Americana Highways is hosting this premiere of Brittany Collins Band’s song “Somebody” from her forthcoming album Things I Tell My Therapist, due to be released on September 2. Things I Tell My Therapist was produced by Dylan Welsh; engineered and mixed by Dylan Welsh (assisted by David Murray); recorded at M.A.R.S in Bothell, Washington; and mastered by Jason Mariani at Carbonite Sound.
“Somebody” is Brittany Collins on vocals; Ian Jones on acoustic and electric guitar; Evan Robertson on bass; Josh Hoffman on drums; Dylan Welsh on electric guitar and lap steep; and Zach Olson on keyboard and piano.
Clear piano notes start out this mournful song, and lines like “I’m a late bloomer and I’m an old soul” support the message of longing for a bigger dream in this song. Collins has a powerful voice and a way of reaching your small voice of longing and brining it into view. “Heal these scars.”
For me, this song is about rebirth. It’s about the moment that I decided that I was just going to start laying it all out on the table and being radically honest about who I am and where I come from. These days I think we feel so pressured only to share the highlights reel. We share the big achievements and the nice houses, and the cute kids, but we don’t talk about the uglier parts of our lives. We don’t talk about the things that have hurt us, or the things we’ve done that we aren’t proud of, or the ways that we think we’ve failed to live up to our potential. I think, in a lot of ways, that removes us from each other. It’s hard to be truly connected to someone when you don’t know about the rough edges. I came to a realization that making myself smaller to make other people comfortable also meant that I had cut myself off from building deep connections with the people in my life. I wanted to write a song to show people that you don’t have to make yourself smaller, and you don’t have to hide who you are because there are going to be people in this world who think who you are is fucking awesome and you just gotta put yourself out there to find them.
I always loved songwriters who could hurt you with a song. I grew up listening to a lot of Janis Joplin with my grandmother, and she could sing one line and break your heart into a million pieces. When I was making the record, I was listening to a lot of Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbell and found myself studying the way they could talk about a very bleak truth but make it seem almost uplifting. When I was writing “Somebody,” I was shooting for that honesty that really exposes who I am and where I come from in an unapologetic way but also looks for the silver lining that makes you keep pushing forward and striving for something more. I wanted people to listen to this song and think, “hey me too,” the way those artists have made me feel a million times or more. — Brittany Collins
Find more music here: https://brittanycollinsband.com/store
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