Caleb Hearn opens up about anxiety, escaping his small town and upcoming single "Klonopin"

SIMILAR ARTISTS: Matt Hansen, Thomas Day, elijah woodsLISTEN: “It’s Always Been You,” “A Little Bit Better,” “Damage”

In the music of Caleb Hearn, you’ll find music that is multi-layered, profoundly personal and fueled by incredibly honest songwriting. However, the Nashville-based star, who originally rose to fame via TikTok, says his music always told the personal experiences of others - never his own. Now, Hearn is in a new musical era where he’s finally telling his story.

Since his 2020 album Reflections, Hearn’s debut and only full-length studio release, Hearn has always conveyed raw emotions through addicting melodies. Over the years, he moved away from his rap-influenced roots and moved towards a more acoustic, singer-songwriter approach to his artistry as he released a steady stream of singles over the years. Throughout this time, Hearn evolved and embraced a more genuine sound and look that accurately and flawlessly portrays himself as both a human and an artist.

Earlier this year, Hearn collabed with New Yorkbased singer-songwriter ROSIE for his single “A Little Bit Better,” a raw and poetic track that opens up about living a life with mental health struggles. The star’s newest single, “Klonopin,” conveys Hearn’s own struggle with anxietysomething that he’s been hesitant to talk about until now. In light of this release, the small town North Carolina native sat down with Melodic Magazine to discuss the importance of tackling your mental health, what listeners will find within his new single and what “Klonopin” represents in terms of his musical journey.

You’re originally from a very small town, where things like mental health or the arts aren’t always encouraged. How were you inspired to express your vulnerability through the arts despite coming from a small town? I have a really supportive family and that helped a ton, if I didn’t have them I may never have tried it. But I will say, as much as I love where I grew up, it was tough. There came a point right before I moved to Nashville where I just had to get out. It was the place that shaped me to be who I am now, but I knew that if I never left then I would not be able to do this forever. When I moved to Nashville there was so much more diversity. I love going home, I just couldn’t live there. There’s so much I’m chasing and my life is so different from the norm there.

Your most recent release is your single “A Little Bit Better” that you did with Rosie. What’s the inspiration behind the song and what inspired you to collaborate with Rosie? One of the reasons I’m such a big fan of Rosie is because she’s so open about her mental health. I’ve had a lot of trouble with trying to be more open and show who I am because of my upbringing. I knew something that we both really care about is mental health, so I took that idea into the session and she was totally down. One thing we agreed on was that when you struggle with mental health, there really is no solution. You just basically have to learn to live with it and learn that it doesn’t control or define you. The idea for us when we were making the song was that living with mental health struggles is all about finding someone that makes it all a little bit better. We didn’t want the song to sound like we’re sad, because we’re not.. we’re both very happy individuals. One thing that’s not talked about a lot is that happy people struggle so much on the inside. That’s why this song’s upbeat and happy. We really wanted to focus on high functioning anxiety; you can still be happy and have anxiety, depression, or another kind of mental health issue.

You say you struggle with opening up about yourself. Why is that? I would say that as I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten better with it, but the major reason is because part of me is still in that small town. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but when it comes to talking about my mental health, I sometimes shut down immediately. I even struggle to talk about it with my best friends. Mental health is one of those things that you can’t see, so it sounds crazy. The way I think of mental health sometimes is like trying to tell someone that you saw Superman. They probably don’t know what it’s like, but maybe they do. There’s so many fears, and I think that living for the first 20 years of my life in a place where people just did not talk about that makes it weird now to try and open up. I’m trying to be better about that, but it’s one of the most important things in my life and I want to bring that to my music.

What pushes you to keep pursuing music despite how difficult it can often be? It’s a really cliche answer, but because I love it. I think that for the first three years of me doing this it was more so that I was pushing for something than I was really wanting something. I’m just now getting to a place right where I don’t have goals. The goals for me are more short term. I want to tour, I want to open up for someone, whatever. Those goals are keeping me entertained, but it’s not really make or break anymore. I’m actually finding joy and love in the actual process of it. I don’t think my goals drive my career anymore. My love for what I’m doing drives my career.

What do you do to take a mental break or practice self-care? It’s different with everyone. I tend to be more social. For me, when I’m working and I’m stressed out, I’m not as social. If I see a weekend coming up where I’m free, I’m like, ‘Okay, that’s gonna be my self-care weekend.’ I tend to book it up with as much social interaction as I can. Seeing other people happy and interacting with that, it’s just beautiful and it makes me feel so good. Coming off of a weekend like that I’m always feeling refreshed.

Your new single “Klonopin” comes out in May. You definitely open up a lot more about yourself, but what ultimately brought you to open up on this new single? The thing I want people to know, that I don’t think people know much about me, is the extent of how the anxiety in my life is. I have a certain type of anxiety that has no rationality at all. Sometimes the most anxious I could ever be is on a day when I have nothing to do with no stress. It’s really weird how it works for me, and when I explain to people they look at me a little confused. With this song I wanted to stop sugar coating it. It might come across as a little bit extreme, but it’s real and it’s real to me. Klonopin is highly addictive, and there’s a lot of bad things that it can cause. It doesn’t get you high, you just feel normal for once. I never really got to a point where it was an issue, but I found myself wanting to use Klonopin as an easy escape - it’s just a band-aid. It’s not fixing the real issue at hand. I wanted the chorus to not feel like it’s only about Klonopin. For some people it could be about other drugs, toxic relationships, or anything that’s not helping you long term.

With your future releases, do you think you’re going to continue down that more self reflective route? I think generally the songs will be more like “Klonopin” in the sense of it just being real to me. I’m not going to ever shy away now from saying something if I think that it belongs in the song. I think “Klonopin” was the first song that I was really able to do that with. I’ve come up with stuff that I’ve felt I can’t put in a song because it made me sound a little crazy. But now I’ve decided I’m going to do this because I think that at the end of the day that’s what separates artists. I think people want that, especially now in today’s world. If people are going to accept it and listen to it, I think it can only be a good thing for me, therapeutically.

What advice do you have for listeners who are struggling with some of the same things that you’ve struggled with? Do the hard stuff now. Don’t ever feel you should or can wait to deal with your mental health, the toxic relationship, an addiction, or whatever it is. The younger you are, the better outcome you’ll have trying to deal with something like that. Just be open with people and ask for help. I think I pushed off my mental health for as long as I could because I thought, ‘I’ve got stuff to do. This can’t control me right now.’ Eventually you have to just grab it and go. Whatever’s bringing you down, grab it by the neck and destroy it.

Ernst

SIMILAR ARTISTS: Emei, salem ilese, GAYLE

LISTEN: “Numb Little Bug,” “Until I Found You,” “Maybe Life Is Good”

The landscape around music and mental health has shifted for the better. As we enter a new age of pop music, singer/songwriters have made these honest and vulnerable topics staples in their music. When talking to friends or family about mental health, sometimes it can be difficult to share those vulnerabilities, and many people turn to music to relate to and find solace in what may seem to be a solitary feeling.

Chatting with Em Beihold felt like chatting with a friend. Our discussion reflected her music, the conversation was honest and real like her lyrics, natural and bright, like the music.

This La La Land native has achieved success and so quickly into her ever growing career. Her first album Egg in the Backseat was released last summer, with a collective 365.8 million streams and includes the smash single “Numb Little Bug”. Collaborating with artists such as GAYLE, Stephen Sanchez, and Eric Nam, Em has cemented herself as a staple to this new decade of pop stars. Opening for acts such as The Jonas Brothers, AJR, and Lewis Capaldi, Em is fresh off her first headlining “Maybe Life is Good Tour” and has much to share about her journey on the road and off and what making music these past few years has meant to her.

How did the remarkable success of “Numb Little Bug” shape your approach to your music career?

I think it was very special that “Numb Little Bug” did what it did so quickly and I feel extremely grateful for it. I also think a lot happened before I was even ready to know who I was, you know? I feel like being an artist there’s a lot of groundwork that needs to be laid and a lot of assurance; kind of who you are as an artist, what your visuals are, your branding, and stuff like that.

I feel like that’s something that’s been catching up to the level that “Numb Little Bug” brought me to, which has been a journey I’m very grateful to be on but definitely different dealing with the virality of the song.

A lot of your music, not just “Numb Little Bug”, touch on the topic of mental health and self discovery. I feel like that really has become part of your brand.

Yeah, definitely. Writing music has always been my form of journaling ever since I was very young. So even before I knew people were going to listen to it it was just sort of the way I would sort through emotions.

How do you hope your songs resonate with listeners with similar experiences with self discovery and mental health?

I hope that my songs help people feel less alone. I feel like sometimes I have conversations with people my age and we’re kind of you know, close to college when the pandemic happened. Structure is gone in our lives, we’re very confused and even if you’re doing what you want it’s just like life feels very different. The pressure feels very different and growing into adulthood is hard for everybody. Sometimes when I’m having these conversations I’m thinking of songs that I wrote that I want them to hear because I feel like it proves that they’re not alone and we’re all feeling similar things at this stage in our lives. I have some friends that are working high up jobs and they thought achieving a high level of success would make them happy but it doesn’t necessarily. I think it’s sad that so many people feel that way but also kind of cool to realize that all these intense feelings you have aren’t only in you. I try to do that with your music.