The Truth Behind the Song #9 – Liddy Clark’s ‘Shot Down (Stand Up)

Welcome to our ‘The Truth Behind the Song’ feature. For this feature, we’ve asked a number of our favourite artists to give us in-depth piece about a song that has a special place in their heart. Today we feature the wonderful Liddy Clark, who gives us an insight into the emotional ‘truth’ behind ‘Shot Down (Stand Up)’.

I’ve always felt very strongly about the topic of gun violence in America, but after the incident in Parkland, Florida, I knew that I had to say something about it that was more than just a ‘thoughts & prayers’ post on social media. When it happened I was still at USC, over 2,000 miles away from my family and everyone who was going through this tough time. I couldn’t really write or talk in depth about it for a while without getting overly emotional about it, and it hasn’t gotten much easier since then. However, after a few months had gone by I was asked to perform at the Wear Orange event in Parkland at the Parkland Amphitheater. This was the venue where I had my first band performance when I was fifteen, and this was also the place where thousands of people had come together to create a memorial for the victims shortly after everything had happened last year. I knew that for this performance I wanted to write something that could relate to a lot of different people, and I didn’t want it to alienate a lot of people with political statements.

“Shot Down” is about the fact that there is an issue of gun violence in this country, and until everyone is able to accept that and be willing to openly talk about it, we are never going to solve it. The kids from Parkland were able to do something that other kids from high school haven’t done before, they were able to be heard by a huge audience. However, there was also a lot of backlash against them for speaking out and stating their beliefs, and I think that’s detrimental to our society as a whole. People should be able to speak how they feel (as long as it is not harmful against other people) without fear of being ridiculed for their age and whether or not they deserve to be heard. This shooting took an extreme toll on Parkland as a whole, and we all deserve to be heard because of it.