This past Friday, Renforshort released her debut album, Dear Amelia, which chronicles losing yourself in a bad relationship and coming to the point where you can start to find yourself again. Standout tracks include “moshpit,” co-written with Alexander 23, “I miss myself,” “let you down” ft. Jake Bugg, and “Julian, king of Manhattan.” I’ve been a fan of Renforshort for a while and that only became more true when I became thoroughly obsessed with “moshpit” when it came out as a single this past spring. Of course, I was over the moon when 1824 gave me the chance to ask Renforshort a couple questions about her first full-length introduction to the world as an artist.
With an album being called Dear Amelia, fans and the general public alike were left to wonder who this mysterious Amelia was. “Amelia is a character. All the songs are basically addressed to her, and the thing about Amelia is she’s a character, but she’s also me. She’s the personification of this part of my brain that I put so much stress on,” she explained, casting the album as a series of externalized letters to a person just slightly removed from yourself. “It closes with the song ‘Amelia’ because you lose that part of yourself, and it goes back to ‘I miss myself,’” she shared about the order of the track list and its tie to Amelia the character. Thinking about the wider themes of the album and how the character of Amelia plays in, she said, “Something goes wrong and you lose parts of yourself like happiness.” Then she paused for a second and thought of an aptly animated comparison. “It’s exactly like Inside Out when Joy goes and dips.”
Since Renforshort spent so much time writing letters to Amelia for the album, she wanted to offer her fans a similar release in an, albeit, more private way. “You write this letter, you drop it in a mailbox, and you forget about it,” she said of the Dear Amelia letter writing campaign. “Once it gets to the PO Box, we just dispose of it,” she added, making sure that fans know that whatever secrets those letters included are safe with her. She likened the process to when she writes songs that she doesn’t end up putting out, something we’ll get into more later. Renforshort saw the letters as, “One step closer to being able to talk about your feelings. Kind of a practice.” She compares it to writing in a journal with the extra assurance that no one can stumble across it and expose your private thoughts.
That sense of wanting to help people connect with their emotions is central to the entire reason the 20 year old makes music in the first place. “Since I started writing music, it’s been about writing songs that are very emotional. Not only in a relationship sense, but also in what I’m going through that I felt would help other people. What goes on in my head on a day to day basis,” she shared. “I try to make it almost as open as possible for listeners to interpret while still having a clear message,” she elaborated. The ambiguity leaves room for listeners to burrow into their own life experiences instead of getting too caught up on hers.
Because of that honesty, though, most of her work, this album included, doesn’t come with a clear resolution or guidebook. She doesn’t feel compelled to manufacture larger meanings or lessons or a sense of healing that don’t feel honest to where she’s at in the moment. “I don’t know the resolution a lot of the time from how I’m feeling, and I think it’s fine to make it ambiguous.”
Despite not having a clear solution, the album was built with a crystal intentionality around the story Renforshort wanted to tell with the music. The opening track, “I miss myself,” was one of those labor of loves built to be the cherry on top of the album and the first bite all at once. “It was the last song I wrote,” she said, “and I think I needed that. It was kind of like in conclusion but as an opener. I wrote it for the purpose of it being an opener.” Despite knowing what the album needed to feel complete, the song wasn’t easy to finish. “It took a while to finish that song cause I needed everything to align and make sense,” she said.
To create the album, though, she needed to assemble a group of creators to support her vision along the way. I asked how she decides to bring people into her artistic world. “First off, I like to have some sort of relationship with them because it’s easier to work with friends. I’ve known Alexander for a while so it makes it so much easier to work with him.” There’s certain criteria she asks herself before deciding to work with someone. “‘Do I get along with this person? How easy is it to open up with this person?’” There’s also a balance when bringing in new people. “I love trying to work with new people,” she said, but at the same time, “Once you find collaborators you like, you stick with them.”
Luckily, she was able to find a solid group of artists, writers, and producers she enjoyed working with for Dear Amelia and cross off her bucket list of collaborators for her first full-length foray. “For me the debut is really important, and I wanted to make sure everything was ticked,” she mentioned. Speaking of debut albums, I asked if she had any first albums from others artists she absolutely loves, and she cited Jake Bugg’s self titled and Forever, Forever Ago by Bon Iver.
Jake Bugg was on that wishlist of collaborators that did come true and created her fondest memory from making the album. “I manifested it,” she said about the collaboration on her song “let you down.” When she tasked her manager with making the collaboration, she recounted, “I said to him, ‘I’m not writing a second verse, I’m not putting it out if Jake bug isn’t on it.’ He came back a few months later… and Jake Bug was on it. He was one of the first artists I ever fell in love with, and I was like wow that happened. This is insane.”
While she got to work with one of her favorite artists, she wrote a song about another artist she spent a lot of time listening to during the creation of Dear Amelia, Julian Casablancas. “Julian, king of manhattan” is one of my favorite songs on the album for its unabashed nature as Renforshort envisions spending a day with one of her idols. She echoes the thoughts of everyone who’s fallen in a little too deep with an artist’s music and developed a conviction they’d be perfect as best friends. In the second verse she sings, “Oh Julian, I get lonely sometimes just like you / Oh Julia, they don’t understand you like I do.”
In reflecting back on how things have changed between her prior releases and this album, Renforshort noted, “Over time, my writing has definitely matured. I’ve consumed more media, I’ve met more people… I think that that’s changed me as an artist and as a person.” Having only recently turned 20, it’s expected that she’s in a quickly evolving state, the world moving rapidly around her and the her music capturing sometimes fleeting phases.
Hearing her talk about her writing process had me wondering about the songs that were left on the hard drive or in a notebook, never recorded. I asked if she had leftovers and what their fate would be. “There are a lot of songs that didn’t make the album. There are some songs that I’m like, if I could, I would put them on the album,” she mused, echoing everyone who’s ever had to make a final submission and was left with pesky second thoughts. “I was writing every day for like 8 months,” she shared to make a point about how many unused songs have piled up. “They will be used,” she shared for anyone who’s worried they won’t see the light of day or listeners’ ears. At the end of the day, which 12 songs ended up on the album was more about what fit the narrative of the project than which songs were good or bad. “I go back and listen to them and I’m like, Damn! that’s a really good song.”
With the debut album now in the rearview and a run opening for Tai Verdes and later The Band Camino, Renforshort is ready to go on a tour of her own. “I’ve done one headline show, and it was genuinely the best night of my life. I didn’t sleep that night. So much endorphins. I’m so excited to plan out a show. Lighting, the pace, being able to speak more and interact with the audience more. Knowing that these people have come to see me gives me a sense of security,” she shared. “With every record, I find I get more vulnerable. These are the most emotional songs I’ve probably written in my career. For the headline shows I want everyone to feel united and feel like family.”
For those who want the chance to be a part of that family, Renforshort is going on her first headline run. I’ll be at the Moroccan Lounge show in LA, and she’s also stopping through Chicago, the East Coast, and Canada, as well as visiting much of the West Coast on Alexander 23’s Aftershock tour.
Since she’ll be spending the next few months on the road, she’s had to adapt to touring life and find small comforts, namely crossword puzzles. Despite being back home, she’s kept up her devotion to the puzzle game. “I do like seven a day because it reminds me of being in my bunk,” she shared.
Still, road life and life in general can be stressful. Like most young adults, she has an eternal fail-safe. “I always call my mom. Minor inconveniences, anything,” she said with a laugh. “Nostalgia helps me… what walks was I doing, what food was I fixating on. It’s easy to lose yourself and feel super isolated, and going back to core experiences or daily routines that you had when you were younger really brings me back and makes me whole.”
She also fielded a question about coping with anxiety, something she sings about on the record. She took a second to ponder such a big question ultimately stated, “If I had the answer for that… I haven’t found what helps me. Zoloft helps me a little bit. Besides that, I don’t know what really helps. Talking to someone… having someone you can confide in is super helpful. For me, my release is writing. Once you find that release, it’s very helpful.” Renforshort sympathized with anyone experiencing a bad bout of anxiety. “Anxiety’s a little demon. For some reason, we have to figure out how to deal with it, it feels like, on their own.”
To close, Renforshort was asked if there’s anything she wants to share with the world she hasn’t been asked about yet. She took the moment to remind others that artists and public figures do go through major personal struggles, even though it isn’t always apparent. “Over this past year, I’ve struggled a lot with myself, and I’ve had a really really tough year in that way. It’s definitely getting better now, but I was in such a negative space, and I felt like the world was against me. I know that’s not the case now, but at the time, I didn’t. Behind the scenes, it was a hard time for me mentally, and a lot of things happened this year that didn’t help. You never really know what someone is going through, and try to be kind and respectful because people need that. People need that positivity because in a day how many great things are happening?” Kindness, wherever you can share it, is always needed.
Looking into the future, Renforshort has one concrete goal and one broader wish for her listeners, “I would like to play an arena, and I would like to help as many people through my music and selfishly help myself in a way from that catharsis of making a music and getting it off my chest and having people resonate.”
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