Lola Kirke details forthcoming album, Trailblazer

Trailblazer ispart of a trifecta of projects that Lola Kirke will put out into the world in 2025. Her debut book, a memoir-in-essays Wild West Village – chronicling her dysfunctional upbringing in London and New York City, the highs and lows of her career as an actress in Hollywood and her unusual path to Nashville and country music – will be out later this month. She is also featured in Academy Award-nominated director Ryan Coogler’s forthcoming Sinners. Written during this extraordinary chapter of her life—juggling memoir drafts and movie shoots—Kirke poured herself into every lyric on Trailblazer.

“I wrote a lot of this album while writing my book, sitting in a trailer between scenes of a movie I was acting in, in which my character was covered in fake blood, which I don’t entirely recommend as it’s very sticky,” jokes Kirke. For Trailblazer, Kirke also co-wrote with some of Nashville’s best songwriters – Liz Rose, Natalie Hemby, Ashley Monroe, Jon Decious, Caitlin Rose, Jason Nix and Delaney Ramsdell

Speaking of working with GRAMMY-winning writer/producer Daniel Tashian, Kirke continues: “Daniel and I would write something like “Bury Me in New York City”, the last track on the record, where I sing about the city the way a lot of country songs sing about one street towns, and then I’d get all anxious it wasn’t country enough. But Daniel had the vision. He was like ‘This album is gonna be a little bit country, and a little bit rock n’ roll.’ And I was like ‘Like Donnie and Marie Osmond?’ And he was like ‘No. Like you!’”.

Throughout the process, Tashian encouraged Kirke to embrace a more authentic version of herself. “He wouldn’t let me sing in a southern accent anymore which I guess is a good thing because I don’t really have one,” she laughs. “I love the voice I discovered hiding underneath it.”