Allison Crutchfield: "At its core, it's a feminist break-up album"

You probably know Allison Crutchfield from P.S. Eliot, or Swearin', or maybe Waxahatchee - but with ‘Tourist In This Town' she's stepped away from her bandmates for a record that's a degree more personal.

Hey Allison, how's things?

I'm doing well! Currently drinking coffee at my parents' house in Alabama while the Today Show plays in the background; the Property Brothers are on.

What prompted you to go it alone for ‘Tourist In This Town'?

Well, I was on tour with Waxahatchee for all of 2015, and anytime I'm on tour I'm thinking about writing and making records. Swearin' ended early in the year, and so I envisioned this album as a solo thing pretty much as soon as I decided I was ready to make something new.

Have you found yourself writing about more personal or different topics with less input from others?

For sure. I think that's also something that prompted me making this record now; being in a band that operated as democratically as Swearin' tended to was sometimes daunting for me as a songwriter, mostly because of how close I was to everyone in the band. I think that made me feel inhibited and intimidated, and also I wanted to write songs that represented my band and that my bandmates liked? Writing this album felt natural and cathartic, I think because I could just write freely and not stress about other people hearing these songs in their infancy.