Artist: Ali Sperry
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Climber”
Album: In Front of Us
Release Date: March 11, 2022
In Their Words: “In March of 2018, my friend Becca Richardson was sitting across from me in my music room, and as co-writes often go, we got to talking at length about our lives, plans, the music we were both making, our thoughts on the current government administration, and a topic that was very much in the spotlight and on our minds at that moment, the #MeToo movement. From these musings, ‘Climber’ took shape — not as a song specifically about a single person or story, but an archetype and universal experience we all know too well. It’s the age-old tale of the charming narcissist who commands the room, puts you on a pedestal until they no longer choose to shine their light on you, and the subsequent anger that fuels the recipient of this behavior to shut it down.
“This was the first song that I knew needed to be on the record, and I love its place as the opening track. It signifies the ushering in of a new era — globally and personally — with a revitalized sense of empowerment and newly minted boundaries. When I listen to it now, Audley Freedâs electric guitar sounds like it’s having a conversation with Kristin Weberâs strings, and they build into this catharsis of the final chorus with Allison Russell and Kristin Weber’s harmony vocals lifting the melody. As much as we were all desperately missing sitting in a room and recording together at that time, there was something magical about experiencing each track individually — a precious thing all on its own arriving in a Dropbox folder. Every time a new track was mixed in with the rest, it took the song somewhere completely new and exciting.” — Ali Sperry
Photo Credit: Fairlight Hubbard
