Originally from New Hampshire, USA, Alternative songwriter Carleigh Mack now resides in Liverpool and has become a fixture of the local live scene, running an open mic at Artefact and playing alongside her good friend Bella Wright. However, her time has come to turn her attentions to her own music once again. After much deliberation, a good dose of self-doubt and plenty of personal growth, Carleigh has finally decided to release her new EP 'Growing Pains' which will be out on July 26th. (Pre-save now)
The EP explores some of Carleigh's most formative experiences with sonic delicacy and emotive power, showcasing the poignancy of her storytelling and breadth of performance while documenting her developmental journey during her teenage years. The lyrics are simultaneously relatable and niche, finding unique, quirky sentiments that convey Carleigh's personality and using them to explain deep, complex emotions that many will resonate with.
We caught up with Carleigh before the EP release to discuss why she had so many doubts over releasing, the meaning behind the 'Growing Pains' sentiment and the story behind each of the six tracks.
Q. Why were you reluctant to release the EP and what made you finally decide to put it out into the world?
A. "I started this EP project so long ago. I'm 21 years old now and I started it when I was 18. Since then, there's been such a massive change in my life. I feel like I can write so much better than I could when I was 18 just because of my confidence growing which kind of contradicts the lack of confidence in my songs I wrote when I was 18. As a result, I started to think 'these lyrics are so bad' and 'these melodies suck' and started to really hate those old songs".
"I lost passion during the process too as we had a lot of difficulties during the recording process and I'm the type of person that if I don't feel it then I'm not going to pursue it, so, I started to doubt the project and then eventually dropped it completely. I dropped it for quite a while but then I got a Tascam four track, which is just so cool, and me and my producer / friend, Stef, talked about just using the four track to make the songs sound imperfect and release them. I thought that it made sense as the whole EP is imperfect in a way but it's cute, it's like a timestamp of me coming-of-age.
So we thought.. fuck it! It would have been too sad to let it go after all that time I'd spent like working on it and putting in my soul and my tears and everything".
Q. How did the EP title 'Growing Pains' originate?
A. "It's actually wild how that happened because I named it and put the tracklist together when I was 18 before we had re-recorded everything and I'd named it 'Growing Pains' because, at the time, there was another song that I had wrote called 'Growing Pains' that didn't make the EP but I still liked the premise around the idea. It felt right because a lot of my life I've been a very reflective person so I feel like growing pains is just one phrase you could say about me as a person and that's how I felt at the time. Then, the title kind of just manifested itself completely and it took me three years and a bunch of other growing pains to even get the EP out".
"The EP project was so huge and kind of threw me in a loop. I actually gave up on music for a while but now I've learned from it and I'm a smarter person. I'm more wise and more creative because of it. So, those growing pains were worth it!".
Growing Pains EP - Track by track
1. What If I'm Not Good Enough?
"I think 'What If I'm Not Good Enough?' was actually the last song I wrote on the EP. I think writing that song told me to make the EP in a way. I was at a really low point in life and I didn't feel like I was the person I was supposed to be at that point. I had been using dating apps but the reason I stopped using them was because of what I learned from that song which was that they just don't connect me to people, they just make me feel weird. So, after that moment I just began to realise that I wasn't where I wanted to be in life. I felt like I was falling away from my friendships, I felt like I was mean sometimes and music just didn't feel good anymore. At the time, I couldn't even write a song but then I wrote that one! So, all those bad feelings kind of produced something good".
2. Dogs
"'Dogs' is about a bad relationship I had where I felt like we were very codependent and that's why I compared it to my dogs who are always so dependant on their owners. Again, it was writing the song that kind of brought me to realise that the relationship was so shit. I was writing the lyrics and I just felt I could really relate to what I thought a dog felt when it loves its owner so much. I didn't feel like I could live without them. It was a weird dynamic but I guess I processed it through writing that song".
3. Bad For Me
"'Bad For Me' is about the same relationship as 'Dogs'. This was another case of processing it through writing because I didn't realise why he was bad for me for so long. A lot of my friends and family were like 'why can't you see this?' so I thought, let me write a song first, then I'll figure it out. I think, in general, writing music and lyrics is how I learn about myself. It's how I figure out new things about myself and realise how I feel about certain situations".
4. Drunk
"At the time of writing 'Drunk' I loved Lizzie McAlpine's 'All My Ghosts'. I loved the sound of it and the guitar clunks and I really wanted to replicate that kind of fun, dancing around a market kind of feel. I just wanted to replicate that carefree sound even though the lyrics are so incredibly sad and tell us such a depressing story about her love life, which is what 'Drunk' does as well.
Lyrically, 'Drunk' is about a really strange Tinder date I went on. When he picked me up, I knew something was completely off immediately. I got into the car and looked into the cup holder and saw a flask then looked at the window and saw a pipe with weed in it and I was like 'oh, fuck... this guy's drunk and on drugs and we're driving down the street'. I had no reception and was in the middle of nowhere in New Hampshire. We were literally swinging in and out of the road lines and I just had no idea what to do. My parents actually first found out about the situation when I performed it live. They were like 'Carleigh, why didn't you tell us this happened?' but I didn't even really know what to think of it myself. I don't know if the guy has heard the song, but I hope he does. At least I kind of got something positive out of a really weird and horrible situation".
5. I Wanna Be A Mermaid
"I co-wrote this song with my friend Claire Nichols. The idea came from being a kid...I've always wanted to be a mermaid, like when I was younger I was genuinely looking up on YouTube how to become one. I just wanted to escape from life and become a mythical creature and forget about all my problems. When I was a kid I probably didn't think that deep, but nowadays that'd honestly be so good. It's like 'I have work... I don't want to do that, I want to go be a mermaid. I have school... I want to be a mermaid. I need to go grocery shopping this week... I'd rather be a mermaid'. It's kind of become an idea of escapism where whatever I'm going through I'll just escape by being a mermaid".
6. Crop Circles
"I decided to release 'Crop Circles' as a single because there's two versions of the song. The single version is on streaming platforms as it is but then on the EP it has a surprise ending where all my friends and I are singing some 'na na's' and it's like a new chord progression. It just ends really sweetly and sounds like we're around a campfire which is exactly what I wanted the song to feel like. Even though the song is just completely absurd and about how the government's gonna overthrow us and all these aliens are gonna invade us, it ends in such a nice cute note with all my friends on the project that helped make it sound the way it is. It's kind of to honour them because they've been there for every step of the way. They were there when I was really doubting myself and they helped me get to where I am today. They're my best friends in the entire world and they hold such a special place in my heart, which is why I just felt like I needed them to be on the project".
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