need to proceed this interview. I simply need you to get your Uber and go dwelling.”

Morris has additionally discovered that motherhood has widened her inventive lens. Songs like “as a result of, after all” had been penned for her son, Hayes.

“[Motherhood] is a lesson in empathy,” she says. “You are seeing one thing by way of one other particular person’s perspective, and it is a baby. It is a bizarre dichotomy of empathizing with a 2-year-old, however in some methods, you additionally get to heal your internal baby.”

Impressed by her son, Morris not too long ago lent her voice to the 2024 animated movie The Wild Robotic, recording a music for a pivotal second within the Oscar-nominated film a couple of shipwrecked robotic named Roz and an orphaned goose named Brightbill.

“On this scene, he lastly learns to fly. He is going off with all of the geese, and [Roz] is left on the island alone,” Morris says. “It is so gutting. Each time I watch that scene, I bawl my eyes out. It simply makes me consider when Hayes goes to go off to varsity.”

That is nonetheless a methods away, however Morris admits that she sometimes worries she’s lacking out on life whereas it is taking place. In spite of everything, D R E A M S I C L E’s title observe, written in rush at midnight, is about making an attempt to benefit from the sweetness life has to supply earlier than it melts away.

“All issues finally finish,” she says. “If you happen to simply settle for that, the grief a part of it’s allowed to dissipate. You are just a little bit extra free to be current and luxuriate in one thing because it’s taking place.”

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and reserving coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.