MITCHELL TENPENNY RELEASES NEW EP “THE LOWLIGHT SESSIONS” (AUDIO & VIDEO)
“The order of the EP is very specific. It kind of goes through my life. It goes through a lot of emotions, you know, all the way to finding the one for the rest of my life. And I hope that you can just start from the beginning and listen to it that way. Create your own motion picture in the mind, if you will, and enjoy The Lowlight Sessions the way it was intended. And then once you find your favorite song, of course, you can go listen to that track, but I wrote it kind of as a movie, as a cinematic element. So go check it out that way.”
“The Lowlight Sessions is probably my favorite project up to this point because it’s songs that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. It’s something that kind of shares deep deep emotions and thoughts in my life and things that I’ve gone through that I feel like a lot of people have gone through and I hope that you can find your song on this record. But if you listen to it from the beginning to the end, you can see you know, you can see a story. You can see a struggle, you can see happiness, you can see different you know, aspects of my life all the way up to finding the one I love and the one I want to spend the rest of it with. So it’s just a story of you know, growing up. Figuring out life life as you know a man in this world you know, so many emotions and just as a songwriter, it’s my place to put it out. As I’m growing up, a lot of things change my opinions change. And you can kind of see it through this record. There’s some things early on, that I say that I might not write about now but I’m glad I did then because I can look back on it and be like I remember who I was when I wrote that. Compared to I remember who I am now at the end. I hope that you love it as much as I do. These are songs that I put my heart and soul in and you know, just dim the lights, turn them down low, grab you a nice cocktail and check it out.“
“My Next Sad Song was written in Colorado. I’d had this riff for a long time, this kind of really melodic riff that I’ve just loved for forever. And I just started writing, you know, some lyrics to that song being like, when you fall in love, you have no idea how it’s going to end up. And at that point in life, it’s like, everything is going perfect on paper. It looks amazing. So all you are is kind of lost in the moment. But you don’t realize that at the end of it, it’s not going to work out. So really, the whole time you’re just writing a sad song. And I thought that was pretty intriguing. It’s pretty cool and unique. It’s for a song to feel like it’s super happy. But the very end the turn at the end is, hey, you’re writing my next sad song because I had no idea because it looked perfect.“
“Horseshoes and Hand Grenades is about, you know, getting so close to something but not actually getting it. I ended up I was heading home one night and I called my buddy Dallas Wills saying because I just didn’t want to go home yet. I went over to his studio and we just, we were kids again, we picked up a guitar and we hung out, had some wine, and just started, you know, playing riffs and just spitting out lyrics and recording it. And it wasn’t anything special. That song just kind of fell out of that. And I think we might have been just talking about the industry and how you could work forever at something and it just might not happen you can be this close to something and it just never hit right and that’s how Horseshoes and Hand Grenades was created a little bit of late night and some wine and just some fun.“
“I Know Something She Don’t Know is written with my buddy Brad Clawson. And, you know, I had this idea when he came over to my house to write a song about when you know you got to break up with someone but you just can’t. It’s one of the hardest things in the world to do is to hurt somebody or to break someone’s heart. But but like you want that one more good moment that one more good feeling you had with them before you probably ruin their entire perspective on you. And it’s something that a lot of people have battled with. I know it’s a normal thing, a breakup, and it’s one of the hardest parts about them. And so I thought it was pretty cool to tell a story about knowing ahead of time, something that could completely change everyone’s lives and devastate someone else. And that’s kind of where that song came from.“
“I Can’t Get Another You was a song for me. I just wanted to really have a song where I could sing and do something vocally. That song is about obviously, you know, a breakup and losing someone, the one that got away. But for me, I just wanted a really emotional, passionate song about a breakup. Something you could really feel like if you’re dealing with a breakup, you can crank it up and live with that song. I mean, you can you know, I talked about leaving my watch on the nightstand and, you know, bottle of whiskey by the sink. Stuff that’s, you know, tangible that you can just go buy again, but you can’t buy a new heart and that’s part of that song. It’s, you know, it is it’s the one that got away and it absolutely crushed you.“
“Mama Raised The Hell Out of Me is probably one of my favorite songs on the record because I love my mama. I’m a mama’s boy. And that song is straight about my mother and she did raise the hell out of me in a million different ways. My mom, my family, we’re a family of faith. And she has just been such an incredible inspiration on my life and to me and my brother, and I just kind of wanted a song about my mama. Ever since Boyz II Men you know, Dear Mama, whatever, you know, that was one of my favorite songs growing up and I never had a song from my mom. So this is it. Mama Raised The Hell Out of Me.“
“Don’t Let Me Choose. I wrote also with Dallas Wilson and Claire Douglas. And at the time, I was going through a relationship where it felt like I was having to choose between my job, my career and a relationship. And unfortunately, that happens a lot, especially as you grow together and things start changing and life happens. It was just you know, where you got to the point where I would feel guilty leaving and being on the road a lot. I think the music industry challenges a lot of relationships. And, and one thing about the music industry and being an artist is sometimes you have to be super selfish when it comes to your time. And it was a hard time in life. And that was one of those songs that just kind of, you know, helped me get through that writing that song. Don’t make me choose between, you know, my career and you. It’s a choice I don’t want to make. If it can workout together great. But that song a lot of times it doesn’t. It doesn’t happen that way. And that song from me kind of helped me get through that time and realize that it wasn’t the right person for both of us. But if you do make me choose, it’ll probably not be the choice you wanted, or the answer that you wanted.“
“Dear Jesus is a song that’s not meant to be political and I hope it’s not taken that way. It’s a song that’s supposed to be unifying because of what’s going on in the world. What’s happened in the world. To me, personally, I get on my knees and pray about that stuff. At the end of the day I don’t care what you look like what you believe in, we need to find some way to get together. And sometimes it’s bigger than us. And the only thing for me in my life and what’s helped me through it is praying when those circumstances happen. And Dear Jesus is exactly that. When the whole world feels like it’s coming down. There’s nothing we can do. We need to come together and ask for some help.”
“The Way You Are: that’s my song to Meghan. It was quarantine, I was having too much time in my studio in my house. And I got up one morning and I just got a new guitar and I was just drinking some coffee and just kind of noodling on and came up with that little riff. And I went downstairs just felt inspired and just started writing a song about my fiance. And you know, I thought it was cool to end the record with a song that you know, is where I’m at in life currently, where I’m at now and have a song you know, for my fiance written by her fiance and the song is everything I think about her and I love the way she is so it ended up being the way you are.”