Seth Walker opened himself to a number of different creative paths on his new album, Are You Open?, both stylistically and lyrically, especially on "No More Will I," an openly political response to the Trump presidency, premiering exclusively below.
"I'd never really written a topical song like this before," the Nashville-based singer-songwriter tells Billboard about the track, which he co-wrote with longtime pal Gary Nicholson. "But thinking about the landscape here, socially, it got to a breaking point for me. I could not stand idle watching this -- just the fear-mongering and the blatant racism going on, right in our back yards. I just kinda looked at it going, 'Man, this is actually happening...' And our president's rhetoric is setting a tone for all this."
Walker, who declares "no more will I turn a blind eye” in the song over a spare, rolling rhythm and spacious arrangement, explored a variety of sources in writing "No More Will I" and other songs on Are You Open?, including Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches and poems by Maya Angelou, whom he name-checks in the song. "They were a big influence on me, how they went about it in a positive way, preaching love first," Walker explains. "It's a very personal tune, and I'm really, really proud of the way it kinds of spilled out through the recording."