Welcome to Singled Out! where we ask artists to tell us the inside story of their latest single. Today Julia from Me Talk Pretty tells us about "Wake Up!" and "Brokenhearted" from their new EP "We Are Strangers". We now turn it over to Julia for the story:"Wake Up!" is the first single off our debut album We Are Strangers and is probably the song that has the most meaning to me and the band as a whole. "Wake Up!" was first introduced to the world as part of the soundtrack to EA Sports' NHL10. The song, which never passes unnoticed in any circumstances, was one of the most loved tracks on the game and we continue to get inundated with letters from fans asking for us to post the lyrics up on our website, or the story behind. "Wake up!" was written during some of the most difficult moments of my life and pays homage to the person I loved the most, the person who brought me to the United States to offer me a better life, but, unfortunately, never got to see me perform or even more, never got the chance to watch me reach the places that, she herself, never would have dreamed of. The person I speak of here would be my mother. She passed away unexpectedly 2 years ago and I was helpless. She never got the chance to be happy for or proud of me as I always imagined she would. The lyrics are a journey into our relationship, the struggles that we had together coming to a new country for a better/new life, and the moment when it all ended and the memories took over. In the beginning, I wasn't very open about what the song talks about as it was very fresh and hard to put it out there. However, over time, since it reached so many hearts, I felt like it would be OK to let people know the story behind it. In the video we've shot for "Wake Up!" I'm playing my mom's role as well as myself. I made her look glam, but she really was a simple woman with a huge heart. The video is in rotation on MTVU right now.
The second song with a great story behind it is "Brokenhearted". Besides being the most challenging song to sing live, it was also written during challenging moments. It talks about jumping into a relationship before you're ready and not over the previous one. Not necessarily still in love, but more likely still confused. And so now you're into a new relationship and I'm assuming we're good to start it. I'm not aware of the hurt feelings and all of this baggage he's coming in with. Obviously he's not ready to truly fall in love. It happens so often that people get involved in a relationship just so that they can get over things that happened in the past one and they can't really commit to you in their heart. I find that somehow selfish. The main question in the song is: now that we kinda are together, could we make it work?
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the songs, listen for yourself, check out the "Wake Up!" video and learn more about the EP - right here!
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