Brianna McGeehan welcomes you (and herself) back Home in her lyrically reassuring and musically inspired new single and video — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
The debut solo single from the Atlanta-based singer-songwriter, Home is a contemporary (and timely) Americana ballad with a stylish and surprising twist. Brushed with subtle electro-folk flourishes, the song blossoms with a radio-ready chorus driven by programmed beats before arriving at a climactic stomp-clap singalong outro. Lyrically, the song is about “finding home in your people, and community as the antidote to mental illness,” McGeehan says.
“When you’re a million miles away
And you feel like there’s nothing to say
And the room keeps on getting, smaller and smaller and smaller
When you think you can’t come home
Rock bottom is where you belong
And the walls keep on getting taller and taller and taller
I’ll be your home sweet home, kick off your shoes and sing along
I’ll be your home, I’ll be your home
I’ll be your northern star, I’ll guide you home from so far
I’ll be your stone, I’ll be your stone.”
The video — directed by Nashville’s Anana Kaye and Irakli Gabriel at Duende Vision — features two masked figures finding connection and falling in love amidst the backdrop of Atlanta. It offers a colourful, upbeat setting for a song that is a transitional piece for McGeehan, as she evolves away from the downhome folk and alt-country of past projects Heart Hunters and Pretend Sweethearts — both collaborations with her husband Drew de Man — and toward a sound that incorporates indie-pop and electro elements.
While keeping one foot firmly planted in the Americana realm, Home is a return to McGeehan’s decidedly less-organic roots as a young artist in Brooklyn. “I was writing a lot with a friend who’d send me electronic music,” she says, “and I’d come up with vocal melodies and lyrics on top of it. Other than being Irish-American and growing up singing Celtic folk music, I didn’t really get into Americana until later when I discovered Gillian Welch. Coming of age in the Pacific Northwest in the ’90s, I was more into grungy guitars, and when I was in New York, I was drawn to electronic music and pop — so this new direction feels like a return for me.”
McGeehan demoed the single at home before heading into Colin Agnew’s Sunwapta Studio, a converted farmhouse just outside of Athens. Agnew engineered and co-produced Home with de Man and Mcgeehan, with de Man on guitars and most other instruments, and Angew providing drums, percussion and beats.
Home is deeply rooted in McGeehan’s teenage obsession with Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement. “When I was 19, I wanted to be her,” McGeehan says. “I tried to read all the same books she read, I went to mass every Sunday. Dorothy Day was so cool — she lived in voluntary poverty, and she was all about community, and that’s how we heal. The people I respect most all have that same philosophy. Bell Hooks is another — All About Love: New Visions was hugely impactful for me. So that’s what Home is — someone singing to a person who suffers from mental illness and telling them, ‘I can be your home.’ But to me it’s even more universal than that — it’s about how if we don’t make some changes, people will continue to suffer.”
Born in Oregon to a music-teacher father, McGeehan began playing at age 6 — first piano, then violin and guitar. But singing captivated her most. She sang in choirs and her vocal studies took her as far as Tanzania and India. McGeehan went on to major in performance and social activism in Boulder, before moving to Brooklyn and dabbling in experimental music. A couple years in, she had a baby, and decided to return to Portland as a single mom.
Back home, while studying music therapy, she met her future husband Drew and formed the duo Pretend Sweethearts. A search for more affordable housing led them to Bolivia. McGeehan gave birth to their son on the bedroom floor during a lightning storm. When they returned to the U.S., McGeehan and de Man began playing as Heart Hunters, sharing the stage with Allison Russell, and recording with Peter Case. Eventually, the demands of parenting took them off the road.
“The time away from the pressure of the stage was very positive for me,” McGeehan says. “I’d been performing since I was 9, so to just have my music for me and no one else for five years was amazing. Instead of constantly rehearsing for shows, I was able to dive deep into whatever moved me at a particular moment. I’d play Beethoven for myself; I just did whatever I wanted musically.”
Eventually, McGeehan was ready to perform again. “I love the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and I felt like if I didn’t get back on the path I’d end up a poisoned dragon. I needed to get back out there, and I knew I wanted to do my solo stuff this time.”
Which is where the new single comes in. Home is the first song McGeehan has released since 2020, with a whole new crop of solo material on the way. “I call it anti-Americana,” she says. “The new record I’m working on is a cocktail of vocals, strings, traditional instruments, synth, electronic beats and loops — it’s the realization of a vision I’ve had since my early days in New York.”
Watch the video for Home above, listen to the track below, and follow Brianna McGeehan on Facebook and Instagram.
