Nashville hit maker Matt Stell has returned with a new country song meant for fellow broken hearts out there. It’s a confessional dose of country/rock blend that is self proclaimed as his “truest song” released so far.
“My parents got divorced not long after I was born. My mom and I moved to Florida, and I spent my childhood splitting time between there and Arkansas – where most of my family still is. I could not ask for better parents, stepparents included. The truth is, though, that being from a broken home had an effect on me especially when it came to relationships,” shares Stell. “‘Born Lonely’ is about the way I am and why I think I’m that way. It’s also about seeing that same kind of thing in other people.”
”Born Lonely” was co-written by Stell with Jake Mitchell and Benjy Davis, and the wounded soul anthem speaks directly to Stell’s own childhood and family upbringing, touching on just how a traumatic beginning can have painful repercussions. Lost in the lonely realization that he just repeats the past, the song’s main character finds it all too easy to leave – and that’s what he does continuously until coming to the realization that he is ultimately causing the same hurt in everyone else.
The songs release today comes alongside a Dustin Haney-directed music video that shows just how committed Stell is to the song and message behind it. The music video finds him symbolically wearing his heart on his sleeve, as he documented the tattoo process inside Nashville’s Welcome Back Classic Tattoo, as he got his first personalized ink. “In the way that I have scar tissue from things that happened when I was a kid, and from relationships that I have sabotaged, messed up, or have chosen poorly in terms of fit, there’s collateral damage – that’s part of what this video portrays and this tattoo is a permanent reminder of where I have been and how I want to change for my future,” adds Stell.
Watch the music video below.
“I was kind of embarrassed to release this song initially. I thought that a grown man should be over this kind of thing, and also there are people who have it way worse than me when it comes to family stuff. But then I realized that the reason I felt this way might be because I hadn’t ever really heard someone like me talk about this,” Stell admits. “Also, acting like something’s not an issue doesn’t make it not an issue – it’s the opposite actually. So that’s when I decided to not only release the song, but write a record around it.”
Produced by Joe Fox, the story unfolds as a blistering power ballad, with overdriven electric guitars and drums pounding like the heart in Stell’s chest. All along, the warm buzz of his vocal offers soothing empathy, and reason to believe you can both remember where you came from, and do better for yourself – or maybe even heal the oldest, deepest scars.
