Artist: Ever More Nest
Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana
Song: “My Story”
Album: Out Here Now
Release Date: August 19, 2022
Label: Parish Road Music
In Their Words: “Everything in the music industry these days is about an artist’s ‘story.’ We like to think the music is what draws people in, but over and over, the machine emphasizes that it’s the narrative or the person behind the music that really matters. Bands go to great lengths to craft an image with rags-to-riches tales, histories of musical family dynasties, or recounts of daring escapes from a bad home life. Sometimes artists just overemphasize a single life detail.
“The concept of fabricating some unique struggle always frustrated me. Of course I had struggles — I was a closeted gay teenager in an abusive relationship in the Bible Belt with a Southern Baptist family that was falling apart at the seams. I’m still processing what the song is for me; I do know that it’s a response to the music industry and to the church. It’s also a message that where we come from, what we experience, what we battle and survive — all these things make us who we are and show in our art. You don’t have to fit in by making your story someone else’s. You don’t have to grow up on the ranch or in the woods to sing Americana music. You don’t even have to wear boots. Just be who you are and let your story tell itself.
“The lyrics ‘This is my story, this is my song’ are echoed from the old hymn, ‘Blessed Assurance.’ On the record, Fats Kaplin plays a violin rendition of the chorus of the hymn as the introduction to ‘My Story.’ The sweet sound was beautiful, but in post-production felt a little too reverent. Dylan Alldredge and I threw a tape warble effect on it, which gave it this unclean ’90s vibe to complement the grit and anger in the song and to date it with where I was, and what I was going through in those years. It has a wonderfully chilling effect.” — Ever More Nest
Photo Credit: Greg Miles
