You should see this place, it’s beautiful / It’s every place we ever tried to find, is the opening line to Charles Esten‘s affecting track, “Somewhere in the Sunshine.”
Esten and songwriter Jon Nite painted a comforting, reassuring picture of the afterlife with this track. Though it’s relatively simple in scope, it packs a heavy emotional punch.
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The song is written from the perspective of a passed loved one. Somehow, they connect with the living and relay the stunning sights of life after death. Though Esten now has a powerful, consequential track on his hands, Nite originally pictured this song as having a more blithe meaning.
“Being a great songwriter, [Jon] had a title [ready], ‘Somewhere in the Sunshine,’” Esten tells American Songwriter. “But, what I’ve learned about songwriting is you’ve got to bring who you are in that moment and where you are in that moment.”
“How I was feeling in that moment about the title was not what he was thinking: tequila, sand, you and me somewhere in the sunshine,” Esten continues. “That would have been a great song, perhaps an even more popular radio-friendly song. But I was carrying something with me.”
Esten went on to describe a loss in his own life. “I had a friend who had been battling cancer for so long and the conversations that he and I had been having were about what comes next.”
Because of Esten’s faith, his version of the afterlife promises paradise. No more pain, finally free / I’m right where I’m meant to be, he sings.
Whether it was an assuage to himself or not, Esten decided to write the song as a message of peace from a new resident of heaven. “It’s such a big concept, but I wanted it to be conversational,” Esten says. “Whatever emotion creeps into the performance, I’d rather fight it off because this person is talking to someone who is broken from grief, but they’re not.”
“That’s why I love the first line so much,” Esten adds. “It sounds like something you’d say over the phone. If you were in the best place you’d ever been and you got on the phone with someone you love, you’d go, ‘You should see this place, it’s beautiful.’”
Check out Esten’s latest release, below.
Photo by Kirsten Balani / Sweet Talk Publicity
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