Nashville-based Pop artist and Singer/Songwriter Paige Keiner releases pent up emotions with her latest single, “Inside My Mind.”
Continually expanding her fanbase through what she calls "edgy pop," Paige Keiner's music is impacted by the many artists/groups across pop and alternative rock that proceed to inspire her.
With the release of her atmospheric and reflective single “Inside My Mind,” Keiner mentioned that the song's inspiration derived from her experience with anxiety and overthinking. Reminding listeners how normal these thoughts are and how they're not alone, the serene pop instrumentation perfectly reflects Keiner's lyricism and delivers an incredibly warm embrace.
Paige Keiner paints a beautifully relatable picture with “Inside My Mind,” where she goes back and forth between lyrics of good days and bad nights, and getting lost in anxiety's trap.
The opening instrumentation with melodic electric guitar and modern pop drum patterns give this tranquil ambiance that allows listeners to get inside their minds and reflect on Keiner's relatable lyricism. Her naturally alluring vocal abilities keep us highly engaged alongside the easy-listening melodies she delivers. The production keeps the song incredibly compelling with Keiner's heavenly background vocals supporting her prominent lyrics of searching for optimism during the darkest of nights.
It's evident Paige Keiner has revealed her inner-demons on “Inside My Mind,” for listeners to find a safe space they can relate with, and we're incredibly grateful for artists like Keiner who put it all on the table for anyone to connect.
Hello Paige and welcome to BuzzMusic. We want to say thank you for releasing a song like "Inside My Mind," where listeners are reminded of the normality towards anxiety and depression. What initially inspired you to write this single?
I really appreciate that. I wrote this song about my own experience with anxiety and how it can feel inescapable sometimes. I often feel like there’s this push and pull within my own mind and it’s hard to combat it because I’m literally arguing with myself. I’ll start feeling anxious about something, and then I’ll try to use logic to talk myself down, and then I’ll start feeling anxious about it again, and it repeats. The song talks about a particular situation that happens to me sometimes, and I think it’s pretty common. I can usually go about my day and feel fine as long as I have distractions, but as soon as I lie down to go to sleep, my mind starts racing and all the thoughts I was able to avoid during the day flood over me at once. Everyone has different struggles and experiences when it comes to mental health, but I hope that anyone who has felt this way before can find some comfort in hearing my song and knowing others experience it too and it’s okay.
Could you tell us what your songwriting process was like when crafting the lyrics on "Inside My Mind" to describe a vulnerable and relatable theme?
I always love bringing as much imagery as possible to my lyrics because I just think it helps set the song apart and makes it feel more real. When I was writing the lyrics to “Inside My Mind,” I felt like imagery was especially important since the song does have kind of an abstract theme. I definitely think relating my feelings to things I can see and touch was the best way to get my message across. My intention in making up this very visual world in my song was to allow the listener to almost take a walk through my innermost thoughts and understand where I’m coming from a bit more than they would otherwise, and I hope that that comes through.
The overall production within "Inside My Mind" is incredibly melodic and daydream-esque. Did you have any producers help reach your sonic goal with the single? What was it like creating the instrumentals?
I did! I worked with Tom Michael and Brett Vargason of Zodlounge Music in Nashville, TN, to come up with the production for “Inside My Mind.” They were really able to capture the dreamy and somewhat surreal vibe I felt the song needed. Coming up with the instrumental was pretty simple as I had a fairly specific vision for the song overall, as well as an amazing team that really understood what I was going for and did a great job of bringing it to life.
With more music said to be coming in 2021, should we anticipate more music like "Inside My Mind" with themes of mental health inner reflection?
Definitely. My next few singles are more focused on relationships, but I have been doing a lot of writing about mental health over the past few months while in quarantine and I would love to share those songs with my audience next year. For the past ten years songwriting has been my go-to method for parsing through any and everything I’m feeling, and with everything that has been going on in the world in 2020, I’ve had a lot to think about and a lot of time to sit with those thoughts. All that being said, I’m thankful for everything I’ve learned and the experiences I’ve had (even while staying home) this year, and I’m hopeful that 2021 is going to be awesome.
What has been keeping you inspired this year?
2020 has definitely been crazy and I’d be lying if I said I felt creative and inspired the entire time. In March I came down to Florida from Nashville to wait out the pandemic with my family and I’m still here. It’s been strange being away from my life in Nashville for so long, being unable to perform or co-write in person. But I’m so thankful to have had this time with my family and that I’ve had the luxury to focus on releasing a new song with everything that’s been going on. After the first few months of being home, I kind of adjusted to quarantine life as much as a person can and started creating again. I was able to stay inspired mainly by working with other awesome writers via Facetime, working on skills other than songwriting (I started learning to play bass and to produce my own demos), and focusing on my upcoming releases. I definitely have some very blah days though where I don’t feel like doing anything, and on those days I just try to be kind to myself.