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Photo by Giulia De Gregori
Dallas artist Vanessa Peters is gearing up to release her new album Foxhole Prayers on October 5th on Idol Records. In Foxhole Prayers, Peters’s already-considerable songwriting prowess has risen to its fullest stature, presented as a concise, gut-punching collection of songs composed of piercing observations of both the outside and inside worlds.
Today we’re excited to premiere her new song “Fight” – streaming below! The track is an emotionally powerful song featuring starkly honest lyrics and beautiful vocals – we couldn’t be happier to premiere it on GroundSounds.
Vanessa was kind enough to go in-depth on the song and give us great insight into the song:
– What prompted you to write this song?
A lot of the songs on this album were political or social in nature, but this one is very personal. You know, it’s a hard thing, baring your soul to total strangers, night after night. I’m actually kind of shy, and overcoming stage fright was an enormous struggle for me – even still, I have nights where I really have to convince myself that I am good enough to go out there and do my thing.
One night a few years ago, I was just feeling really beat down about the music industry in general. Some folks are natural-born salespeople – I am not one of them. It’s always been hard for me to hype myself, to hype my own songs. It’s the difference between being a band, and being a solo musician – you can hide behind a band, you’re selling a “product” that you can distance your sense of self from. But when you’re selling you, when you *are* the product… it can be really wearisome to hear “no,” because you start to take it really personally.
I wrote this song as an encouragement to myself, the pep talk I would give to a friend. Don’t give up – just put on your armor, steel yourself, and go back into battle. Everything good is worth fighting for.
– What do you hope listeners take away from having heard the song?
This is a song that I wrote for myself, but I’ve already been so amazed at all of the great feedback I have gotten from listeners. Even though the record hasn’t come out yet, I’ve been playing it live for over a year now. I was initially really hesitant to perform it, because I was afraid it was too vulnerable, but I’m so glad I did, because I always have people come up to me after the show and tell me how much the song meant to them. It really seems to speak to men and women, young and old, because I think we’re all much more afraid than we let on, and we all need to kind of pump ourselves up. We all need someone in our corner, cheering us on, and sometimes when all else fails, we just have to be our own cheerleaders.
– How do you feel about the song overall?
I love it. I love the simplicity of the arrangement, the way it builds and builds, holding back right until the end. There’s a hesitancy in the way it crescendos that reflects the lyrics. It’s as though the song itself is also gathering up the courage to go out into the world and be heard. We purposely kept it stripped down, because I wanted it to be a song that I could play solo, or with a band, and that would be effective no matter how it was presented.
Stream the song below and be sure to connect on socials for more!
Vanessa Peters on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
