Blair Lee on the Pain of Growing Up
The air is heavy with nostalgia (which is seemingly fitting) as I sit down with Blair Lee, an up-and-coming Toronto-based artist, to talk about her new single, Hurdles. Blair glides in with confidence, her demeanor comforting and soft, and as we begin to chat it feels as though we have known each other for years, laughing over wine and coffee as we break down her career thus far and explore her new release: Hurdles.
I tell her that listening to it felt like a warm hug, encapsulating the feelings of childhood and the fear of slipping youth. She agrees, and we get quite sentimental over Covid and the mutual grievance that was brought with it as she tells me that during the process of writing Hurdles,
“I was thinking about family and all the milestones missed”
We both realize, while sipping on our overpriced beverages, that we were grieving for events missed, for the years spent locked in rooms away from family, and for having to watch our elders grow older from the sidelines.
She tells me that pang of grief heavily influenced Hurdles: the way Covid forced her to watch from afar her grandparent’s health begin to decline, which inspired the gut-wrenching line, “We’re all getting older/But some of us are closer to heaven”, a lyric I expressed to her made me shiver, for both its raw glance into our new reality post-Covid, and for the simple fact it poetically captures such an ever-present ache that seems to burn instead all of us.
The visual aspect of Hurdles awakened some sort of childish awe; listening to the beautiful melodies accompanied by her family’s home-videos paints the picture of just how meaningful this song is to Blair, and how it truly is an ode less to herself and more so to her family. I asked her what that felt like, to receive all these home videos, to watch not only a younger her but a younger everyone: younger mother, father, siblings, grandparents.
“I cried so much – it was really special seeing every family memory; seeing my mom and dad young with us as kids.”
A truly special experience, to get to create such a beautiful piece of art like Hurdles and to have it accompanied by such raw, personal moments: I can’t help myself from thanking her for sharing this with us, for letting us into her world, and to give us a place to rest our own grief. It acts as a reminder for us to slow down for a moment, to take a second to see just how quickly time is passing us by and how important it is for us to appreciate those around us.
Full of soft percussion and lulling vocals, Blair, in collaboration with close producer MadMaxx, brings us not only the perfect song to add to our Autumn playlists, but a beautiful testament to the inherent ache that is getting older. But damn, does it sound good.
Easter Egg for all our Toronto besties, yes Gladstone (the song that introduced me to Blair Lee) is in fact inspired by the Gladstone Hotel, THE hub for creatives, you’re welcome.
Follow Blair on Instagram, Spotify, Youtube, and Soundcloud.