Premiere: Salim Nourallah’s “Damage” Explores the Universality of Pain & Trauma to the Human Experience

Salim Nourallah © Gavin Nourallah
Salim Nourallah © Gavin Nourallah
Singer/songwriter Salim Nourallah reminds us that damage is universal in his poetic, poignant, and profound new single “Damage,” an achingly intimate alternative rock song full of truth, raw emotion, and humbling humanity.
Stream: “Damage” – Salim Nourallah




We all come with our own damage.

Some of that may seem more obvious or overt at times, and many of us hide it well, but in a way, we’re all ‘damaged’ goods just doing our best. Call it baggage, call it trauma, call it whatever you want – everyone has something, and in his latest single, singer/songwriter Salim Nourallah exposes a truth that is well worth remembering the next time we feel alone in our emotions.

Intimate, raw, and achingly vulnerable, the emotionally charged “Damage” reminds us that damage is universal – a shared human experience to which we can all relate, because we’ve all had it. No one escapes this world unscathed or untarnished, and while it’s a painful pill to swallow, it’s also one of the beautiful, bittersweet facts of life that help make it all the more worthwhile.

Damage - Salim Nourallah
Damage – Salim Nourallah
damage is you
damage is me
damage is fun
damage is cheap
damage is raw
damage is sweet
damage spares no one
its vengeance cuts deep
we are dancing in slow motion
on a razor’s edge
we are dancing, so devoted
tumble off the ledge

Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Damage,” a gentle upheaval of restless thoughts and inner turmoil dressed in Wilco-like alternative rock garb. Salim Nourallah’s soul-stirring first single of the year is poetic, poignant, and profound; through three minutes of accessible, catchy lyrics and relatively simple melodies and chords, the Dallas, Texas-based singer/songwriter invites his audience to reflect on their ‘individual’ damage, all while recognizing, acknowledging, and to some degree accepting the fact that, deep down, we’re not all that different from one another.

Our damage is, in essence, a unifying force that can bring us closer together, bridging our divides.

we’re damaged as children
by damaged adults
damage is hidden
in bullet proof vaults
damage is clever
damage is quick
damage is reckless
damage is slick
Salim Nourallah © Gavin Nourallah
Salim Nourallah © Gavin Nourallah



An evergreen song with a particularly powerful, meaningful message, “Damage” arrives in the wake of Nourallah’s recently-released singles “Protect Your Peace” (Nov ‘24) and “Telegraph Avenue” (Oct ‘24). As the artist explains, this latest track is years in the making –and the result of collaboration, patience, and a textbook perfectionist learning when to let go.

“I’ve been waiting almost seven years to release ‘Damage,’ Nourallah tells Atwood Magazine. “It came in on my birthday in 2018, one week before my mother died. I recorded it with my band in Austin, then dragged it into the Nashville sessions with Marty Willson-Piper to re-record it. Those sessions ended up yielding the A Nuclear Winter record that came out in 2023. I loved Billy Harvey’s mix of ‘Damage,’ but decided it didn’t quite fit on the record, so I shelved it. Two years later, I recorded a completely different version with Billy. Ridiculous. The ‘new’ version was the one I was planning to finally release, but I circled back to the original. It was fairly apparent to me that this was the definitive version, and I should FINALLY let it out into the world. It was a long and winding road to get here – making the release of ‘Damage’ all the more sweet for me.”

like a bad anesthetic
administered to you
in the middle of the night

like a mad, thumping headache
that will not go away

While the aforementioned A Nuclear Winter represented Nourallah’s ninth studio album in a two-decade span, the artist says he doesn’t consider himself to be particularly fast when it comes to writing and releasing music.

“I’ve acquired a reputation for firing out releases in a prolific manner, but I don’t really see it,” he admits. “I actually feel like I’ve been pretty slow to release new music. Two songs in particular come to mind. ‘See You in Marfa’ is an obvious example. I also recorded multiple versions of that one before it was released as a single in 2022. I’d written it in March of 2015, so that only took me seven years! ‘Your Birthday Without You’ was written in August of 2015 and didn’t come out until 2021. I could go on and on. Basically, I feel like I’ve been slower than molasses. The songs are always there, but getting recordings and mixes that I’m happy with has often been a tedious process. The most recent examples are the Salim and the Philistines’ Rescued from Oblivion. That collection of songs was started last December, and it still hasn’t been completed. Billy Harvey and I also finished 26 recordings that are currently sitting in the waiting-to-be-released queue. My most recent singles, ‘Telegraph Avenue’ and ‘Protect Your Peace,’ came from that pile of completed songs.”

“I’m just not sure of the current landscape for artists like myself. Releasing albums is expensive and involved, and it takes a lot of time and effort. In a world where we’ve devalued music to the point in which most people expect it to be free, it’s hard for independent artists like me to keep pouring their own money into something that ultimately brings very little back. So that’s the quandary. Do I embrace the age of streaming and just release single after single or do I continue to put out the occasional album? I haven’t really decided what to do, so it’s added yet another layer to the rate in which I’m releasing new music.”

Salim Nourallah © Gavin Nourallah
Salim Nourallah © Gavin Nourallah



He may have taken his time to finally release “Damage,” but the song feels as fresh and true today as it would have back in 2018 when it was first written.

Nothing about the human experience has profoundly shifted in the past seven years to make a song about our universal experiences of pain, trauma, and other forms of suffering any less relatable or relevant – in fact, the top of 2025 feels like the perfect time to be thinking about, talking about, and singing about damage.

damage is ugly
when damage is vain
damage is winter
puts a chill in your veins
damage is poison
will poison all that you know
damage is wanton
it loves to put on a show

Stream “Damage” exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and stay tuned for more to come from Salim Nourallah over these next twelve months as he continues share “new” (to us) songs from his seemingly endless vault. Beautiful and brutal all at once, this song truly aches in the very best of ways.

we are dancing on a razor’s edge
we are dancing, tumble off the ledge

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:: connect with Salim Nourallah here ::

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Stream: “Damage” – Salim Nourallah



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Damage - Salim Nourallah

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? © Gavin Nourallah

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