When I wrote this song, I was certain I knew what it meant. But after sitting with it (and having recorded it), I realize now that it foretold the journey I’d take toward becoming my fullest and most authentic self. I’ve heard the process called ‘ascension’, the commitment one makes to shoot up to the stars, kiss the moon then ride the sun. While all those things sound wild and even heroic, the truth is that merging who you are with who you’re meant to be is a ruthless, brutal and bloody process.
I can’t decide if ascension is the right word; to me, it’s more like an internal revolution where part of you rises up, wanting more for itself, seeking to break down anything that stands in the way of its need to push toward a more unified—and truer—’you’. Choosing this revolving evolution means people who once loved you will stop loving you, people who never really loved you will show themselves, dreams you chased for years will lose their meaning, things that anchored you will upend you and friends who said they’d always be there, won’t be.
Between what we’re taught we are, and who we’re told we need to be, we lose ourselves. At some point, we hear the cry of our frozen heart and with pickaxe in hand, start the climb to set it free. Along the way we will mourn our lost self, experience the die off of what we thought we knew, then feel the birth of who we actually are.
That is the Art of the Bleed: grief, death, rebirth.
