Maddie & Tae Do Music in a Family Way: 'It's a Beautiful, Chaotic Life in the Best Way' (Exclusive)

As the hit-making duo celebrates the release of a new EP, they navigate career and motherhood — and await the birth of Tae's second child

With two babies between them and another on the way, Maddie & Tae are no doubt living into the joys of new motherhood these days. But don’t think that means the hit-making duo is neglecting what they call their first baby: the music career that’s now 10 years old and counting.

“We still treat it like a baby,” Maddie Marlow Font, 29, tells PEOPLE. “We still nourish her.”

Of course these two artists would describe their career with an estrogen-powered gender. Beginning with 2014’s breakout blockbuster, “Girl in a Country Song,” they’ve struck gold mining feminine themes. And now they’re delivering more treasure with the release on Friday of their latest EP, What a Woman Can Do, a six-track project packed with their trademark heart, soul and sass.

But the new music also reflects the duo’s evolution, not only as artists, but also as women — most notably in their co-written title track, which offers a vivid portrait of feminine strength: “When your heart is drowning / staring at a mountain / wondering how it’s ever gonna move / with her perfect timing / pretty soon you’re finding / out what a woman can do.”

Related: Maddie & Tae's Taylor Dye Expecting Baby No. 2 with Husband Josh Kerr: 'Couldn't Be More Excited'

“With almost every record we’ve time-stamped where we are in life,” says Font. “Musically, I feel like how Kacey Musgraves says, there’s a ‘deeper well,’ and I think you can hear that from both of us.”

Surely much of that depth derives from their entry into motherhood, a role that many female country artists consciously delay or even set aside. Tae Dye Kerr, who’s 28 and married to songwriter-producer Josh Kerr, acknowledges the duo was well acquainted with the notion that babies could be “career suicide.” Still, after so many years of tending to their music, both women welcomed their roles as wives in their mid-20s and were excited to become moms. When Kerr became pregnant in 2021, her duo partner immediately declared it “a surprise blessing.”

Soon, though, life threw the women another curve when Kerr was diagnosed with a high-risk pregnancy that canceled their tour and put her on bedrest for a month in a Nashville hospital. Her daughter, Leighton, was born two-and-a-half months prematurely, and she spent her first 53 days in neonatal intensive care. Today, the little girl is happy and healthy. Kerr, meanwhile, has had to do the hard work of processing the trauma of that anxious time.

“I've definitely come a long way,” she says.

She shares that therapy has helped her healing, but she gives the most credit “to the joy that Leighton brings to our lives.”

Related: Maddie & Tae's Taylor Dye Brings Newborn Daughter Home After 53 Days in NICU: 'Blessed'

So much so that Kerr is now expecting her second child, a boy, who is due in November. It’s a pregnancy that required no small amount of courage — Kerr admits that, for a time, she thought never again — but she also took the important step of undergoing a surgical procedure on her cervix to prevent another premature birth.

“So that,” she says, “gives me peace of mind, for sure.”

Leighton’s arrival, the two women say, required readjustments on tour, whether or not it included the baby and Kerr’s husband. When Kerr had to leave Leighton at home, she says, “it kind of messed with my brain a little bit. Sometimes I would go out onstage and I was like, I’m not a hundred percent here, and what’s wrong with me? And then I just realized, you know what? I have something at home that I really love, and I adore and I miss her. But I am allowed to enjoy this. I don’t have to feel guilty.”

Font and Kerr upped their degree of difficulty last year after Font gave birth to her son, Forrest. (He just turned 1 on Monday; his dad, Jonah Font, is Maddie’s high school sweetheart.) The two artists have since traded between touring by themselves and with their families.

“It’s just a beautiful, chaotic life in the best way,” says Font.

Related: Maddie & Tae's Maddie Marlow Welcomes First Baby, Son Forrest, After Emergency C-Section: 'So In Love'

One travel trick they learned from Carrie Underwood, their former headlining tour-mate and a mother of two: Instead of hotel rooms, Kerr says, they rent a home so their kids can “be free and have space and still live their childhood even though it’s on the road.”

Both women sigh heavily — and in unison — as they appreciatively describe their husbands’ roles in their children’s lives.

“I mean, the heroes,” says Kerr.

“Literally heroes,” Font agrees. “Josh didn’t work for a whole year so he could tour with us and Leighton. And then Jonah has been a stay-at-home dad in this season.”

Related: Carrie Underwood Reveals Her Sons Isaiah and Jacob 'Love' Seeing Her on TV: 'I'll Take It'

Font and Kerr readily agree that motherhood has rocked their priorities, but says Kerr, “I do think one of the super-powers that God has given us women is being able to wear many hats. It takes a lot of compartmentalizing and balancing, but we’re just learning as we go.”

Says Font: “I used to be so perfectionistic and so like everything had to be so put together. Now, I’m gonna show up and be the best boss, wife, mom and best friend I can be, and that’s all I can do. I can go to bed knowing that I did my best.”

As for perfection?

“That’s off the table,” Font says with a laugh. “At this point, I don’t even want that. It’s too much.”

Naturally, this new chapter of their lives has crept into their music-making. One surprise on the new EP: Font co-wrote two of the tracks, “Free Like” and “One Hit Wonders,” without Kerr, who was on maternity leave at the time.

“I don’t prefer it,” Font says about the sessions (which also included other writers). “It’s kind of like Batman without Robin or PB without J.”

Still, Kerr delights in noting that Font stepped up to sing both parts on the demo for “One Hit Wonders,” a mid-tempo song with a sexy, breezy vibe, and Font expertly channeled her absent partner. The harmony line, Kerr says, “was exactly what I would have chosen,” and she used it as a guide for the final version.

More recently, Kerr has taken on an entirely new role, singing lead for the first time in the duo’s career. Her distinctive deeper register can be heard on two tracks, “Heart They Didn’t Break” (released last year as a single) and “What a Woman Can Do.”

Font says she, as well as fans, have long pushed for Kerr to share lead duties, but Kerr has resisted. “I love singing harmony!” she insists.

What made her change her mind was the storytelling of “Heart They Didn’t Break,” a tender tribute to one girlfriend who comes to the emotional rescue of another. “It made so much sense,” Kerr says about taking the lead. “That song feels like we wrote it even though we didn't. It feels like our friendship, too.”

That session, she says, gave her the confidence to take the verses on “What a Woman Can Do,” and Font has been enjoying the challenges of harmonizing. “One thousand percent it’s harder!” she declares, praising her partner as “the harmony queen.”

Trading singing roles has opened them up to new creative ideas, Font says, “and I think it sets us apart a little bit from other duos. You don’t really hear a lot of the duos switching leads like that.”

Kerr and Font have had a lot to celebrate this week besides the EP’s release: On Monday, they received their 10th consecutive nomination for CMA duo of the year. They’re also enjoying their latest headlining tour, which ends early next month so Kerr can begin her maternity leave. She says she’s looking forward to experiencing the final two months of pregnancy for the first time: “It feels so weird, because even though I’ve been pregnant before, I’m experiencing it all like new things.”

Meanwhile, Font is looking forward to throwing her best friend a baby shower, something else that fell by the wayside with Leighton’s early arrival. Font has also been working on possible baby names, if only to extend her track record.

“She named Leighton, basically,” Kerr confirms.

“I assisted,” Font corrects, recounting how Kerr later proposed the name to her husband, who pointed out that he’d suggested the same name a month before and she’d rejected it.

Kerr laughs: “It just had to come out of my bestie’s mouth!”

Obviously the bond between these two women continues to grow tighter with each passing year.

“She’s stuck with me,” says Kerr. “It’s just true sisterhood.”

“Chosen family,” Font concurs.

The two now live about 20 minutes apart in the Nashville area, but they dream of one day sharing some acreage, where they can raise their families and grow gardens. Of course, they’ll still keep making music. That part won’t change. But their motivation, they say, has. When they started out, they admit now, material ambitions tended to held sway. But now, they say, they’re chasing personal fulfillment.

“I’m driven by emotions and feelings,” says Kerr. “Whatever that looks like, I just want to be happy, and I want to feel gratitude in whatever that looks like.”

Font agrees, adding: “I’m really driven by peace, whether that’s making music that brings me peace or just finding balance with motherhood and career. Peace. That’s my jam.”

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.