Betty Who Breaks Down New Album BIG! Track by Track: Exclusive
The post Betty Who Breaks Down New Album BIG! Track by Track: Exclusive appeared first on Consequence.
Track by Track is a recurring feature series in which artists share the story behind every song on their latest release. Today, Betty Who breaks down her new album, BIG!.
Betty Who has returned with her new album BIG! on Friday, October 14th, and she’s kicking off a new era of her own story along with it.
For this project, the Australian-American artist emerged from a long period of reflection, ready to dig into some more personal stories alongside her crop of pop anthems championing self-acceptance and unabashed joy. “A huge theme of this record is coming to terms with who you are and the hand life has dealt you,” she tells Consequence.
For those who have listened to Betty Who throughout the years, the fact that the songs here often come wrapped in (appropriately) massive, ’80s sounds won’t be too much of a surprise.
Soon, the pop singer-songwriter will be hitting the road for a 2023 tour, which lands in the U.S. in February after a string of European dates. Her discography as a whole is already so bright and theatrical, and this latest album only adds to the need to get into a crowd and dance.
“I won’t apologize for taking up space,” she sings on the album’s title track, capturing a theme that runs strong throughout the ten tracks.
To celebrate the album’s arrival out in the world, Betty Who shares some of the stories behind each song on the record. Listen to BIG! and read the breakdown of the album below.
Ed. note: Pick up tickets to Betty Who’s 2023 tour via Ticketmaster.
“BIG”:
This was the song that, once it was written, I knew was going to be the title track. A huge theme of this record is coming to terms with who you are and the hand life has dealt you. The chorus still makes me cry. I didn’t realise how bad 10-year old me needed to hear this song.
“WEEKEND”:
The production on this song took us so fucking long, lol. This and “SHE CAN DANCE” were the two songs on the record that we slaved over, trying to crack them and get them right. I actually hated this song for a lot of the album process until about two weeks before we finished when all of a sudden it became one of my absolute favorites. I wanted it to feel masculine and powerful, big daddy energy on this one. I can’t wait to perform it live.
“HEY, IT’S BETTY”:
I wanted the interludes to sound like “tour.” I wanted you to be able to see the stage, or imagine that I’m changing costumes while it’s playing. This is also the only song on the record that has a “kiss my ass haters” energy. I like to be a force for positive in the world for the most part and not focus on negativity but it was important to me to honour the anger inside of me. The part of me that thrives when someone says i’ll never make it. I love to prove people wrong. So she’s a little sassy, and I love her.
“BLOW OUT MY CANDLE”:
“BLOW OUT MY CANDLE” is still one of my favorite songs on the whole record. It captures something that lives inside my soul. That battery that never runs out that is still standing ten years later. That’s why I wanted it to be the first single, because it feels like a thesis statement for this record. You can’t hold me back, baby, I’m going where I wanna go, so get out of my way.
“I CAN BE YOUR MAN”:
I had been chatting with my best girlfriends about some guy who had done some shitty thing that she didn’t deserve and it just made me so annoyed. I was giving her some speech about how incredible she is, how much more she deserves. I wanted to celebrate her and make her feel beautiful and I was like… I will literally be your boyfriend. So I walked into this record session and i was like, “Okay, boys, I want to write a song about how I want to date all my girlfriends. Let’s do this.”
“SHE CAN DANCE”:
“SHE CAN DANCE” was actually one of everybody else’s favorites from the album and I think it’s hard for me to have perspective on which songs will speak to people, so I wanted to trust everyone around me. I’ve had a couple fans come up to me at the few shows I’ve played and say how much they resonate with the song so that makes me feel like it was all worth it and everyone was right!
“SOMEONE ELSE”:
This song started with a guitar and a vocal. A story. A very personal story to me. My husband and I spent a few months separated, trying to figure out if we could really make it work. This song is a really emotional story for me to sing and share but it’s real. And “real” is what i’m going for on this album cycle, so even though I feel quite vulnerable sharing it, I think it’s beautiful and honest.
“THE HARD WAY”:
I wasn’t expecting this to be the one that people talked to me about, but I’m hoping my fans will like it as much as my girlfriends do. I think it’s so easy to hold yourself accountable and blame yourself for hurting others when you were growing up or changing. and I definitely am someone who has to try. I have to touch the hot stove to learn I shouldn’t touch the hot stove, so I hope people feel seen by this and can give themselves a little grace for needing to figure it out.
“AMELIA’S VOICEMAIL”:
Amelia is one of my best friends from high school. She was our witness when my husband and I got legally married. She’s been such a huge part of my life and even though “GROWN UPS GROW APART” is not necessarily about her (since we haven’t grown apart), the voicemail she left me makes me feel so loved and seen. I wanted to hear it every night on stage — remember how special it is that I get to do the thing I love and have these incredible people around me who support me and are thinking about me while I’m away.
“GROWN UPS GROW APART”:
This is the number one song on the record that divine inspiration played a part in. I was cleaning out an old box of childhood things and looking through pictures and thinking about the past; how far we’ve all come. How strange it is that there are these people out in the world that were the biggest part of my childhood and now we don’t speak anymore. When I listen to it, it still makes me really emotional and brings tears to my eyes so when we were deciding track list, it didn’t feel like it could belong anywhere else. It was too emotional to come back from something else. I needed a minute after it finished, so it ends the record to give people a second to breathe.
Betty Who Breaks Down New Album BIG! Track by Track: Exclusive
Mary Siroky
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