CURRENT SINGLE: “Gave It Back Broken”
Callista Clark’s new single, “Gave It Back Broken,” is an indictment of a guy who broke her heart, and it was actually the result of a songwriting appointment when she says, “I had no idea what to write. I had been on the road, just feeling kind of tired and not really having much creative energy, to be very honest.”
Fortunately, Callista didn’t show up for the Zoom write with Emily Shackleton empty handed. “Something that I love to do is journal all of my thoughts,” says Callista. “I have a ton of diaries for every occasion, every day, every kind of different thing. And I had just went through a break up, and I had this one journal entry that I did not think was going to turn into a song at all. And I did not think anyone was ever going to hear it. It was just a lot of questions and a lot of things I was feeling at the time. And I brought it to Emily and I said, ‘I have no idea what this is but I also have no idea what to write today. So, here’s this. Let’s see what we can do with it.’”
Luckily, Emily is a very talented writer, so reading through the private thoughts Callista had written in her journal, she was able to see the bones of the song they were going to write. Callista remembers, “She read it and she was like, ‘Okay, here’s the chorus. Here’s our verses. We just have to make it rhyme.’”
Callista and Emily came up with a simple demo for “Gave It Back Broken,” which ultimately blossomed into Callista’s new single. “It went from a very stripped-down piano vocal thing to the massive ballad that it is now with the whole orchestra on it,” Callista says proudly.
Callista Clark – writing Gave Back Broken :53
“I had no idea what to write. I had been on the road, just feeling kind of tired and not really having much creative energy, to be very honest. But something that I love to do is journal all of my thoughts. I have a ton of diaries for every occasion, every day, every kind of different thing. And I had just went through a break up, and I had this one journal entry that I did not think was going to turn into a song at all. And I did not think anyone was ever going to hear it. It was just a lot of questions and a lot of things I was feeling at the time. And I brought it to Emily and I said, ‘I have no idea what this is but I also have no idea what to write today. So, here’s this. Let’s see what we can do with it.’ And she read it and she was like, ‘Okay, here’s the chorus. Here’s our verses. We just have to make it rhyme.’ And it went from a very stripped-down piano vocal thing to the massive ballad that it is now with the whole orchestra on it.”