“I’m confident that I’m insecure”: Lawrence Are More Fun, Quirky, & Vulnerable Than Ever

Gracie and Clyde Lawrence talk about touring with the Jonas Brothers and offer a deep-dive into their fun, quirky, and beautifully vulnerable new song, “i’m confident that i’m insecure.”

Stream: “i’m confident that i’m insecure” – Lawrence

Anytime you get to reference a “bag of dicks” in the first verse of a song is a win in my book.

Vulnerability can be a beautiful thing once you embrace it, and Lawrence have gone all-in.

Having received critical acclaim for their third studio album Hotel TV and spent much of the past two years on the road in support of it, the eight-piece soul-pop band led by siblings Gracie and Clyde Lawrence are living their best lives, and sounding – if it’s at all possible? – better than ever.

They recently embarked on their longest string of tour dates, supporting the Jonas Brothers on their blockbuster five-month-long, 64-show ‘Five Albums. One Night.’ North American headline tour that began with two sold-out performances at Yankee Stadium, and is set to end back in New York City at Barclays Center in mid-December.

To celebrate, Lawrence put out their first single in two years, and it’s as intimate as it is larger-than-life: A spellbinding, soul-stirring expression of unfiltered humanity that hits hard and leaves a lasting mark. The band channel their charismatic, unrelenting energy and intensely raw emotions into “i’m confident that i’m insecure,” a fun, quirky, and beautifully vulnerable song that reminds us that insecurity is universal.

It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are in your journey – whether you’re sitting at home in the dark, or out on the biggest tour of your life. We all feel deflated from time to time, and that’s okay.

Well, shucks, I think I need to go to therapy
But I’m tough, so I’m just gonna cry in bed for free
But enough, like maybe I’ve been
living in denial for a while
It sucks, my brain tells me to eat a bag of dicks
And I suck, at knowing
when my mind is playing tricks
Now I’m stuck (I’m stuck),
how come it didn’t dawn on me before?
I’m confident that I’m insecure…

Released August 11, 2023 via Jon Bellion’s Beautiful Mind Records, “i’m confident that i’m insecure” is far and away Lawrence’s most intimate, vulnerable, and confessional track to date: A conversational song, sung by Gracie Lawrence, that feels as though it’s torn from the pages of her diary. “Well, shucks, I think I need to go to therapy, but I’m tough, so I’m just gonna cry in bed for free,” she sings at the start, setting the stage for three minutes of simultaneous smiles, laughter, and tears. For those who wear their emotions unapologetically on their sleeves, this song is more than an anthem: It’s a soundtrack to our daily lives.

I know that Ringo sometimes wishes he was Paul, and I know that Jersey wonders ‘Am I even shore?’…

“I’ve always felt some mix of confident and insecure in my life – as I think we all do,” says Gracie Lawrence, who wrote the track during a particularly low point during the COVID-19 pandemic. “One night, instead of avoiding those thoughts, I decided to just write them all down and find what was maybe funny or ridiculous about them. I think that sort of middle-of-the-night-bedroom-y feel is really captured in the beginning of the song, which feels super intimate and conversational.”

I’m not deep, don’t wanna know what death is all about
But I need to know that if I die that you’ll be proud
Of me (of me) and everything you hoped that I would be, I’d be
But I’m weak, (ow) criticism knocks me to the ground
When I speak, I don’t like hearing words that’s coming out
But God, please, how come you didn’t tell me this before?
I’m confident that I’m insecure…

“I really like that this song doesn’t come to the conclusion that you should get rid of your insecurities and only be confident. Instead, we come to the conclusion that accepting that everyone struggles with insecurities is actually, ironically, a very confident resolution! So in fitting with that idea, the end is sung with a ton of gusto, belty-ness, and chutzpah, whereas the beginning is sung with more tenderness and intimacy. It’s a really fun song to sing because I get to really flex a bunch of different singing muscles and emotions.”

With a lot more music to come and literally dozens of tour dates stacked between now and New Year’s, Lawrence are living high while singing out their lows. Don’t miss the full band – which consists of Gracie and Clyde Lawrence, Sam Askin, Sumner Becker, Jordan Cohen, Michael Karsh, Jonny Koh, and Marc Langer – as they open for the Jonas Brothers all throughout North America over these next four months.

“Opening is always a really fun experience because you’re playing in front of a large crowd that will be a mix of people,” Clyde Lawrence shares. “Our goal becomes to welcome as many people every night as we can into the fun little Lawrence community that we’re building and give them a sense of what we’re all about.”

Atwood Magazine caught up with Gracie and Clyde to dive deep into their liberating new song and talk about the upcoming tour. Read everything you wanted to know about “i’m confident that i’m insecure” in our interview below – we’re confident that you’ll love it – and support the band by catching them at a live show near you!

In the morning, I’m insecure
In the evening, I’m insecure
In the afternoon, I’m a rising Pisces
and a fucked up moon, I’m insecure
In the morning, I’m insecure
In the evening, I’m insecure
But everybody gets insecure sometimes (that’s right)

And I know the Great Wall sometimes feels like just a wall
And I know that Ringo sometimes wishes he was Paul
And I know that Jersey wonders ‘Am I even shore?'”
And I’m confident that I’m insecure

People often consider confidence and insecurity to be polar opposites, but I think this song is about the fact that we all have a little bit of both (or sometimes a lot of both).

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:: stream/purchase i’m confident that i’m insecure here ::

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A CONVERSATION WITH LAWRENCE

Gracie Lawrence: Thank you! I’ve always felt some mix of confident and insecure in my life – as I think we all do. But during the pandemic, I went through a pretty low time emotionally, as many of us did, and I was having trouble going to sleep or lying in bed without being confronted with a host of insecurities and anxieties running through my brain. So one night, instead of avoiding those thoughts, I decided to just write them all down and find what was maybe funny or ridiculous about them. I think that sort of middle-of-the-night-bedroom-y feel is really captured in the beginning of the song, which feels super intimate and conversational.

Gracie Lawrence: Songwriting is definitely a form of therapy for me. I find it easier to spill out what I’m thinking or feeling if it’s in the context of writing a song, and maybe that’s because you judge yourself less or are more willing to be open with yourself when you feel like it’s for something tangible or productive. If you look at your life as material, or something to analyze in a song, it somehow makes it more digestible, rather than just stressful. Also, finding what’s funny or absurd about my own circumstances is something I find really therapeutic and helpful, which is why so many of our songs are filled with jokes.

Gracie Lawrence: I go to therapy! And despite the lyric saying, “I think I need to go to therapy,” I had actually just started going to therapy at the time I wrote that line. I think a concern I had before going to therapy was that I didn’t necessarily want to eliminate all of the neurosis or anxiety from my life or change the things about me that might be “interesting,” because my anxieties often lead to some of my favorite observations and material. And I think a common fear of artists’ is that by seeking help they’ll lose what makes them special.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but in my experience, therapy hasn’t really eliminated anything core about me or changed me into something I’m not – if anything, it’s just helped me contextualize the anxieties that will always be a part of me and that I will always have access to, and that context has made me an even better observer and songwriter.

Clyde Lawrence: I love the last verse, when things get turned around and acknowledge the ways that “everybody” (from the Great Wall of China to Ringo Starr to the state of New Jersey) feels insecure from time to time. And anytime you get to reference a “bag of dicks” in the first verse of a song is a win in my book.

It sucks, my brain tells me to eat a bag of dicks
And I suck, at knowing when
my mind is playing tricks
Now I’m stuck (I’m stuck),
how come it didn’t dawn on me before?

Gracie Lawrence: Thank you! I really like that this song doesn’t come to the conclusion that you should get rid of your insecurities and only be confident. Instead, we come to the conclusion that accepting that everyone struggles with insecurities is actually, ironically, a very confident resolution! So in fitting with that idea, the end is sung with a ton of gusto, belty-ness, and chutzpah, whereas the beginning is sung with more tenderness and intimacy. It’s a really fun song to sing because I get to really flex a bunch of different singing muscles and emotions.

Clyde Lawrence: I think we just felt like this song was a really fun one that shows our personality. In some ways this song feels different from stuff we’ve released in the past, like from a sonic standpoint it’s less soul/r&b influenced than our past stuff, and is also very guitar driven rather than keys. But in other ways, it feels very familiar to us with the quirky and conversational style of storytelling, and the big dynamic build of the arrangement.

I don’t think there was a big strategic reason for putting this one out first, except that when we listened to our next big batch of music, this one felt like one we were eager to put out into the world. And we have already played it live a number of times, so we know our fans are eager to hear the final studio version!

Clyde Lawrence: People often consider confidence and insecurity to be polar opposites, but I think this song is about the fact that we all have a little bit of both (or sometimes a lot of both), so it’s okay to talk about, be vulnerable about, take seriously, and joke about too. This is a song about how you can be confident, you can be insecure, you can be confident that you’re insecure, any and all of the above are perfectly okay.

Gracie Lawrence: Thank you so much! It’s going to be such a good time – I’m so stoked to get out on the road. And of course, I’ve seen Camp Rock! I think I was like 11 or 12 when it came out, and in general, was and still am a big fan of the movie musical genre. As someone who tries to balance a music career and an acting career, I’ve always really appreciated how the Jonas Brothers have always embraced being both musicians and actors, and have melded the two so seamlessly.

Clyde Lawrence: Touring has always been a real comfort zone for us. We started out as a college band playing parties, and once we graduated we immediately hit the road in our van and started playing bars and small clubs around the country. So I think these last few years have been a lot about taking the skills we’ve been honing for years as performers, and learning how to apply them to new (and often bigger) stages, whether those are our increasingly larger headline shows or playing on major festival stages like Coachella.

Ultimately, we’re very lucky that with the same group of eight of us on stage every night. We’re so comfortable with each other that even playing a massive venue still has a similar feeling to our college basement days. We actually are currently in the midst of releasing a weekly documentary series on YouTube about our last two years of touring, so check it out if you want to see more of what our life on the road has been like recently!

Clyde Lawrence: Opening is always a really fun experience because you’re playing in front of a large crowd that will be a mix of people who are big fans of yours, people who are aware of you but haven’t really become invested fans yet, and people who know nothing about you and aren’t expecting to engage with the opening act. And our goal becomes to welcome as many people every night as we can into the fun little Lawrence community that we’re building and give them a sense of what we’re all about, all while getting them warmed up for the Jonas Brothers headline set!

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:: stream/purchase i’m confident that i’m insecure here ::

:: connect with Lawrence here ::

Stream: “i’m confident that i’m insecure” – Lawrence

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