A smoldering, simmering song of action and protest, The Collection’s new single “Loud” is an impassioned rallying cry to stand up and make yourself heard.
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Stream: “Loud” – The Collection
Meaningful change doesn’t happen through a post on social media, a sticker in your window, or a sign in your front yard; it takes real community engagement and hard work, rolling up your metaphorical sleeves and getting your hands dirty on the ground with other people. It means using your voice to amplify a message through whatever channels you have to express yourself and connect with others; it means being relentless, persistent, and unapologetic. A smoldering, simmering song of action and protest, The Collection’s new single is an impassioned rallying cry to stand up and make yourself heard. “Loud” is a searing reminder that staying quiet doesn’t work; if you want to be a part of the solution, you need to get loud.
Holdin’ my breath for a while
Until an end is apparent
Been pressin’ my lips to a smile
Just try and grin and bare it
‘Cuz everytime that they open up you can see that
I’ve got a fury that I cannot control yet
I’m not sure how much longer I can just sit in silence
I wanna hear you getting loud
Capsize me with the sound
Why don’t you open up your mouth?
Come and shake me down to the ground
Cuz’ sometimes it takes a raging river
To make the dam come crashing down
I wanna hear you getting loud, loud, loud
Independently released June 25, 2021, “Loud” arrives this summer as The Collection’s second single of the year. The track follows February’s heartfelt acoustic ballad “Blue Day,” “a warm and sentimental wash of colorful harmony and haunting emotion that we could all benefit from… as bright and charming as it is somber and sobering.” Hailing from Saxapahaw, North Carolina, The Collection currently consists of David Wimbish, bassist Hayden Cooke, trombone player Graham Dickey, keyboardist and vocalist Sarah McCoy, guitarists Josh Ling and Darren Miles, and drummer Joshua Linhart. With three independently release records to their name, the indie pop band has been getting loud (in various forms) for nearly a decade, and musically, this is their way of “showing up”: “Loud” is as much a song as it is an unequivocal message to those who sit on the sidelines and let others do the hard, grueling work of fighting for (and enacting) change.
“‘Loud’ is a song to those that stay quiet in the face of injustice, the white moderate, who interprets anger as violence instead of pain,” band leader Wimbish tells Atwood Magazine. “It’s a call to stand up, lend our voices and our hands, to come alongside those that are hurting, and to work for real change instead of just sitting on the fence.”
“It’s also about our ability to hear and respond to anger. I grew up believing anger to only be a negative emotion, as if it was some sign of moral failing. Over the last few years, through the wisdom of relationships and the example of revolutionary movements, I realized anger was more often a sign of someone else’s moral failing, the indicator of injustice. In order to fully accept others’ anger, I had to learn how to accept and embody my own. This song felt like a large step towards doing that.”
Traded my voice for a hope that things would just change without me
Then every single time that I spoke the words would just be, ‘I’m sorry’
And then I would get buried under others’ options
And have to rearrange my life just fit them
I want to sing
Want to sing
To sing the melody
“The song began on a solo writing retreat I took in Woodstock, NY,” Wimbish recalls. “When I arrived at the cabin where I was staying I realized my guitar had cracked and sounded terrible! It was a day or two before the shop would open for the repair, so I created a little four-chord loop and beat on my phone and played it until this melody worked its way out. The first words that came out were, “I want to hear you getting loud,” and they shook me as I thought back to all the times that hadn’t been true for me, in relationships, in protests, in movements, in my own voice. The more I sang it, the more it became something I wanted to claim for myself, and expanded into thoughts on justice. I returned home with this little iPhone demo and the band really grabbed onto the message with the arrangement, letting the verses be light and airy, suddenly stopped by a wall of sound.”
“The full band arrangement came together over the course of a few rehearsals in Winston-Salem, NC. I wanted the verses to feel spacious, and Sarah brought in that droning synth. Originally, the drums were pretty driving in that space, but we kept cutting pieces away until they were simple. After playing through the bridge, [Joshua] Linhart (drums) suggested we sing the, “if you really want me/want me completely” two more times, and I remember running it that way for the first time and actually tearing up! It felt so much more desperate that way, and reminded me how many times I really loved one side of people – the quiet, cooperative side, and not fully allowed people to take up the space they deserve to take up.”
We hear the band’s passion spill forth in the chorus’ roaring release – a radiant and soaring catalyst for active, not passive, participation:
I wanna hear you getting loud
Capsize me with the sound
Why don’t you open up your mouth
Come and shake me down to the ground
Cuz’ sometimes it takes a raging river
To make the damn come crashing down
I wanna hear you getting loud, loud, loud
The Collection’s sense of urgency and visceral verve push the song to dizzying heights. Speaking to the song’s inspiration, Wimbish recalls his own participation in the Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020:
“I attended the first major protest in Raleigh, NC after the murder of George Floyd. I watched as peaceful, angry protesters were cornered and attacked by the police. I was one of those maced in the face, alongside many. Over the next many months, I grew angrier watching white moderate and even “liberal” friends argue over the validity of the protests and how they were being carried out, refusing to lend their voice, feet, and bodies to the movement. This song, which began as a personal reflection on anger, grew into representing a much larger conversation for me, a plea to those that sometimes the river must rage in order to cause real change.”
Don’t turn away from injustice; face it head on and be the change you want to see in this world. “Loud” is invigorating; an inspiring, rousing outpouring of charged, enthusiastic energy that wants us to answer the call and make a difference. Stream the song below, and take its message to heart.
Not sure how much longer I can keep it down
I wanna hear you getting loud
Capsize me with the sound
Why don’t you open up your mouth?
Come and shake me down to the ground
Cuz’ sometimes it takes a raging river
To make the dam come crashing down
I wanna hear you getting loud, loud, loud
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Stream: “Loud” – The Collection
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