Ileen Laura gets her priorities straight on her new single and video Sit Beside Me – showcasing today on Tinnitist.
As no stranger to the struggle of how to balance work and family, the singer-songwriter documents the process she and her husband went through as they figured out how to prioritize her music career amid their family responsibilities. “Back in 2020, the pandemic had just become a reality,” the Toronto artist recalls. “Schools were shut down and, as a high school music teacher, this meant planning for school music concerts and festivals was put on pause.”
Within quarantine, Laura began to consider her life and her purpose — concluding that something was missing. During one of the first evenings in the stay-at-home order, she and her husband were discussing why she stopped writing music after they got married. “I had been blaming him for missed opportunities,” she shares. After releasing several singles and opening for the likes of Walk Off The Earth and Justin Nozuka, she had just assumed music was now behind her — despite her husband’s willing support.
“I wrote Sit Beside Me after hearing my pastor speak one Sunday at our church on the subject of spiritual gifts,” she says. “He spoke about the fact that, as Christians we are all given these gifts, but it is up to us to use our gifts to glorify God. It was as if he wrote the sermon just for me. I realized I hadn’t been using my gift at all.” A year later, she had written a full-length album, fully recommitting herself to her craft.
Watch Sit Beside Her above, hear more from Ileen Laura below, and find her at her website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
