Are you lost again?
Do you think the world has gone insane?
Do you question your own ears?
And do you often stop and think: Where do we go from here?
That’s where Hug began - not with a melody, but with questions that kept popping up while the news swung between the deeply serious and the jaw-droppingly absurd. This was back when President Trump was threatening to take over Greenland. I scrolled, looked up, breathed, scrolled again, shook my head, rolled my eyes, reread the same lines like maybe I’d misunderstood them. Is this actually happening?
So I did what I often do when reality stops adding up: I tried to squeeze the feeling into a song.
Hug is my response to that claustrophobic wake me up, I want out sensation - the one you get when the world feels like it’s coming off its hinges, and the comment-section rulebook seems to be running the place.
It also messed with my plans. I had two. Now I’ve broken both.
Plan one: I’d mapped out the next six months - songs finished, dates set.
Plan two: follow plan one, no matter what. (Yes. Apparently I need a plan just to stick to the plan.)
The problem is: whatever I’m making now always feels better than what I made then. And suddenly the scheduled stuff starts to feel vague and passé before anyone else has even heard it - because something newer has already shown up and is tapping me on the shoulder.
The news can feel like that too — just the other way around. What’s happening right now feels crazier and scarier than ever. But is it? The brain does what it always does: it makes the present sharp and the past blurry. Thank God for that. Imagine re-feeling a broken leg at full volume every time you remembered it.
During the Trump years I've lost count of how many times I've heard the word “unprecedented.” Maybe it is accurate. But I also find a strange comfort in the thought that some of the fear comes from the same old mental glitch: we hype up the here-and-now and downplay everything we’ve already survived.
So yeah — maybe the world isn’t uniquely insane. It just feels that way sometimes. And when it does, the only thing I can usually think to do is what I always do: write a song.
Hug is a small attempt to do something human instead of scrolling on. It’s out February 12 wherever you stream your music.
Check out the lyrics here
🎧Check the lyrics and have a listen
🎥A “live” version recorded with my phone
▶ Link to several streaming services
If this makes you feel something — or nothing at all — I’d love to hear about it in the comments.