Maddie & Tae have finally found the sunshine. Not only are they nominated for Duo of the Year at the upcoming ACM Awards, but Maddie Marlow and Tae Dye are also preparing to release a new EP before they go on tour with Carrie Underwood.

It's a dream realized, but that doesn't mean they aren't haunted by the past, which includes both relationship breakups and a split from their label. But instead of dwelling on the pain, they're growing from it.

"We are not like young girls that don’t know anything about the industry at this point," Marlow admits in a recent chat with Taste of Country. "We have been through more than most artists in this business with labels and all that. Most artists don’t have a label shut down at the beginning of their career. That’s not really a thing, but I’m so glad that happened to us."

Wait, Maddie & Tae! We Have One Last Question!

Maddie & Tae were signed to Big Machine's Dot Records when it closed up shop around the same time as the duo was climbing the ladder towards country music success.

"We were like a duck on water," Marlow recalls of what was a tough time. "We were just sitting there floating and all of a sudden we really had to start paddling."

And paddle they did. Maddie & Tae signed with their current label, UMG Nashville, in 2017 and started to get their groove back. "In essence, the pain created this new album that we are putting out," Marlow explains. "You can’t write ‘Die from a Broken Heart’ if you haven’t gone through tough times."

"We are not just preaching it because we feel like people need to hear it," adds Dye, "It ended up that we needed to hear it, too."

Maddie & Tae's One Heart to Another EP arrives April 26 — just days before Underwood's Cry Pretty 360 Tour launches, with them on it. A full-length album is said to follow later this year, but for now, the duo of young 20-somethings are just eager to show the world a more mature version of themselves and their brand of country music.

"We had no idea what it would look like when we came back with new music. We didn’t know if people want the old Maddie and Tae or they didn’t want us to grow up, so yeah, we were definitely nervous," Dye admits. "But we are so lucky that we have always had that core fan group that just never gave up on us and were always connected and always wanted to know what was coming up next. I feel like the timing of our music now is exactly right."

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