Known for her artful lyrics and rich vocals, Shelby Darrall is sharing a page straight from her diary with her new single “Lied To Too.” The song tells a story about seeing an ex with someone new, and not hating their new person as much as you thought you would.
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Darrall’s songwriting is airtight, with vivid imagery and striking emotional depth. This is, in part, because the story told in “Lied To Too” is hers. Upon seeing her ex’s new partner for the first time, Darrall came to a painful realization that while she was painting the new partner as a villain, she lost sight of the fact that she was really just a person.
“I did go into a restaurant and see her for the first time,” Darrall tells American Songwriter. “And I think a switch flipped in me where I was like, ‘I’ve been ripping apart this person because it felt easier. It kind of stopped me cold and made me realize that I was being incredibly unfair.”
Your eyes, they’re kind / Kinda hoped they wouldn’t be that way, Darrall sings.
However, Darrall was able to take this uncomfortable moment and turn it into something beautiful. With the help of her friend and co-writer Emily Weisband, “Lied To Too” went from a painful memory to a piece of art. “Emily had been there for me throughout this entire experience,” Darrall says. “She just seemed like the best person to help me explain it.”
Weisband and Darrall wrote the song sitting on a grand piano in an empty studio. “It sounds so dramatic and it was really fitting for the song. But it was really just us hanging out and writing, and putting my diary into song form,” Darrall states. “It really came from me saying to her, ‘I just feel bad because she was lied to too,’ and then that song was just born.”
When asked if it is scary to share such a personal experience with the world, Darrall gave a resounding yes! “It’s kind of embarrassing for me to share the story, actually,” she admits. “Because if you really listen to the song, it’s not painting me in the best light. You don’t want to sound like the mean girl ripping another girl apart, but it happens all the time.”
Despite this anxiety, Darrall still believes that the honesty and vulnerability of the song are what make it so powerful. She could have gone on hating and dehumanizing this new girlfriend, but she recognized that she was hurt too. At its core, “Lied To Too” is an apology to her.
“It’s hard being told fifty percent of the truth and believing that you love somebody without knowing that somebody else loves your same somebody,” Darrall says. “You want to hate that person because it’s competitive and you think you’re the right one.”
Darrall emphasizes that she has grown as both an artist and a person through the process of creating this song. Although she describes “Lied To Too” as the hardest song she has ever had to write, it is also one of her favorites because of what she learned from it.
“There’s no beaten path on how to get where you need to be to find your person,” she reflects. “There’s so much guilt attached to doing it wrong or messing up, but that’s also such a big part of growing into who you are and who you want to be, especially in relationships.”
“Lied to Too” is part of Darrell’s upcoming EP, titled Entertainment for the Brokenhearted. The new EP will feature six songs that follow the story of the relationship that “Lied To Too” is based on.
“This whole project is a storyline of something that I went through, and ‘Lied To Too’ sits at the center of it,” she says. “It was the first song I wrote for the project, and it kind of started the ball rolling with writing everything else.”
With the upcoming EP and many live shows to look forward to, “Lied To Too” is only the beginning of what Darrell has in store for fans. Check out the premiere of the song below before its official release on Friday, March 18.
