“Be Alone” – available on all streaming platforms April 5th – is the second single from Madeline’s debut LP “The Brothel” (a concept album scheduled for release later this year.) Emotionally charged and hauntingly melodic, “Be Alone” is a graphic exhibition of depression and the ways it compels us to turn on ourselves.
Madeline on the inspiration for the song: “Be Alone was written while quarantining with COVID in 2022. I was in Bangkok, hiding in my hotel room and getting a sick pleasure from not needing to engage with society. ‘I’m scared to be… I think I need to be… I know I shouldn’t be… I’ve got to be alone’ is a lyric that highlights that fine line between self-care and self-isolation.”
“During this time, I was also grappling with my identity, which I think comes through a lot in the lyrics. I often wish I fit into the boxes presented to me by society. Gay, straight, young, old, feminine, masculine, sick, healthy, success, failure… It’s confusing and exhausting to have a consciousness. And it’s especially taxing when I spend the majority of my time contemplating myself and my relation to the world.”
“So, I ended up staying inside for much longer than quarantine lasted because I didn’t know how to stop. I wish I could say this was an issue I had and ‘here’s how I overcame it’, but isolation and mental health is still something I struggle with.”
“This isn’t a song about resilience and growth, it’s just an acknowledgment of where I am.”
“Be Alone” was recorded with London-based producer, Brett Shaw (Florence + the Machine, Foals) at 123 Studios in Peckham.
