Yours Truly: The Start Of A New Chapter
Five years, a time frame that seems so small in the grand scheme of things yet represents a huge chunk of your life. In that time, you could see friendships coming and going, lovers moving on and family evolving: the point is that things are never permanent and with that change comes the important lessons. What’s vital is being able to close that chapter in your life and start a new one. That’s the lesson that YOURS TRULY learnt whilst recording and writing for their upcoming record Toxic.
Anyone even slightly familiar with the band will know that they are not ones to shy away from the difficult topics of self-identity and reflection on oneself, as seen on the previous EP is this what i look like? that explored feeling lost whilst in lockdown and away from the things most important to you. That theme of self-reflection is explored on Toxic in the way of witnessing things coming to an end, grieving that loss and looking to the next steps in healing. We sat down with frontwoman, Mikaila Delgado, to discuss Toxic and inspiration behind the lyrics that range in emotions and stories.
As said, YOURS TRULY have always been ones to have their hearts of their sleeves with being brutally honest, something that Mikaila confirms will continue in Toxic as she explains what happened in the process of creating the record. “I felt that a lot of things in my life that had present for so long had finally come to an end. During the time of writing the songs for Toxic, there were friends who no longer in my life, the way my band looked, and had looked, for five years, I had been in a romantic situation for a couple of years and, suddenly, I’ve moved, I’m living in a new house. All these people who had been in my life for the past five years aren’t in my life anymore. It was a big change, and I guess that this album is about the loss of those people and that part of my identity.”
“I felt that writing songs about it was really the closing chapter to be like, ‘oh okay, cool’, in that life throws weird things at you and things that aren’t meant to be. It’s kind of learning that there is other stuff in store for you.”
At this point, YOURS TRULY have put out three singles prior to the album’s release, Call My Name, Sour, and California Sober. Each song has a different mood and covers the same topic of reflection from different angles, a deliberate choice according to Mikaila in that the band felt it best represented Toxic. “Call My Name we chose first because it was one of those first songs that we wrote for the album that we were like, ‘oh, this is definitely going on the album!’ So, I think we were so excited about that song for so long that we were like, ‘why are we just going to sit on it for so long until we are ready to announce the record?’ and even that was the first song full recorded before the rest of the record because we felt so passionately about that song. It was also a cool way to show the new direction of the band that said what we wanted to be and who we were turning into.”
“Sour was another song that we were like, ‘this feels really good’, so I think that it was all coming with emotion of, ‘these songs feel good’, like we want to show our listeners the different sides of the record. Call My Name is quite moody, Sour is angry, California Sober is super upbeat. They all show the different sides of our record.”
Interesting enough, the album itself features 10 songs, however 50 were written altogether meaning that 40 songs are leftover. When asked if those 40 tracks might make an appearance in the future, Mikaila says, “I think I’m going to see how it goes. I think it’s nice that we will be able to revisit them at some point but then you get really excited about a new concept or a new idea or a new vibe, so you want to try something different. But sometimes things come back, like maybe melodies or lyrical concepts, so maybe in those ways. But I’m not too sure, so I guess I’ll see how I feel.”
With such incredible honesty, one might wonder how artists like YOURS TRULY are able to be so open and vulnerable in sharing their own personal struggles, but Mikaila believes that lyrics that are deeply personal can be helpful both to them as artists and to the person listening. A shared experience and comfort in not feeling alone in this problem. “I find that it helps me, personally, emotionally, to get out the way that I’m feeling through songs, and it also makes it feel like all those things that happened were worth it and meant something, because I now have this song, I have this thing, and I get to perform that song around the world. That shitty thing that happened, well, it can’t be that shit, right?” She chuckles. “If that didn’t happen then that song wouldn’t exist. It’s kind of finding that silver lining really, but I’ve also found a lot of solace and connection through music, and I’ve always found a lot of comfort in music. Being able to listen to a song and being like, ‘oh, I really connect with that, I really feel that’, and something about doing that for other people as well is important and special to me.”
A shared experience, something that fully comes into play when it comes to performing those songs live. Some might feel nervous about singing those lyrics in front of crowd of people, but for Mikaila and YOURS TRULY it’s what brings everyone altogether and one of the best feelings. “Something about creating them, the songs coming out, and being on a record makes it feel like it’s not my story anymore. Like, I know the songs are about that and know that there are some songs that probably sting a little bit more than other ones, but I find it that’s my way of taking the situation and making it mine and being like, ‘this is a part of my strength now and this is something that I do’. And I think that when you love the song more than just it’s lyrics, but the music and the melodies, you get excited to play that song and excited to see the people that are watching you and enjoying their time.”
“At that point it doesn’t really become about you anymore, it’s about the show and about what’s happening, and about everyone enjoying their night. You can have this problem but there will be however many hundred people in that crowd, who each have their own problems, but for that time, for three minutes, those problems don’t matter anymore. I think that’s always separated me from the idea of what I’m singing about.”
Toxic is out now via UNFD.
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