There’s just something about songs that bring out things in us that nothing else can. Sometimes it’s just easier to say things in verse and rhyme than any other scenario; such was the case for Amelia Presley with her new single, “Harm Nobody Else.”
With her new single, released at the end of July, Presley delves into the abuse she suffered from her stepmother for over a decade. She says when the idea came to her, the rest of the song followed soon behind, as she finished the song in less than a half hour.
“I wrote ‘Harm Nobody Else’ about my childhood. I was abused for 13 years of my life at the hands of my step-mother from the time I was three years-old until I was about 15 or 16,” says Presley. “I was having a flashback one afternoon, and the lyrics ‘I see you walkin’, I hear you talkin’,’ came to me. I hurried to write them down and finished the song in about 20 minutes. It just flowed because it was what I was feeling. I sort of put the song away for a while and only performed it once live in a span of about a year. When I performed it that one time over that first year, my abuser was in the audience. It was a powerful moment for me, but I didn’t tell the truth about what the song meant or my childhood until a year after I had written it.”
The song brought forward a vulnerable side of Presley that she had previously not shown. She says that opening up about her experience allowed her to tap into that vulnerability and begin the healing process.
“I am only recently able to be this vulnerable. It was through this song and telling the entire truth that I was able to heal enough to be more comfortable with being vulnerable,” says Presley. “I’ve learned through this process that this journey is not only helping me, and that is another reason that I have pushed forward with being so honest.”
For the song’s music video, Presley truly put herself back in the heavy moments the song touches on; returning to the home where the abuse took place and shooting the video herself, which brought about an uneasiness in her that lasted for the entire shoot.
“Returning to the house knowing that I was going there to film this video was actually pretty stressful for me. I was pretty anxious the entire time, and that anxiety was not really relieved until I had finished filming,” says Presley. “I knew before starting to film that I had to do it myself in order to portray exactly what I wanted to portray. After going through it, I realized that my gut feeling was right. I would have never been able to show what I wanted to show in the video had I not been alone. I touch on some things such as suicide that are very personal, and I don’t think that I could have done that in front of a film crew this time.”
With her new single under her belt, Presley says she plans to record new music and continue to look for opportunities to create as she keeps a positive mindset through the end of the year.
“I am planning on recording a live acoustic album at Wonderland Studios in Austin, TX that will be released for Smith Music Group’s Texas Independence Day. I’ve got a handful of shows to finish out the year and some other collaborations with other artists that I am working on. A friend and fellow song-writer, Chuck Briseno, had me jump on background vocals for his song ‘Draw You A Map’ recently. We had literally just met about an hour or two earlier in the studio. I was just there to tag along with my friends at Smith Music Group who were filming the video being recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, TN. The Smith Music Session video will be released November 25,” says Presley. “It’s been really hard to navigate and plan with the way 2020 has gone, but random experiences like that one have been pretty cool. I am making the most of the time left, and I’m excited to see what happens next.
*”Harm Nobody Else” is featured on The Best of Pro Country playlist!*
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