"Before You Leave" by Parker Graye
Parker Graye
The country ballad is, in a way, the genre's bread and butter, and as much as the party songs are entertaining, the ballads can sometimes hit you harder. Take, for one, the emerging country artist Parker Graye's "Before You Leave", a piece of songwriting and a vocal that may remind many of tunes by Kelsea Ballerini, Carly Pearce, or Danielle Bradbery. It's got just the right story about a first heartbreak, with the lingering of pain years later.
Graye grew up in Orillia, Ontario, and is currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia. However, she has spent much time in Canada and the US co-writing over sixty songs from country to pop in Nashville and Los Angeles. In September 2020, Parker released her nostalgic debut single "Do Over", a harmonica heartbreaker co-written with John Strandell, Logan Miller, and Rhyan Shirley. On the follow-up "Before You Leave", co-written by Marcus Ramsay (and produced by John Strandell), Parker revisits the storyline going further back in the past. She captures the demise of her relationship with the Saskatchewan farm boy she later broke up with after the frustrations of being in love with someone who has one foot in and one foot out the door.
IndieWavves: Hi Parker, "Before You Leave" is super catchy. It's really easy to learn these lyrics without even trying. The song sounds like the moment you go from a teenager to an adult, all in one instant. It's painful, but it also feels so good. What is it about sad songs that feel so good?
Parker Graye: I just love feeling, and I think I drag myself through the mud too deeply to a degree. Sadness and heartbreak are some of the most universal emotions, and I think it's so easy to relate to that. I love songs when you get to the part where the knife is all the way in, and then you turn it to the left a little bit. When it takes you back to a memory, or a moment, that is so fucking special. In those moments, we have the most growth; we change as human beings - be it heartbreak or losing a family member. In sad songs, it really does give us a reminder of how far we have come. There is still hopefulness in sad songs; you have to dig for it sometimes. I think I just love feeling. I don't want to romanticize sadness by any means, and I guess I do to a degree. But there's something about the moment we're in where we are just moving so damn fast, and we want to bury the feeling, but sad songs make me stop, make me read the lyrics, and make me think and feel. Sad songs just truly stop me in my tracks.
IW: How did "Before You Leave" come about?
PG: It really all started with "Do Over". In 2017 and before that, I tested lyrics on my Instagram story since I'm really bad at committing to lyrics. The ones that got the most traction in terms of comments, I would file to take them into future writes. At the time, I wasn't co-writing a lot, and I met John Strandell when I was working on another single then. John is based in St. Louis, Missouri, and that was the first virtual write I had ever done. He said to me, hey can you bring in some of those ideas you posted on your IG stories? Oddly enough, when you're a kid, and you play hide-and-go-seek - and you're like a do-over, do-over! - I said I want to take the playfulness of that so an adult can relate to it. I was in quite a toxic and tumultuous relationship during "Do Over", and "Before You Leave" was the next song to come out - they're about the same guy who I was really in love with. "Do Over" was about no problems or secrets, but "Before You Leave" was about falling in love at a young age and then when you're no longer in love - about feeling less-than and not being seen. It's about all of the things he never said to me that I wanted him to say to me. I wrote this song with my friend Marcus Ramsay.
IW: What provides closure for you is the next song coming, so fans should stay tuned on the final book-end to this chapter in your songwriting saga. There's so much emotion in "Before You Leave", and it feels like a healing song. How has this one resonated with fans and changed your life thus far?
PG: "Do Over" got a lot of positivity, but I think with "Before You Leave", a lot of people have DM'd me and said, "honestly, this helped me get through the pandemic." I didn't realize people would vanish into an alternative reality for themselves. I think in a way, although "Before You Leave" is very specific but also vague, some of the statements are so universal that everyone can find a moment. They can listen to it and be like, "I've been there." Having something to listen to and make you feel less alone, I think that's what it's done for some people. I want to make music that makes people feel something, whether that is up-tempo or nostalgic. I use music as an outlet - over the past four to five years, I've really been leaning into telling my truth. I want to take people back to a moment, be it happy or sad, to be something that's familiar to people but also give people these moments of "I didn't expect that." I want to keep people on their toes with what I do. I am not predictable.
Written by Michael Menachem