In a recent Instagram post, Macklemore talks about the lead-up to his new single ‘Chant’ featuring Tones and I.
Macklemore and Tone and I’s new song ‘Chant’ has just been released. The song has strong emotional overtones and after Macklemore revealed more about the buildup to the making of ‘Chant,’ you start to see where that emotion comes from.
In an Instagram post made today, Macklemore talked about how he felt his music career was over as the music industry changed throughout the pandemic. In the end, he decided to make an album anyway.
“I’ve been working on this song for 3 years. It all feels new again. I can’t remember a time I was this excited about putting new music out into the world. At the start of the pandemic my team and I were just about to go to LA to finish what I thought was the end of the album. But as you’re making plans, God is laughing at you.
There’s been so much uncertainty in the music industry the last 3 years. There were times when I questioned if I was done. If the pandemic was going to lead me into a preemptive forced retirement. Was this really the way that I was going out? Would I ever tour again? If I couldn’t tour and get in front of the people does an album make sense?
My last album Gemini came out 5 years ago. The music industry has changed so much in the last 6 months, much less since the release of that album. I found myself feeling completely disconnected. We spent dinners talking about algorithms, how to make content, consistency, likes, views and plays. Spiritually I felt the negative effects.
Artists are currently treading water in a sea of fear that is plaguing the music industry. I can feel it within my peers. The pressure from their labels. It’s the fear that if there’s not a dance or a viral moment on Tik Tok, the art that we’ve created will never be heard.
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The fear that a song will immediately die if it doesn’t make it on certain playlists. We as consumers scroll through songs and bypass albums in a quest for fast food content to momentarily sustain our dwindling attention spans. We listen in 15 second intervals and rarely get past the first 5 songs on a project. At times during the duration of making music the past 3 years I questioned if an album even made sense.
But I believe that there is still an appetite for art. There’s a purpose behind albums, the arch, the sequence, the story. For songs that are longer than 2:20. The human spirit desires to be pushed, challenged and brought to life through the conduit of creativity. And great projects do just that.
CHANT is the start. I love it. I hope you love it too. Its intent is to remind myself and the rest of world why I was put here on this earth. That in the face of adversity, that’s when we’re called to do our life’s work. It’s the persistence for greatness that makes us alive. And today, that’s exactly what I feel.
As always, I love and appreciate you all for listening. Keep spreading the word. The people will always be more powerful than the algorithm.”
‘Chant’ is available to stream on all major platforms.
