A song that personally unpacks a dark time, Boorloo-Perth artist Hannah Stow used the creative process of writing her new single 'In The Dark' to heal from the loneliness she felt.
Her first new music since releasing the single 'Even Divide' in January, 'In The Dark' is the first taste of Stow's debut EP 'Sidelined', which will be released in September.Starkly raw vocals that emphasise the brooding lyrical nature of the song, Hannah has crafted a delicately stripped-back, alt-pop bruised banger that tugs at the heart strings, the honest emotion literally oozing out of the speakers that hits all the feels dead-centre of your heart.
A song written for anyone recently encased in the brittle, torn, damaged world of loneliness, 'In The Dark' is a vulnerable yet cathartic ride. "I wrote 'In The Dark' when I was in a terrible place," admits Hannah.
"It was four chords and a sense of loneliness I thought I'd never shake. "Someone close to me came up to me and asked me how I was doing and I said, 'Well I don't feel so lonely with you in the dark' and I thought that concept was raw and I knew I had to write about it."
Ahead of the song's release tomorrow (20 June), scenestr is delighted to premiere the 'In The Dark' music video, which leans into the song's stripped-back nature, today. Enjoy.
"I wrote this track in my bedroom and for the two years following that I would play it at every show, and there were two core memories from the times I sang this live," adds Hannah.
"One: A girl in Sydney came up to me and asked me to write the lyrics on her arm; the next day she messaged me a photo of it tattooed on her.
"Two: When I played it in Burleigh and looked up expecting no one to care about a song they've never heard before, but everyone was dead quiet. I remember thinking it was crazy to silence a room with a song I never thought would even make it out of my bedroom.
"'In The Dark specifically explains a period in my life where I felt really down. Like things weren't really looking up for me and even though I had support, I still felt like I was in a 'dark place', but just less lonely being there. That is where the line 'I guess I didn't feel so lonely with you in the dark' came from.
"It's about connecting with someone on a level where it shakes you out of the sad reality you thought you were stuck in. 'You didn't feel so foreign I don't know how?' is explaining the feeling you have when you connect with someone that you've just met. They immediately feel like home or a place you feel safe in."
Hannah will launch the 'Sidelined' EP with a hometown show at Milk Bar on 9 August.
"'Sidelined' isn't just an EP – it's testament to all the people that were told their ideas or dreams were too big or too vivid," Hannah says. "To all the times they were told they didn't fit the mould or were told to manipulate/ bend their quirks to fit in with a construct."
