FLETCHER is back after an intense period of soul searching, and she has a new album to show off.
The 30-year-old singer released her second studio album, In search of the antidote, on Friday, and told ET’s Denny Directo that big changes in her love life, health journey and more over the past few years have inspired her best music.
“When in the past the antidote was fans and stages and bottles of tequila and all that stuff, now it’s become something totally different,” she said of recording the album. “It was profound, really getting in touch with myself and my feelings and healing my heart and body.”
“This is the search for the antidote, and it has led me to my best music yet,” she added. “It’s been a journey making this album, so sharing it now is such a beautiful feeling.”
By dividing each song into In search of the antidote, FLETCHER shares some perspective on what she’s learned since releasing her 2019 single, “Not drunk.”
“You start to realize, I put all my eggs in one basket, but there are so many baskets in my life”, reflected the singer. “It’s not just one thing. Peace is finding that realization that you don’t have to keep chasing something. There is flow in chaos, there is beauty in chaos. This present moment is perfect.”
See what FLETCHER has to say about his new album – track by track – below:
“Maybe I be”
“I released a song called ‘Becky’s So Hot,’ which, you know, was really successful on the internet, and I remembered that at that time I was reading a lot about myself online and comments and opinions and what people were saying about me and I really wanted to write from the perspective of: OK, what would it be like if I believed what everyone said about me was true? What if all these things were true? Like, what if I felt these things in my body? What would it feel like? And this song came out of that, like, maybe I’m – maybe I’m all of these things and it’s kind of just a commentary on like, what if we believed everything the world has to say about us? It’s just a matter of being able to taking everything with a grain of salt and receiving feedback – all while having a strong center of gravity and knowing yourself and who you really are.”
“Doing better”
“This album for me has really been a mix of who Cari is as a human, and who FLETCHER is, and the integration of the two?… I think it’s funny – my barometer for a good FLETCHER song has always been if I played it for my mom and she choked. If she clutched her pearls… All the songs that were released into the world or viral or whatever, were the ones where she said ‘Cari Fletcher! I did not do it’. raise you like this!’ And I’m like, ‘Bitch, you did it, mom!'”
“Ego Talking”
“I went to the studio and I was sitting there with a huge feeling of jealousy – I was feeling jealous. And I think a big thing throughout this album for me was just being able to give the mic to all the different parts of me, whether it’s anger or anger or lust or joy or excitement or happiness. And when I went into the studio that day, I just thought, wow, my ego needs the microphone, you know? That’s not something the happiest, healthiest, most elevated version of myself wouldn’t say.”
“The healed part of me knows that I want love for everyone in my life, for everyone I’ve been with, I want the greatest happiness of all. But when you go through those human emotions of like, oh, I’m feeling jealous right now. I’m feeling insecure about you potentially moving on to someone else… I was like, oh, my ego needs the mic today. So that song was my ego talking. “
“Lead me”
“I just felt like ‘Lead Me On’ was an incredible foundation for the sound of the album. There’s a lot of pop rock influence and kind of a ’90s singer-songwriter (influence), and I really just wanted to share kind of like the sonic palette. I think for me, on this album, all the songs were written on multiple levels and so in one sitting you might hear ‘Lead Me On’ and think it’s about taking breadcrumbs from someone who’s, like, leading you on. in a relationship.”
“It could also be about a song that is a future, better version of myself – following my intuition and all the paths it leads me – just that kind of inner knowing. , and how she left little seeds of intuition throughout my life to follow this path.
“Two things can be true”
“It’s about this classic thing of pining after a straight girl, you know? We’ve all been there… romanticizing a friendship and having this vision in our head of what something is or could be.”
“What I mean is, I would go to a coffee shop and there would be a sexy barista and I would say, I see the vision. I see the light, I see marriage, I see life. … It’s an illusion, that’s right, dear ones. Pure illusion.”
“Ages of Us”
“I mean, it started a new era, right? And I got inspired by running into a certain person on (Taylor Swift’s) Eras tour… I was lucky enough to go see Taylor on the Eras tour, and I ran into an ex there and (we) had no idea each other would be there. Once I started to feel all these feelings and realize we were both at this show, it was like shouting lyrics to an artist who chronicled so much of my journey, of my passion, of my breakups and both of us (were) there in agonizing pain, screaming these songs to this artist who is so amazing, it kind of hit me in such a way.”
“I went into the studio the next day and thought this has to be a song. You don’t run into your ex-girlfriend at a Taylor Swift concert and turn it into a damn lyric… It came from a place of reflection and a positive light and also just a way to close a chapter. It felt like a full circle moment, like, OK, I just want to sing my final piece here. “
“Attached to you”
“It’s for my attachment-avoidant girls. It’s for people who are healing from their attachment. It’s about a deep kind of intrinsic fear of hurting ourselves and losing ourselves, which ultimately isn’t something we can escape like human beings because to be able to experience these highs and lows and these great loves and these intense joys and emotions, there also has to be the other side of it, experiencing loss.
“This one is just about being terrified. I’d rather walk on glass than give someone the opportunity to hurt me. I would run like hell and sabotage a good thing because I’m so scared that it could be perfect.”
“Crush”
“As I’ve been on this kind of healing journey and healing my relationships for love and relationships and unlearning toxic behaviors and patterns and things like that, intense passion of love, sometimes I find myself missing that intensity. ‘It’s a kind of romanticization, remembering all the ways that intense passion used to be.”
“It’s about this fine line where pain meets pleasure and how we would romanticize that, and have this idea of what love should be and what it should feel like. I think finding healthy love – whether with yourself or with someone else. – it looks different from the movies, you know? We’ve been fed this narrative that everything has to be a crazy, fiery burn — and that can totally be there. But, you know, also being mindful of this, is this unbalanced and painful for myself?”
“Pretending”
“This is a very real and very personal album and it’s a very personal song too. It’s exactly that song for me – I wrote it from a place where I guess I just feel like I’m thinking (about) that person you have in the back of your mind, where you’re like, is that us? Will we be the ones who end up together? And we’re just playing, you know, pretending at life until that moment? And then just sitting with the realization, sitting with all of that and what it brings up and those feelings — that’s what this song is about.”
“joy ride”
“I wanted something that felt like an old car driving down PCH in California, with the convertible down, the wind in your hair and that feeling of crushing new love… It’s funny, like, the details in this are so specific about someone eating peaches and butter of peanuts. And then thinking about how I’m like, ‘Oh, why do these things taste so good together?’ Like, that was a thought I actually had… (Now) it instantly takes me back to a moment. We’re providing an immersive experience, darling.”
“Antidote”
“I went through a very intense journey last year. I got really sick and was diagnosed with Lyme disease and I was really forced to like, pull everything back, and I disappeared from social media and kind of went into this little cocoon of myself for deep healing. So many things were so silent for me. But other things got really loud, like all the ways I felt unworthy or I was still just dealing with things I hadn’t dealt with since childhood or like, unresolved feelings and emotions and realizing how much that affects your health, and affects your sense of identity and the way you see yourself.
“And so, when in the past the antidote was fans and stages and bottles of tequila and all that stuff, now it’s become something totally different. It was like, deep, really getting in touch with myself and my feelings and healing my heart and body. And that’s what the search for the antidote has been, and it’s led me to my best music, which I’m so excited to share. “
“It’s amazing in some ways and so beautiful in others, because knowing that music has the ability to touch so many people and bring so many people together, not just mine, but just music as a whole, you know how many artists it has saved me and It taught me things about myself… that’s success for me”, reflected FLETCHER about the production of his new album. “I think that’s the artist’s job, to dive deep and pull out all the crazy shit and put it into a song.”
In search of the antidote It’s out now.
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