Michelle Branch looks back on 25 years, backstage at Audacy’s ‘We Can Survive’

Michelle Branch is set to reimagine her biggest hits with the upcoming EP, Everywhere and Back Again, out everywhere this March. But before the collection of collabs hits ears, Branch proved once again that she can stand alone as a singular force in music, charging through songs with an arena of singing fans at Audacy’s We Can Survive, presented by VEG, ER for Pets.

LISTEN NOW: Michelle Branch at Audacy’s ‘We Can Survive’

Michelle Branch joined Karen Carson before her set inside our Hard Rock Artist Lounge, talking about how the EP came together, and the message she would share with her younger self in this time of reflection.

“I feel like I'm still 25 and I still feel like I'm a new artist and I'm hungry about making music in the way that I felt like when I was 25,” she reveals. “It's just a gift to be able to still make music and have people still show up and care and be curious about new stuff and old stuff."

Michelle is breathing new life into her chart-topping tracks by inviting artists like New Radicals and Maren Morris to collab on her new EP. “Instead of me singing them, I wanted to hear, selfishly, I really wanted to hear like my friends and other artists who I look up to, cover these songs."

With all this reminiscing, Carson asked Branch if she could talk to that young artist, what would she say. "Well, I had a major chip on my shoulder as an artist and as a writer. I felt like I had to really prove myself, and I really wanted to be taken seriously as a real writer and not just like a teen act,” she admits. “Now hearing these songs 25 years later cut by artists like Maren has given them this whole new life where as a writer I can finally like pat myself on the back and go, ‘wow, OK, these were really good songs you wrote when you were 15 and 16 years old,’ and they still hold up."

To hear more from Michelle Branch, check out the full conversation above.