Maren Morris has hit reset. Hard. Not a polite tap of the button — more like a full-on factory reset, flipping her life and career inside out and emerging on the other side with a sharp new EP, Intermission, that feels like a raw nerve dressed up in festival glam.
“Pretty much a 180, top to bottom,” Morris admits, perched backstage at Louisville’s Bourbon and Beyond. And she means it. Personal life, career trajectory, the works — nothing escaped her purge. She’s always been one to embrace change, but this time, she burned the old playbook.
“I read a quote the other day that said, ‘You’re going to have to sacrifice your old life to get to your new one.’” She pauses, letting the weight of that sink in. “You can’t cherry-pick the parts you’re going to change. It’s just cellular turnover at every phase.”
Enter Intermission — a title that does double duty as both a pause and a promise. These four tracks are a peek behind the curtain, a teaser for what’s next. They come with a bite, but they’re not bitter. They’re more like a breath of fresh air that leaves a sting in your lungs.
One of the standouts, “I Hope I Never Fall in Love,” hits like a gut punch wrapped in satin. Morris delivers it with a kind of vocal fury that could shatter glass. “In the bridge, when I’m screaming ‘you made it worse!’, I’m reaching maximum velocity on my vocal cords,” she confesses. “It needed that grit, that desperation and anger. It’s like letting it all out.”
It’s the sound of someone who’s done playing by anyone else’s rules. “For something that’s going to be permanent, you’ve got to give it your all. It’s eternalized there forever.”
That forever feels heavy, but Morris carries it with a smirk and a shrug. She’s still finding joy in the grind, even as she pivots away from the country scene that made her famous. “I feel like at the end of the day, I’m still an album girl,” she says. “I love full bodies of work. But sometimes you’ve got to get the songs out as you’re feeling them.”
Intermission might be a pit stop, but it’s not a retreat. “It’s a break in the act,” she explains. “There’s obviously more to come.”
And in case anyone thought the departure from country was a step back, think again. The music industry’s female pop renaissance has Morris feeling more amped than ever. “Women in pop are dominating right now. It makes me excited to get back in the room and figure out what I want to say.”
She’s writing. A lot. “I’m heading to LA this fall for more writing trips,” she says, eyes flashing with that just-watch-me intensity. “I’ve got so much left to say.”
It’s a new chapter, but it’s not a clean slate. There’s history here. She’s quick to recall the time she nearly had a Dolly Parton-sized disaster on her hands. “On my second album, Girl, I realized one of my melodies was on top of Dolly’s ‘9 to 5.’ I was freaked out,” she laughs. “I offered her a cut of the publishing, and she wrote back, ‘Absolutely not.’” She grins, “Dolly doesn’t need it. But the respect between writers — you never want to copy your friends. You just want to be inspired by them.”
And inspired she is. Despite everything — the pressure, the heat, the upheaval — she’s still leaning in. She’s still stretching those vocal cords, still testing her limits. “The range as you age just gets more rich and chocolatey,” she says, owning her space like a woman who’s seen the inside of a storm and came out dancing in the rain.
Maren Morris’ Intermission might be a pause, but don’t mistake it for hesitation. This is the sound of a woman revving the engine, ready for whatever’s next.
So buckle up. The break is over.
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
