Nicki Bluhm has released the video for “Battlechain Rose,” one of the songs off her forthcoming album To Rise You Gotta Fall,out June 1st via Compass Records. The album grapples with the recent break-up of Bluhm’s marriage and her ensuing relocation to Nashville from San Francisco.
“Battlechain Rose,” co-written with Ryan Adams, was born out of a particular dark-night-of-the-soul experience. Here’s what Bluhm had to say about the tune’s genesis:
“Hoping to wake from a nightmare and realizing I had not yet found sleep, ‘Battlechain Rose’ came on a restless night when the wheels of my mind wouldn’t stop turning. Steeped in disbelief of my own reality, I could find no peace, only time to pass. I scribbled down my thoughts and visions on a scrap of paper upon the nightstand, and finally, the relief of sleep came.
I awoke the next morning with a pit in my stomach and the song still in my head. I spent all morning working on the melody when a mid-day call from a curious friend (Ryan Adams) came in. I showed him what I was working on and he liked it.
Unstoppable and oozing with creativity and excitement, he lent some beautiful imagery and phrasing and so was born a collaborative piece. What became is a delicate dance of telling hard truths and painful admissions, ‘an animal dangerous by nature, and but half-tamed by art.’ The words resonated with me so deeply and writing it allowed me to come to grips with what my life had become and helped me make some sense of the swirling emotions that ensued. It was the most unusual and crooked flower I’d ever seen grow, and so became the song of ‘Battlechain Rose.’”
It’s been a long time coming and I am proud to share that my record TO RISE YOU GOTTA FALL will be out on Compass Records Group! The last three years have been full of heartache, setbacks, blind turns, growth and unexpected beauty; a time of hurting and healing. Through it all I found that light always makes its way to even the darkest of places and this new collection of songs is proof of that. An array of emotions strung over an unexpectedly arduous time in my life when my entire world was turned upside down. These songs are the conversations I never got to have, the words I never had the chance to say, and the catharsis I wouldn’t have survived without.
We are all human, and as such we all suffer; music gives us relief, it gives us hope and makes us feel less alone. My greatest wish is that this collection of songs touches others going through those challenging times in their lives, whatever they may be. So keep your chin up my friends, after all, to rise you’ve got to fall. Check out the title track today! Sending out so much love. Xo
The Fat Angel Sings 