"It's one thing," explains Lindi Ortega, "if you get signed when you're 19 and you have a hit song that goes through the charts. You have a very good gauge of how your success is going. Whereas, in this realm, it's a very slow climb. And sometimes it feels like you're spinning your wheels, and there're a lot of setbacks, and you find yourself doubting yourself a lot. Even questioning whether you should still be doing it. If you even still love it."
This soul-searching inspired Toronto-bred, Nashville-based Lindi Ortega to develop the concept behind her terrific new record, Faded Gloryville. Despite being, by most measures, a highly successful singer-songwriter in the crowded alt-country community, she's no pop star. Fame and fortune are elusive for this 15-year veteran, and probably always will be for an artist so determined to resist the trends that drive country radio formats. So, yes, she made her bed. But that doesn't mean it's always a comfortable place to rest.
With this in mind, and reeling from a frustrated love affair, Ortega combined these twinned experiences into the songs that drive the new record. "I envisioned Faded Gloryville as this place filled with people who initially had really big dreams," she relays, "but who've started to see that reality isn't quite what they thought."
Whether it's love, success, or some other idealized concept, what's exciting at first can begin to feel empty with time. Album highlight "Ashes," she explains, "is written about how when you initially meet somebody and get into a relationship, it's very heavy and intense and it burns. It burns very brightly [but] all that's left is smoke and dust and ash. So I'm sort of lamenting and resenting the fact that I had these beautiful images in my head, these pictures, that burned up right in front of me. They were meaningless. I felt sad."
This soul-searching inspired Toronto-bred, Nashville-based Lindi Ortega to develop the concept behind her terrific new record, Faded Gloryville. Despite being, by most measures, a highly successful singer-songwriter in the crowded alt-country community, she's no pop star. Fame and fortune are elusive for this 15-year veteran, and probably always will be for an artist so determined to resist the trends that drive country radio formats. So, yes, she made her bed. But that doesn't mean it's always a comfortable place to rest.
With this in mind, and reeling from a frustrated love affair, Ortega combined these twinned experiences into the songs that drive the new record. "I envisioned Faded Gloryville as this place filled with people who initially had really big dreams," she relays, "but who've started to see that reality isn't quite what they thought."
Whether it's love, success, or some other idealized concept, what's exciting at first can begin to feel empty with time. Album highlight "Ashes," she explains, "is written about how when you initially meet somebody and get into a relationship, it's very heavy and intense and it burns. It burns very brightly [but] all that's left is smoke and dust and ash. So I'm sort of lamenting and resenting the fact that I had these beautiful images in my head, these pictures, that burned up right in front of me. They were meaningless. I felt sad."