Rachel Platten Explains Why It Took Her 7 Years to Make a New Album: 'I Had to Go Through Another Struggle'
Rachel Platten Explains Why It Took Her 7 Years to Make a New Album: 'I Had to
Go Through Another Struggle'
Go Through Another Struggle'
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00:00So first of all, this is your first new album in seven years.
00:03Yeah.
00:03I know you became a mom in that time,
00:05but what else caused you to take such a long break?
00:09Well, I mean, it wasn't intentional,
00:12but obviously the pandemic.
00:14I got pregnant and I had my baby, Violet,
00:17and then the pandemic happened.
00:18And I went on tour right before the pandemic
00:21and thought that I would get right back out there.
00:23I really had goals to just keep going
00:26and not let motherhood affect me or impact my career.
00:29It was actually almost, I think,
00:31something that I had to heal from,
00:34realizing children weren't going to impact me in that way.
00:37But that is, for anyone who has had a kid,
00:39that is completely untrue.
00:41And you don't really have control
00:42over how it impacts your life.
00:44And so it just took time to heal,
00:47both emotionally and physically.
00:48And while I was on tour,
00:50I started to suffer from postpartum depression.
00:54So not only was there the pandemic to contend with,
00:56I was also facing my own personal demons.
00:59I had my second baby, Sophie.
01:01I was writing right in between that time,
01:04like 2020.
01:05I started to really dive deep into writing this album
01:07and realize like, okay, I have a lot to say,
01:10but little did I know it would take another four years
01:13to complete it.
01:14And I had to go through another struggle
01:16with my mental health after having Sophie.
01:18So it took a lot of healing to get ready
01:23to rise above where I had been
01:25and kind of find what do I want to say right now?
01:30But I think that honestly,
01:32I'm really proud that I took that time
01:34because I've changed fundamentally.
01:37And I'm really ready to bring this message
01:39and this new music into the world.
01:40And I can stand behind the songs that I'm singing
01:42because they weren't written for other people.
01:45You know, they were written for me
01:47to help heal me in moments of terror and darkness
01:50and fear and rage and all the things
01:52that humans go through.
01:53And my hope now is that these songs on my album,
01:56I Am Rachel Platten,
01:58may be a vehicle for other people
01:59that they were for me out of the dark.
02:02Yeah.
02:02So you've been working on it for like four years, basically.
02:06Yeah, about five years.
02:07Yeah.
02:08And when was this?
02:09This is a long time.
02:09I mean, I admit it.
02:11I mean, your last two albums came out like back to back.
02:14But isn't that just the worst?
02:16Because like, who won't, I mean,
02:18it feels like they make you do that
02:20when you're on a major label.
02:21They just want you to pump out music.
02:23And I wasn't ready.
02:25I'm proud of the record that I released.
02:26I love Waves and I love the songs on it.
02:28But if I really honestly look back and think like,
02:30was I ready to get to like share how I felt yet?
02:34I wasn't.
02:35Because my process as an artist,
02:37I don't know about other artists or songwriters,
02:39I can only speak for myself.
02:40My process is I have to go really deeply inward
02:43and feel and kind of process the world around me
02:47and like have my antenna and just do a deep dive
02:51before I can transmute it into art
02:53and before I'm ready to share.
02:54So it was too soon for me, honestly.
02:57Yeah.
02:57And you experienced so much change between the two
03:00because like Fight Song blew up and then, you know.
03:03Right. Right.
03:05And I'm a completely different person now.
03:07I mean, I was someone that 13 years
03:09in the making of traveling in vans
03:11and selling CDs out of my suitcase
03:13and sleeping in vans and playing in living rooms,
03:15like that was my vibe before Fight Song exploded.
03:18I wrote Fight Song about not giving up on myself.
03:21It took two more years.
03:22Finally, it changed my life.
03:24And then whereas no one had been paying attention
03:27and like I was like desperate to knock on doors,
03:30I finally had everyone's eyes on me.
03:32And how can you not be fundamentally different after that?
03:34And that I think deserves some time
03:36to sit there and process and like honor.
03:39Hey, Rachel, you know, hand on heart,
03:41how do you feel now?
03:42Who are you now?
03:43What do you need?
03:44And I wasn't able to do that
03:45with like so much attention on me.
03:48So I almost had to kind of crumble and fall away.
03:51I had to retreat and go inward, have children, heal.
03:54And like the rest of the world,
03:56like we were forced to go inward.
03:58We were forced to get quiet.
04:00And so it was almost kind of a natural thing
04:02that I was echoing what the rest of the world was doing.
04:05Just turning inward, looking at myself,
04:06looking at my own unhealed trauma and pain
04:10and finding that fire again and making it organic
04:13so that by the time now I'm ready to bring it out there,
04:16like I'm authentically ready and truly, you know,
04:20I feel empowered to give this message again.
04:22But I think a couple of years ago,
04:24I would not have been ready yet.
04:25I was still in it.