The One Who Didn't Die

7.1 Her Truth

*Edited

I want to make a quick shout-out to Madeline0510, thank you for the consistency of your support and for your suggestion for this chapter.

"Good morning, I'm Taylor Diggs and you're listening to 'Let's Talk.' We are here today with Dallas native, Serena Barnes who will soon be releasing her third album." The interview was starting and I was slightly nervous because there weren't any questions that were not up for grabs which meant there were no taboo topics.

"Serena, thank you for being in studio today." She said smiling. "I want to get right to it; your album Naked Soul." She said adjusting her headphones. "How did you get to that enticing name?"

"Firstly, thank you for having me, it's good to be here." I said tilting my head. "Regarding the name, I wanted to present something raw and more honest than my previous album Breathe, something that was not cookie cutter country musically but still had the lyrical essence of the genre." I said taking a moment to listen to my words out loud. "It was all about my very personal thoughts and really has reflections of me but manages to be relatable." I said smiling.

"You talk about Naked Soul with quite a bit of passion." Taylor said looking impressed. "I know quite a bit about your last album but what is different between this one and your last record?" She asked.

"With this one I went in blind just writing without a particular direction or destination unlike the goals I had set previously. It was a bit of a challenge not having a full plan but, I think that's what makes these set of songs better. The songs are more spontaneous and feel now natural, which should appeal to both my usual audience and new listeners." I said. Okay so maybe I had thought about some questions she could possibly ask and prepared some answers for them but I it isn't as if I knew how any of this was going to play out.

"Listening to it, what can we expect?" She asked.

"I think you can expect to get to know me better, because through this album I've been able to peel back a layer or two of myself and have exposed those layers. There's a bit of a progression that happens in the album too, in that the difference in intensity between the first and eleventh song is quite big; as you listen to the CD in order, you'll find that things start gradually then the feeling of bareness and the honesty of the music increases exponentially with each song." I said. Yep, I definitely prepared for mainstream interview questions.

"Quite profound and I did, easily, pick up on that listening to it myself. I pre-ordered your album and received it late last night so I already have a favourite, but what is your favourite song?" She asked.

"I love Pictures We Hang on the Wall because I wrote and finished it on the same morning, while sitting at my piano in pyjamas and that was kinda the beginning of the idea for the album theme even though it was the sixth song I wrote." I said thinking back.

"That's the single you released two weeks ago." She said and I nodded my head. "How about we play it now." She said smiling.

"Sure." I said nodding my head again. The solo piano intro started before the band's parts crept in as I had heard it many times and there it was, my voice.

"Quite something." She said with a glowing face, decreasing the volume.

"Thank you." I smiled politely.

"The title itself seems to carry some weight, care to elaborate?" She asked leaning closer to the table.

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