On Friday, alt-rock artist JJ Wilde released a new single, “Funeral For A Lover” via Black Box Recordings/BMG.
Videos by American Songwriter
Between the somber piano chords that start the tune and the opening line of “My lover’s got a funeral/ but he won’t tell me when,” the tone of the song is set immediately. From there, “Funeral For A Lover” is a slow burn, pragmatically adding subtle instrumentation and building tension until it ultimately reaches a climax in its final moments.
But that climax would be nothing without Wilde’s profoundly moving vocal performance. The 26-year-old Canadian’s voice is seriously so powerful I think she could cut down a tree by just singing at it… or at least that’s how it feels when you reach the aforementioned climax and you feel the full gravity of the song’s emotional prowess.
“This song is very personal to me, writing it was like a therapy session,” Wilde told American Songwriter. “I wrote it as a way of dealing with a relationship that I had with somebody who struggled very severely with mental health issues. It’s as straightforward as it sounds in the lyrics. It’s all coming from the heart, it’s me trying to make sense of it with myself while also trying to move forward.”
“It’s getting a lot better now, but depression and mental health is always such a ‘hush-hush’ subject,” Wilde continued. “If somebody has this illness and is sick, you can’t see it. It goes unnoticed and unrecognized, and these people really need help. What I wanted to do with the song was to talk about mental health and get the message out there. We should be able to talk about it, there is help out there, there are options for support. And for people who are being affected by it but don’t have it themselves, it’s okay for them to admit that it’s affecting them as well. You can only be so strong for somebody.”
Watch the music video for JJ Wilde’s new song “Funeral For A Lover” below:
