Country duo Maddie & Tae made a virtual appearance on March 3 for ETSU students as they shared some of their songwriting advice, answered fan questions and performed several of their biggest hits.
Maddie & Tae were the final performers in the line-up of ETSU’s Spring 2021 Virtual Music and Comedy Tour. Previous participants of the tour included Melissa Villaseñor, Bryan Terrell Clark, Ron Funches and Young M.A.
ETSU community members were given the option this semester to either attend online through Looped Live or through socially distanced, in-person viewing at The Cave. With nearly 100 people registered to watch the duo’s performance online, ETSU Student Government Association Secretary of Exterior Larissa Copley was pleased with the turnout.
“One thing I liked about it not being on Zoom is just saying it was on a new platform,” said Copley. “I feel like students are maybe more inclined to go to [Looped Live] just because everything is centralized on Zoom. And another thing I’ve liked about the online format is that our students from our satellite campuses can attend a lot easier so that’s been really, really neat.”
Through Looped Live, universal and university-specific viewing rooms are available to participants. In the universal viewing room, viewers could chat with students from places ranging from Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee, to Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. As a moderator of the chat, Copley got to see first-hand what ETSU students experienced during the performance.
“To see the different levels of engagement and the different things people are willing to share on days of the performances, I was kind of happy when people responded, because that means they’re trying to engage,” Copley said. “It’s been interesting and kind of eye-opening in some ways.”
The duo began by talking about how they started their career together. Meeting at 15 years old in Texas, they both shared the same vocal coach and began to work on music together, traveling to Nashville every other week to write music.
“That’s kind of what kicked everything off is the love of songwriting and the love of storytelling,” said Maddie Marlow, one of the group members. “We always loved country music because I think country music just tells stories so well and so real.”
While answering fan questions, the duo answered one from ETSU explaining how they overcome writer’s block as musicians.
“I had awful writer’s block last year and it stressed me out so much because I knew that we were going to have all this time without boring, we’re really going to have to dig deep and write our third record,” said Taylor Dye, known as Tae in the duo. “I think for me as an individual, not thinking about having writer’s block, it’s like doing things that inspire you. Whether that’s watching a Netflix show, or Pinterest or reading a book.”
The duo performed two of their biggest hits, including their debut single “Girl in a Country Song” and ended with one of their more recent singles, “Die from a Broken Heart”.
The next musical performance event will be April 12 with Demon Waffle as part of the Homecoming festivities. To learn more, visit www.etsu.edu/Homecoming.
