Shaelyn Avalon Announces ‘Redemption’ Album + Emotive Song

US singer Shaelyn Avalon released the lead single for her upcoming second album, ‘Redemption.’And nothing is better than real, emotive songs based on true events. That said, “Hot Mess” is worth your time to listen to.

She opens up her heart for us to feel a transcendental episode of her life. The full interview is here!

1 — Where did you get the inspiration to write the lyrics for “Hot Mess”?

I started writing “Hot Mess” when I was in the hospital getting bloodwork done. The car crash I got into at the beginning of 2021 (as a passenger) caused me some major injuries that I had to get CT scans and MRIs. When they told me there was a large mass in my stomach that could rupture any minute, I felt like I lost my life. I’d modeled for years in order to help support my music and felt pressure since I was 19 to be a certain size and weight. My weight started fluctuating because of the cyst that had been preexisting before the accident. I struggled with an eating disorder because of it, and always blamed myself. My self-esteem took a huge hit and so did my faith in God. All I wanted was for things to go back to normal, to go back to me and what felt right. I would imagine what life was gonna be like after I got the cyst out and when I got my body back. I was upset that my plans for my career got put on hold for a full year.

2 — If you could travel back in time and repeat one event, what would it be?

I would hug my mom again and more often. I never got to say goodbye to her when she passed. I would have taken more photos with her too. She was very against being posted on social media and we have rarely any photos together from when I was an adult. In all of them, I’m young and it feels like I’m looking at a stranger in the photos. We were thousands of miles away from each other when she died suddenly from a heart attack and I had to hear it from her husband over the phone, who had separated she and myself when I was in my preteens and moved in with my grandparents. I was still recovering from my surgery and the heavy crying hurt my sides where I had been cut open so much that I tried to numb myself so I wouldn’t be in so much pain.

3 — Is this the saddest song you’ve ever written as an artist?

It is…and it isn’t. I’ve always seen it as a more angry song than sad. There’s a longing in there but it’s a song based on survival. I was angry at everything – my life for changing so suddenly, one thing after the next, it didn’t feel real and I didn’t feel like I had any autonomy over my own life or decisions. Doctors, chiropractors, and nurses constantly told my grandma and my mom they couldn’t come with me to my appointments because of stupid restrictions and then made me deal with having them handle my body however they wanted. It felt icky and gross. There was a lot of invasive prodding that made me feel like I was a science experiment and not a human being. I had to have ultrasounds and all these warm liquids shot into my body through an IV for them to do more scans, only to be sent home hungry since I was not allowed to eat until they told me to and then I’d be so fatigued I could barely stand each time I came out. I was accused of being pregnant, and that’s when the eating disorder got REALLY bad. I felt so much shame when people would try to tell me I was wrong about my own body. I had just gone through a breakup before the accident so I obviously was super single the whole time I was going through this. The good news is I’m sterile now so nobody will ever be able to accuse me of that again *laughs.*

4 — What message do you want listeners to take away?

I hope it helps others who have hospital trauma and makes them feel seen, or that it helps people that are severely depressed like I have been. It can be so frustrating to feel like you’re the only one with a heavy load on your back. In the year I struggled with getting diagnosed I met so many wonderful friends online who also had invisible disabilities. It can feel like you’re on a journey nobody understands. This is the song that says “I understand, I lived through it too. It’s gonna be okay even if there is no quick fix.” Although none of us deserved it in the first place.

5 — The guitar riffs sound brilliant. What emotions does the instrumentation evoke for you?

A lot of angst, redemption, taking back my power after losing it for a whole year. It made me daydream a lot about what it would be like to tour with this song when I first got the track from Jason Pettey. We connected online and he sent me three tracks I really love and then I recorded them with Jerry (Danielsen) like I do most of my songs. The other two are on the album as well. The first time I sang it I felt like myself again.

6 — What’s the current status of your upcoming album ‘Redemption’?

These new songs are very unlike what I originally envisioned for my first album but are what was needed. The story (as of now) walks with the listener through the trials tragedy can cause and the ups and downs afterward. My loss was very unique in the timing of it all and how it happened. I still carry a lot of guilt for being the one that lived. I wasn’t supposed to make it through my ovarian cystectomy if the liquid in the cyst burst. I kept thinking God was somehow letting my mom die because he let me live through a surgery I was scared I would die from and they were only two days apart. It made me feel alone. The only reason I kept going at such a fast pace the first two months after she died was because I was mad I was robbed of having a mother through such a difficult time in my life, which is now mixed with a lot of sadness, wistfulness, and sometimes forgetting she’s gone. I’m obviously still in a lot of pain so I don’t think that fire inside me is gonna go out anytime soon. I think the album looks a little like that, the bottled-up stuff only my best friends, my grandparents, and my boyfriend see. It’s also the happy moments that came through the pain, the nights my friends took me out so late I wouldn’t have to cry alone in my small apartment in LA before my boyfriend and I moved in together, and the adventures and sweet moments my boyfriend and I share. In a way I feel older than my peers because I’m now parentless and can see trivial things as just that – trivial. It makes me appreciate the innocence I carried when I first started singing. It’s a mess but it’s like a Monet painting, it looks beautiful from the outside I think, like growth.

7 — Why is it entitled ‘Redemption’?

This chapter in my life, however long it may be, is about rebuilding from the ground up. It’s about taking my body back, taking back the right to say no, going out and doing everything I couldn’t do or people told me I couldn’t do for so long, and feeling alive again. I was severely depressed for so long that I just want my life to be as happy and beautiful as possible now, regardless of how that looks to others.

8 — Can we expect dark ballads or something else?

A lot of those, and some things that are usual Shaelyn. That’s the thing I’m learning about myself and about music, it doesn’t all have to be the same genre to fit an album, the same way I don’t always wear the same style of clothing or how I can be happy one day and sad the next. Grief made me feel like I was allowed to feel the ugly feelings and still be loveable. That’s definitely why God sent me my boyfriend and why me and my best friend have become even closer since I called her crying on the phone and she came straight to my place with a bottle of wine and tissues. Now Lainey is like my sister and Dane is my rock. They are the people that will never let me get hurt and have given me a safe space to evolve and change as I navigate life after loss.

9 — How does this album differ from your past productions?

I am letting myself be a human first and an artist second, even when I relapse into perfectionism and want to be extra hard on myself I have my family and friends to remind me that I went through a lot. Definitely a lot more than the average 24-26-year-old deserved to go through in a short period of time. I’m gonna let this one speak for itself. I think the themes will be obvious in each interlude and will feel more immersive than ever.

10 — ​Finally, what new things did you learn after recording your recent project?

I learned to stick with my gut feelings about parts of songs that I absolutely have my heart set on and to put more feeling into my music. I am still learning every day. I want to be fearless and stop holding back, especially since my mom passed so young. It really made time seem more fragile and like I shouldn’t waste any of it.

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