“Settle" by Victoria Barral (July 16, 2021 Release)

"Settle" is the latest single from the talented singer Victoria Barral! 

You're going to want to listen to this song as soon as you can! What can you expect from the song? Luckily, Victoria was willing to answer a few questions about it for us.

What was the inspiration behind “Settle”?

The inspiration for ‘Settle’ came from life experience and my personal beliefs as a christian. I can’t stress it enough- do not settle for just anyone. Wait for the person God has for you. I have been single my whole life, and while sometimes I feel left out, I know in the future, I will be glad I waited. For years, I’ve seen my friends or people I didn’t know very well settle in relationships, and I kept quiet. I’ve seen so many people get their heart broken and waste their time with people that didn’t even love them. I’ve seen people try to get out of toxic relationships, but would try to numb the pain. So one day I decided to put my feelings into music. I started to sing some words that popped into my head. Then I got the chorus to the song in less than 5 minutes: “Why do people settle just to fill a void, it’s sad that people settle for the wrong people.” I sent this to my co-writer Audrey Bussanich and she absolutely loved this concept and resonated with it.

When we started to write the song, we took this idea and decided to write in third person. We pictured these different songwriting ideas like movie scenes. We created this character- a young woman who gets home late one night, goes to her room and sees her boyfriend is asleep. In the beginning of the song, she is having trouble sleeping that night and she’s staring at the ceiling. Throughout the song, she starts to have this realization like, “why am I doing this to myself. Why am I in this relationship that I know is wrong for me.” Throughout the whole song she is having these thoughts and remembering what her mom told her- “You’re walking down the aisle for something more than happiness.” These are some lyrics in the 2nd Verse that we came up with. The rest of the writing session went so smoothly and the message we wanted to get across is hopefully clear. Audrey and I think a lot of people can relate to this concept, and we hope that we’re spreading light and a good message to young women specifically. As an artist, I hope this song will touch people and maybe open their eyes to something they never have thought out before. 

What was the experience of putting the recording together like?

The experience of putting the record together was so much

fun, but also time consuming and challenging later in the process working virtually. We started writing the song in September of last year and started to record a rough demo. We kind of went for an alternative pop/ folk vibe and spent a few months getting everything together. Initially, Audrey and I did a home recording with her on acoustic guitar and me on piano and vocals. We sketched out an arrangement for bass and drums, but originally they were recording digitally. Months after that, we decided we weren’t satisfied with our version, so I decided to have this professionally recorded in the studio in Boston. Months later, I reached out to Connor Wang, the head of the Audio Engineering Society at Berklee who had an amazing vision for production and mixing and he loved the demo. He was so helpful with the recording process and helped me find session recording musicians. Everything went so well, and the musicians did an amazing job matching up to the original arrangement. The session players on this track include: Adam Saah on drums, Eli Schildkraut on piano, Diego Cortez on guitar, and Kari Estes is on bass.

I sent the best vocals I could to Connor, and the final mix was beyond what I expected. By the end of May, the final step of mastering came and Josh Sebek did an amazing job balancing out the dynamics in the master! The rest is history! This project was by far the biggest collaboration I’ve done it’s really taught me to be teachable, professional, and hard-working. I could be happier with the recording process.

Do you have any goals for the song?

I just hope this song speaks to people. As an artist it’s important to write music that has meaning and value. Above all, I hope anything I do as a musician glorifies God. I understand it’s important for the song to do well in streaming, but it’s all in God’s hands. I’m just here to sing and write what comes from the heart and follow my dreams as a songwriter and recording artist. 

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Hope she can meet that goal. You'll be able to find “Settle" just about everywhere you usually get your music like Spotify or Apple! So, there's no reason why you won't be able track it down…which I highly suggest you do. In fact, go pre-save it on Spotify RIGHT NOW!

If you want to learn more about Victoria, check out her Section 36 Music profile page. There you can find links to her full interview with Section 36 Music, her social media accounts, as well as more samples of her incredible singing.

You can also hop directly to her recent interview right here on Section 36 Music. That will give you an opportunity to learn more about this amazing singer.

Be sure to give “Settle" a listen!