A week after announcing her first ever headline tour Stateside, Tenille Townes released the single of the same name, “Villain In Me” , much to the delight of fans who have been clamouring for this song to be recorded for some time now. In fact, they were instrumental in the process it seems, Tenille thanking her followers on social media for “giving me the courage to share this song” . Tenille has already gained a reputation for being a very deep thinker, but this is one of her most personal releases to date, co-written with Alex Hope. “This song terrifies me” Tenille has admitted “but I feel more hungry for honesty than I ever have in my life before and that hunger is carrying me to a much more personal anchor in my songwriting. I’ve come to know the Villain in my head very well over this past year and a bit. The lonely time at home forced me to sit in the uncomfortable and vulnerable emotions and this song is a safe place for me to be open about it“. There’s a simple but effective official music video also available now, too.
Sharing an even deeper insight into what inspired this incredible composition she says “Sometimes I sit and wonder what the world would be like if nobody hid behind a mask. Or carried around the copious burdens of society telling us what we should be. How we should be. How we shouldn’t be…“Villain In Me” is about the part of us that we don’t want anybody else to see. We dress it up in silver linings with a beautiful masquerade and we never let it see the light of day. But what if there’s another way. what if we pull up a chair and let our darker self sit down a minute. What if we even learn how to show it the compassion and kindness we never hesitate to show somebody else. When I wrote this song I felt like I was pulling up that chair. It was a painful wrestle to do it. Still is. But it is my greatest hope when you listen that you feel comforted to know that all the parts of you are worth loving. I’m learning how to understand that for myself so I figure we might as well walk through it together”.
There’s some busy months ahead for Tenille performance-wise, she is currently on the road with Brothers Osborne and will be playing at the Canadian Country Music Association Awards on November 29th where she’s nominated in the Female Artist and Fans Choice categories. Her “Villain in Me Tour” kicks off in her homeland of Canada a few days later, before moving on to the US in January . 2022 also sees her opening for superstars George Strait and Reba and then of course she will be paying us a visit on this side of the pond to perform at the C2C Festival in March in London and Glasgow. Definitely making up for lost time, I’d say!
Stream/download ” Villain In Me” here https://tt.lnk.to/VIM
More artist information at tenilletownes.com
Review written by Lesley Hastings (twitter.com/lesleyhastings)