By Carly May Gravley
Photos by Robert Maxfield II
Chaz Marie drops her new single, “Bestie,” next month.
Before we met, the first thing I learned about singer-songwriter Chaz Marie is that her nickname is “Hillbilly Aretha.” It makes sense, given her soulful, genre-bending, clarion voice and Texas upbringing. The second thing I learned about her is that she loves dogs.
“I needed this today,” Marie gushes while my dog nuzzles up next to her. We were planning on having our conversation over coffee, but when the Dallas cafe in question was too crowded, I offered up my couch and all that came with it. Between puppy kisses, Marie manages to fit in some conversation, including the story of how she met her husband, acclaimed North Texas guitarist Quentin Hope.
“I met my husband because I forgot to hire a guitar player,” she explains. “It’s the week of a pretty big gig and my drummer, who’s a good friend of mine, is like, “Call Quentin Hope.” I’m like, “There’s no way he’s going to be available.” Because Quentin was playing with Emerald City and they perform all the time. So he–”
At this point, my dog is totally suffocating her in smooches.
“My husband’s going to laugh because there’s not a better interview for me. I got to play with a dog the whole time,” she says. “Anyway, I said [to my drummer] that I didn’t have Quentin’s number. So I FaceBook messaged him. We had met a couple of times, but we didn’t know each other.” The first time she met Quentin Hope, she felt an attraction immediately. The timing wasn’t quite right, though.
“He was with a woman,” Marie explains. “So I just moved on and didn’t even think about it, right? That was the only time we had met, which was 2012. This was now 2015 when I messaged him. I just said, taking a shot in the dark, ‘If you’re available, I need someone.'”
Miraculously, he was. A show he was supposed to do with Emerald City had been cancelled (“Those gigs don’t cancel,” according to Marie) and he was able to learn his guitar parts in under a week. The rest is history.
“We’re been married for ten years,” Marie says. “It’s been awesome. He’s just been my missing piece. I hate to sound so cliche but musically and in my life, he gets me. I’ve become a better writer because of him and his playing and he tells me he’s a better musician.”
Marie’s romantic and musical partnership with Hope has pushed her sound in a new direction, which she felt like she needed after years of making country music, both as a solo artist and as a duo with her sister.
“There’s nothing wrong with country,” she’s quick to clarify. “I love country, but I just wanted to do something different, you know? I just didn’t feel like I fit the formula of writing the way they write. When we [Marie and her sister] went to Nashville, I got brainwashed into thinking, “Oh, you have to write a verse and a chorus.” […] I felt pressure to put pen to paper. The writing appointments are weird for me. Like, I think writing comes when it comes.”
As an independent artist outside of the Nashville machine, Marie’s palate of inspiration has widened significantly. She cites everyone from Bonnie Raitt to Whitney Houston as influences.
“I think that’s what makes me a little, and this is not a brag, musically well-rounded,” she explains. “I didn’t want to stick to country. It’s great, but I always felt more soul. Maybe that’s because I grew up in a Pentecostal church where if you felt it, you went with it.”
While a marriage of country, rock and soul is her bread and butter, Marie isn’t done experimenting and harbors hopes of expanding into at least one more genre.
“I love to dance and I grew up doing the rave thing and going to fun parties,” she said. “Quentin comes with these cool guitar licks and hooks for a dance beat. I would love to do some kind of electronic music that has that kind of vibe.”
Her sound and approach to writing weren’t the only big lessons Marie has learned over her career. When the Marie Sisters signed to Universal as young adults, Marie learned the hard way that some dream-come-true moments come with big caveats.
“We signed a terrible management deal and we were stuck for three and a half years,” she says. “When we lost our deal, it was like a death. It was so awful. I went and I hid for about three or four years in East Texas. I was embarrassed because everyone in Texas knew us. It wasn’t our fault, but people don’t see that. All they see is, ‘Oh, you don’t have it anymore.’”
That was the point where her sister decided the industry wasn’t for her. “She decided to say, ‘I love singing, but I don’t love that,” Marie says. “She’s very successful in the medical field and doing great. We still sing together every now and then.”
Marie has been independent and forging her own path on her own terms ever since. “I was very naive, but now nobody can pull shit over my eyes,” she says. “Especially as a woman, you have to be just a little more shrewd. I’ve become smarter and more careful about who I let in my circle. I’ve had a lot of people come through over the years and use me. It sucks.”
Marie is happy to have reached a point where she can use her platform to inform and mentor newcomers to the industry “It feels good because I’m saying, ‘Hey, hold on. Let me tell you a story about this,’ and you can take it for what it’s worth and be careful,” she says. “We didn’t have a lot of that when we were younger. We were just sort of thrown into the fire.”
At this point, my dog has fallen asleep and our time together is almost up. Given everything she’s already told me, my only remaining question is whether her definition of success now versus when she was getting started has changed. She pauses thoughtfully before dispensing her parting words.
“I’m content now,” she says. “I would love more success. I really want to be recognized as a legit songwriter. But it’s not about being a star. It used to be when I was younger. Now I just want to share my songs and my stories. Hopefully, it’ll help somebody.”
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