Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes had plans for the ultimate 2024 Halloween couples costume for Heidi Klum's iconic annual party: Moo Deng the pygmy hippo and Pesto the penguin… but reality set in. New York City is having an unnaturally warm fall, and full animal garb seemed pretty involved, now that Ballerini thought about it. She's also got other things to focus on at the moment, like her new album PATTERNS, out today, October 25, and a sold-out one-night stint at Madison Square Garden on the 29th.
“I felt good about Pesto, but then I just felt like it was going to be very sweaty and moist," Ballerini tells Teen Vogue backstage before a Spotify album release party at The Carlyle Hotel, where she celebrated with fans and played songs from the album. “[Chase and I are] both in such a full sprint right now. We're running in these parallels. Let's just dress up and go have so much fun for a night and be out of work mode a little bit.” Instead, you'll see Ballerini and Stokes, who went public with their relationship in 2023, go as Sandy and Danny from Grease — red heels and the iconic leather jacket.
The Knoxville, Tennessee, singer-songwriter says Stokes, who is currently promoting the new season of Outer Banks, was one of the first people to hear every new song as she was making PATTERNS. “He heard it as it was happening,” Ballerini says. “This is the first time that I've gotten to make a record where he's been a part of the whole process. He would be Facetiming into the studio with the musicians. It was really fun to bring him alongside for the whole process, and be [not only] such a beautiful part of the life of this record, but of the process too."
During the Spotify event, Ballerini did a Q&A with Cassie DiLaura where she talked about writing the song “How Much Do You Love Me?” which she calls “the softest song on the album.” According to Ballerini, Stokes came downstairs and asked what she was writing on guitar. She told him straight up, “This is a love song for you.”
For his part, Stokes shared the album on his Instagram Story on Friday, writing, “Humanity, authenticity, honesty, and a sh*t ton of vulnerability. KB, you're a once in a lifetime type of human being… Thank you for giving yourself to the world. Thank you for letting me in yours."
PATTERNS is the fifth full-length album from Kelsea Ballerini and the follow-up to her compelling 2023 EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, which was her way of processing everything from childhood pain to her divorce from country singer Morgan Evans. The arc of PATTERNS follows the ups and downs of a new relationship, the infatuation that then transitions into a love that requires some conquering of internal fear — Ballerini openly admits she likes to “cut and ghost” when she feels out of control, but sticking around can give way to something messier, sure, but also more true, and more long-lasting.
The most vulnerable song on the album, she says, is a song called “Beg For Your Love," a ballad that is the next step from Rolling Up the Welcome Mat track "Leave Me Again." “That song is basically like, the lesson I'm going to take with me is I'm gonna always protect myself and my boundaries,” she tells Teen Vogue. “[But] it's a different story when you flash forward and you're in a situation or a dynamic where you're challenged to actually hold that line for yourself. That was very emotionally naked to write.”
She credits a lot of that openness to her album collaborators — producer Alysa Vanderheym, and songwriters Hillary Lindsey, Jessie Jo Dillon, and Little Big Town's Karen Fairchild — and the environment they created together.
“I'm really proud that I made this record with only women, and I'm really proud that I didn't go into it with a calculated plan to do that,” Ballerini says. “It just happened organically and that feels really important to me that this album is womanhood. It is made from womanhood and sisterhood. Even in songs that have nothing to do with that, you hear it still.”
