GRAMMY-nominee, Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music award winner, Kelsea Ballerini continues running her fingers through the small details of her own life to deliver songs and videos that are palpably rich in a sense of both how life evolves and the way opposing ideas can define the same moments in time. Having sold out her PATTERNS release-celebrating Madison Square Garden debut on Oct. 29 in mere minutes, the East Tennessee songwriter/artist/creative offers ‘Two Things’, a yearning song that explores the ways opposing emotions can create their own gravitational pull.
“I’ve learned it’s in the nuance of real love,” offers Kelsea Ballerini, “you can’t understand how incredibly angry or hurt someone can make you, while at the same time, the ability to forgive and move towards healing that can be present. And that is a reality that goes both ways, too. You can also make someone so angry or hurt, and they can find forgiveness and desire in the midst of it.”
Filmed on location in New York City and somewhere far more bucolic, the clip also balances urban sidewalk cafes, the curb outside the boutique Carlyle hotel, city traffic and the bed in a luxurious suite with giant trees, a back road, small towns and a humble, almost homey feeling bedroom. Ballerini ponders the rush of emotions as she hangs emotionally suspended in the in-between between the extremes. Directed by P. Tracy, whose work includes clips from Halsey, Katy Perry and Avril Lavigne + Yungblud, the diffused light and languid cuts create a visual mirror to the video’s and song’s own slow coming to clarity.
The song, which emerges from one of those fights where everything’s over, considers the things that are said and the truth in one’s heart. Emotionally, it is a journey from shattered relationship to racing to reunite and heal what is broken, while visually, it’s a thoughtful unfolding of a young woman moving through the world as her clarity emerges.
“This song embodies the intensity of a crossroads moment in a relationship, it’s full of duality and mixed emotions,” Ballerini explains. “I love that Patrick felt that, too, and created a palette and action that is more low impact but represents all of those feelings. Plus, who doesn’t want to sit in a sunflower field in the middle of New York?!”
Working once again with collaborator/co-producer Alysa Vanderheym, PATTERNS saw Ballerini use an all-girl approach. PATTERNS began with a songwriting retreat with Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Hillary Lindsey, GRAMMY Songwriter of the Year nominee Jessie Jo Dillon and Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild, creating a judgement-free zone to explore female friendship, vulnerability, and the juxtaposing reality that’s the way relationships are, not Instagram-delivered.
As ‘Cowboys Cry Too (with Noah Kahan)’ conquers country radio and has almost 75 million streams, ‘Sorry Mom’ and now ‘Two Things’ provide a fuller sense of Ballerini’s PATTERNS.