Pop-Country Breakup Anthem “Love Used To Live Here”
Friday, July 29, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Sometimes love doesn’t win. Canadian singer-songwriter Amanda Kind’s new single “Love Used To Live Here” is a pop-country breakup anthem for anyone who has loved and lost. With wistful lyrics, pulsing energy, and soaring vocals, the song tells the story of a home created by a hopeful couple who thought they had found ‘forever’ only for one person to be left with empty frames and vivid memories of the life the pair once shared together. “Love Used To Live Here” launched on all digital streaming platforms last Friday and is now headed for consideration at country radio.
“The pandemic seemed to make or break love everywhere around me,” said Kind. “Spending all this time together at home either made couples stronger than ever or pulled them apart irreparably. This song is for all those people haunted by the memory of what their love once was, or what they hoped it would be.”
Given the subject matter, listeners might expect a melancholic ballad, but “Love Used To Live Here” palpitates with a mid-tempo heartbeat and a wall of harmony that drives the high-energy chorus.
Kind’s powerful voice is packed with emotion as she belts out the heartrending chorus:
“Love Used To Live Here
Now nothing’s left but empty frames
Memories I can’t escape
Of what used to live here
We built this life and burned it down
Can’t believe it’s all gone now
‘Cause love used to live here”
The first verse explores moving into a house and the process of making it a home – painting, setting up furniture, hanging photos on the wall – the things people do when they are building a life together. The second verse dives into the strange emptiness felt when one person moves out and the other is left behind in that house where every room is a reminder of the love that once filled the space.
“There are memories throughout the song both good and sad, and a sense of wishing that the outcome was different. I wanted the song to have energy to it even though the story is about losing love, because those mournful feelings are balanced with longing for the happiness of the past,” says Kind. “As they say, it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
“Love Used To Live Here” was written by Kind, veteran Canadian songwriter Carrie DeMaeyer, and Matt Koebel, who also produced the track. The band includes Koebel on keys, Emile d’Eon on guitar, Stu Weinberg on guitar, Mark Rynkun on Bass, and Rich DaSilva on drums. The song was recorded at Catherine North Studios in Hamilton with Engineer Will Crann and Assistant Engineer Emma Whale.
Raised in the coastal community of White Rock, British Columbia, Kind grew up in a musical family and was strongly influenced by her mother, a talented recreational pianist, whose wide array of musical tastes covered everything from Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, and Garth Brooks, to Ella Fitzgerald, Elton John, Queen, and more. Kind’s teenage years were spent taking classical voice lessons while secretly mimicking Mariah Carey riffs, belting out Spice Girls and Shania Twain anthems, and singing No Doubt and Alanis Morrisette at the top of her lungs. Although she’s recorded music in a variety of genres, Kind has found a home in country music.
Now based in Ontario, Kind is known as much for her powerhouse voice as she is for being one of the province’s most in-demand vocal coaches for commercial music. After spending several years solely focused on coaching other artists, Kind returned to writing and recording original music during the pandemic. She released four singles in 2021 starting with the evocative ballad “easier.” She was then featured on Stratford country singer James Downham’s duet “We’re Okay,” which she also co-wrote. She released a stripped down version of her past single “Distant Memory“, followed by the folk-country holiday song “Hold Me Close.”
Kind is currently working on a country EP slated for release in 2023; “Love Used To Live Here” is the first single from that project. For more information about Amanda Kind, please visit www.amandakind.com.
“Love Used To Live Here” is available now on all streaming platforms. Listen here: https://ffm.to/amanda-kind-love-used-to-live-here.
