When the Night Kills the Day

Album: Wasted In Jackson (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is a track from Tennessee-born London based singer-songwriter Lauren Pritchard's debut album, Wasted In Jackson. The song is about her fears of moving from Jackson, Tennessee to England's capital city where she didn't know anyone. Pritchard explained to Artist Direct the story behind the song: "To me, that song has quite a conflicted meaning because it's about my transition moving to London and being really afraid of going to another country. I was afraid of losing myself, my family, my friends and not knowing anyone. I know fundamentally, if you move somewhere and you lose touch, you are responsible. No one else can actually be held accountable. People might be hard to get in touch with sometimes but if you cut yourself off, that's you and you have to live with it. There's also the other side. You want to find something new and maybe get a bit lost in that. I was really freaked out about the balance. I didn't know anyone there. I only knew the people I was working with. They were taking fine care of me, and I love them. They've become very dear friends. However, at that moment in time, I was scared s--tless, and I just wanted to be back in a place where everything seemed okay and I wasn't losing touch or I didn't feel like I was losing touch.

    Now, when I look back, I completely understand why I felt like that. In some ways, it still is like that. I travel around so much now that it's evolved into a new thing. It's no longer London. It's like everywhere I go I'm saying, 'I don't want to lose touch!' The metaphor for 'When the Night Kills the Day' is important. During the daytime, people are awake. You're doing things. You're out living your life. No matter how happy or sad you are, you're at least getting out of bed and living. In the night time, everything goes still. Everybody goes home and goes to bed. That's when those fears creep. It's like that nightmare that won't go away. The lyrics are, 'Nothing can save me when the night kills the day.' In a way, that was winning for a long time."

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