How Working With Miranda Lambert ‘Challenged’ The War and Treaty to ‘Broaden Our Perspectives’

Working with country music royalty on their new album was an exciting challenge to The War and Treaty’s Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter.

“We wrote one song with Miranda Lambert and it was challenging, but not like, ‘Oh, this is so difficult,’” Michael, 42, exclusively told Us Weekly while talking about the duo’s latest release, Plus One, on Tuesday, February 18. “It challenged us to broaden our perspectives a little bit. I think that it did it in every way, so shout-out to Mo. Hey, Miranda!”

Lambert, 41, serves as a cowriter on Plus One’s lead single, “Love Like Whiskey,” along with Michael, Tanya, 47, and Jesse Frasure. The record dropped just in time for Valentine’s Day on Friday, February 14.

The pair’s collab with Lambert has been several years in the making, as Tanya told Us Lambert sent her “a really sweet card and a pair of boots” before she and Michael performed with Dierks Bentley at the 2021 ACM Awards.

“I thanked her and everything for it, and we just became friends. So, we’d see each other out at different events and kind of hinted to doing something together,” Tanya explained, noting the team-up was Miranda’s idea. “One day she and Michael had been texting and she was like, ‘Hey, I’m in town. Let’s go to the studio.’ And so, we went to the studio with her and Jesse Frasure and we listened to a lot of different songs, and this was the one. She was like, ‘This is the one we’re going to write to this.’ And we did.”

Tanya went on to call three-time Grammy winner a “genius,” adding, “Working with her in the studio and just how she does her vocal arrangements — and I think people don’t get an opportunity to experience that side of her or see that side of her because it’s a studio. But we cowrote that song with her and it was great.”

While Michael and Tanya learned a thing or two from working with Lambert, they also get candid feedback on their music from none other than their 13-year-old son, Legend. “It’s very interesting to get his takes on things,” Michael told Us, adding that Legend’s music taste ranges from rock ‘n’ roll to classic jazz. “We’ll call him in and say, ‘OK, listen to this song, son, and I want you to give us your honest opinion.’ He’ll go, ‘You sure?’ He’ll sit down and he’ll get quiet and he’ll listen all the way. And he goes, ‘OK, not a War and Treaty song.’”

Tanya, for her part, quipped, “[He’ll say], ‘You sound good, but it’s not you.’”

The new album was an emotional one for the couple, and they hope it’s just as emotional for fans to listen to. “I want you to listen to it and just feel,” Tanya told Us. “If you want to cry, cry. If you want to laugh, laugh. If you want to dance around, then do it.”

Like with any of their music, Michael said the message he hopes listeners take from Plus One is that “they’re not alone.” He shared, “Oftentimes, we feel loneliness. And it’s not so much like I’m alone physically, but we just feel like no one else out there can relate or is going through anything remotely close to what I’m going through. And I like to tell people like that’s not the truth, that you’re looking at two individuals and we’ve gone through years of things that you would not even imagine. But listening to this, that’s what Plus One is all about. I want to be your plus one in every scenario, even when you’re going through [it], I’m right there with you, plus one.”