Artist: Adia Victoria
Hometown: Mauldin, South Carolina; now Nashville
Song: “In the Pines”
Release Date: May 17, 2022
In Their Words: “In 2019, I spent an afternoon poring over the journal I kept during my junior year of high school in Mauldin, SC. Revisiting the frustrations and observations of my 16-year-old self would lead to the creation of āIn the Pinesā — a song that tells the story of a teenage girl from a small conservative town whose slow slide towards self-destruction is recounted by her best friend. It is the all-too-familiar story of how young women desperately search in vain for escape from totalizing ideologies that define their lives and the lives around them. It is a young girlās quest for autonomy via rebellion over her life. Failing that, she will ultimately have autonomy over her own death. The song centers the stories of those who fall victim to the ideologies of emotionally stunted men. I dedicate āIn the Pinesā to every teenage girl who is desperately scratching at the walls of ideological imprisonment. It is a song that I hope reminds them that they are not alone in their hunt for freedom.” — Adia Victoria
Photo Credit: Huy Nguyen
