Maddie & Tae Reveal ‘Sweet’ Original Band Name

It's hard to imagine Maddie & Tae going by any other name, but the duo, made up of Maddie Marlow and Tae Dye, says that they originally started performing under an entirely different moniker.

Before signing their record deal, Marlow and Dye were calling themselves Sweet Aliana, which Marlow calls "the worst band name ever."

"For us now, we’re like, ‘This is the most childish band name.’ And our music wasn’t childish,” she tells CMT. “Then, right before we got our record deal, we were like, ‘You know what? I think we should just go by our names. Because our music is very honest and transparent.’

"It was hard for us to go by something other than our names," Marlow continues. "Maddie & Tae just fit us so well.”

But before settling on Maddie & Tae, the girls admit that they actually looked at names of colors on paint swatches to come up with something cool and creative.

“That’s how desperate we were to find a cool name,” Dye adds, “like Pearl Iris or Ivory Moon.”

While their name may have changed, Maddie & Tae's focus has remained the same. Formed when they were just 15 years old, the twosome began pouring all they had into making their music dreams a reality.

“In high school, there are people who live for high school," Marlow says. "But Tae and I both wanted bigger things. We both knew what we wanted to do and had goals we wanted to reach, so we went after them as young as we possibly could."

Maddie & Tae's debut album, Start Here, is set for release on Friday (Aug. 28) and includes 11 songs co-written by Marlow and Dye. While it may seem daunting to have written all 11 songs on the record, the young women say that, for them, the challenging part was knowing which songs to eliminate.

"We had to really choose carefully, because we’ve got a catalog of about 200 songs, and this is our handshake to the world," Marlow tells The Boot. "We really had to choose wisely and find what songs fit this first album the best.

"I think the toughest part was putting it in order, because we wanted the album to feel like a story, to feel like you were listening to a story in a book," she continues. "So this is like the first book ... and every song like a chapter."

Start Here is available for pre-order on Amazon and iTunes.

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