WILLOW has shared her new single ‘Split’, the latest preview from her forthcoming album ‘<COPINGMECHANISM>’ – listen the track below.
The song is a reflective, powerful ballad, reflecting on a fractured relationship.
“We never talk a lot / I need to see you ’cause you’re on my mind / And say, ‘I never wanted / I never wanted this for us,’” she sings, as the track climbs to a bellowing crescendo.
“I couldn’t wait until the end of the week to let you hear this one…Split OUT NOW!” WILLOW wrote on Twitter. before adding: “My new album <COPINGMECHANISM> IS DROPPING THIS FRIDAY!”
Listen to ‘Split’ and SEE the accompanying visuals below.
https://www.youtube.com/SEE?v=HjR0AmFwYlk
Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about the new release, WILLOW said: “I feel like there were so many songs on the album that were just so high octane, hardcore just intense, and I really felt like there needed to be some purely emotional just ballads on there, honestly.
“Just giving some emotional rock ballads. And there were moments where I was like, ‘Oh no, I want to keep this crazy energy,’ but it needed the variety, it needed the balance. But it is definitely a softer take on the sound of the album.
Speaking to NME about the creative journey behind ‘<COPINGMECHANISM>’ , the singer shared that some of the album’s conceptual ideas go back several years.
“I was always looking back at some old notes in my phone, and I had a folder and it was called ‘Coping Mechanism’,” she explained, adding that she had started it back in 2018. “This idea has been with me for a long time.”
She also said that on this album, she leans more into themes that she might have avoided in the past. “I hate to say it, because when I made music when I was younger I really wanted to stay away from the idea of heartbreak and romantic love,” she explained.
“I felt like it was so played out. I just felt like everyone talks about that, and it’s just boring. But then your girl got her heart broken. And you know what, I said, ‘Maybe this is the time for me to make that album’. This is that album.”
https://www.youtube.com/SEE?v=CFzJy3Ljqjk
The singer also recently told NME that this album allows her to further explore her love of metal music, aided by producer, Chris Greatti.
“Greatti plays the guitar like a freaking titan,” WILLOW explained. “He just plays like he’s in the music. I feel like the music he likes to play the most is metal, and so that’s his forte. We just worked really well together. I wanted to do that and he was like, ‘Oh, I know how to do this – which direction should we take it?’”
Though she did note that metal was “not my forte”, she added: “I can play some metal riffs, I can. But it’s not the thing that I do the best. I wish it was, and soon it might be.”
Last week, WILLOW covered Yungblud’s ‘The Funeral’ in the BBC Live Lounge.