Clare Follett didn’t mean to release an album of breakup songs, but when it came time to put together Reclamation she certainly had something on her mind. It’s not quite Rumors, but it’s not far off. The whole album documents the process of breaking down and then finding herself again. You can probably guess where Follett’s very eviscerating single “Now” falls into that process.
When Clare Follett set out to write Reclamation, it was with the intention of releasing songs that would focus on her feelings surrounding past experiences. It just so happened that the songs that came to the surface were the ones she felt most passionately about and, unsurprisingly, those songs happened to about heartache.
“A lot of really big feelings were happening at the time and the songs just kept flowing out of me. I never understood why people wrote so many breakup songs until I went through it myself,” says Follett.
“I feel pretty neutrally about [breakup albums] to be honest. It just happened that when I was picking the songs to put on the album, all of the best ones were breakup songs, so it just kind of became a breakup album unintentionally.”
In the case of “Now,” Follett puts to lyrics the often devastating and character-building dissolution end to a first relationship. The single clearly shows Follett as her most raw and tender, pouring that emotion in the symbolism of the song’s screamed final chorus, before trailing off in a lonely denouement.
“It’s already been a month,
And I know that you’ve moved on and I am happy for you,
But oh my god, oh, what do I do now?
What do I do now?
What do I do now?
What do I do now?
Still crumpled on the ground
With no one left around me”
“I watched him move on way faster than I did and found myself feeling very lost and alone, not knowing who I was without him or where I was supposed to turn,” says Follett about the perfect storm crafted for her personal heartbreak.
Follett explains that the song proved to be a challenge to get out. Despite being one of the first songs to be recorded for the album, it was the last to be finished and was recorded three times before it sat right with her. That wasn’t necessarily due to the personal nature of the song, however, but Follett picking up new skills over the course of recording the song.
“As a music student in university, I’m always learning new things and I kept wanting to build on the existing concepts in the song as time went on. I eventually had to stop myself and accept it as it was,” says Follett.
That being said, there’s getting around just how vulnerable the song is, regardless of universally relatable it might be. But Follett says it is that very universality of the experience that has been a big part of what inspired her to become a musician in the first place.
“It can be really scary for sure. It’s so personal and vulnerable to share these feelings with the world. But helping people has been my goal as a musician since day one, and being vulnerable and talking about those feelings might allow someone going through something similar to feel heard, and that makes it all worth it to me.”