Premiere: Exposing Raw Vulnerability in Hayley Sabella’s “Love Is a Chisel”

Hayley Sabella © Sasha Pedro
Hayley Sabella © Sasha Pedro

We are blood, we are bread,
we are glass, we are wine
I remember your name,
do you remember mine

One of the most vivid parts of love is the pain that comes with it: Love hurts, to say the least. It’s the stripping down of all barriers between two individuals, the exposure of our innermost selves – our truth, naked and humbled. Hayley Sabella’s new single “Love Is a Chisel” captures the sheer pain of love through a powerfully poignant, raw acoustic ode full of bittersweet warmth and echoing heart.

Love is a chisel, we are all its stone
You can hear each knock and whistle
As were whittled down to bone
And I’m making a collection with my favorite broken pieces
Built up into castles, watch the water
Rush right in and wash it away
Bow your head and start again
Watch: “Love Is a Chisel” – Hayley Sabella


Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Love is a Chisel,” the second single off Hayley Sabella’s upcoming second album, Forgive the Birds (independently out April 27, 2018). Americana to the core, the New England coast native often finds inspiration in nature – one of the most accessible reminders of the life cycle and everything in-between. She worked with Daniel Radin (of Boston band The Novel Ideas) to produce her latest album, joining forces with engineer Harris Paseltiner (of Boston band Darlingside) to perfect her sound. What’s resulted is a meaningful, harrowingly authentic expression of simple truths and observations through the many-sided lens of folk Americana.

“Love Is a Chisel” finds Sabella delivering what can only be described as musical poetry: Her words come to life through vibrant imagery and haunting descriptions. It’s a testament to the power of one artist – one singer/songwriter:

Forgive the Birds - Hayley Sabella
Forgive the Birds – Hayley Sabella
We are blood, we are bread,
we are glass, we are wine

I remember your name,
do you remember mine

“For this video, we wanted to film somewhere with great acoustics, and with little distractions,” explains Hayley Sabella. “This song is stripped back and vulnerable — it describes love as something that constantly chips away at you and your loved ones. It’s a painful picture of love, as that which causes you to be whittled down to bone. I suppose the impulse to make meaning out of the pain is a creative process, sculpting all the chips like sand into sand castles. Inevitably, once the castle is complete, it soon gets washed away, leaving us to humbly begin anew.”

Cause who are you?
But a traveler like me
We could burn the place down
But I’d rather wait and see
Who are you? But a wayfarer like me
We could burn it all down
But I’d rather let it be

Love may be a chisel, but that doesn’t detract from its beauty; in fact, one might argue that its power makes it all the more beautiful. A delicate song with a heavy weight, Hayley Sabella’s new music reminds that the term bittersweet still has the word “sweet” inside; that there is magic lying in love’s dichotomy. Whether you currently find yourself on one end of love or the other, keep these words in mind, remembering that life is the combination of all forces – light and dark, good and evil – and without one, you cannot have the other.

Stream “Love Is a Chisel,” exclusively on Atwood Magazine.

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Forgive the Birds - Hayley Sabella

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