Singled Out: Katie Callahan's Extraordinary

Keavin Wiggins | 06-05-2023

Album art

Katie Callahan just released her new album "Extraordinary." To celebrate we asked her to tell us about the record's title track. Here is the story:

One of the first songs I worked on for this new project, the genesis of the whole thing and the title track, is called "Extraordinary." The song began as an affirmation for myself, something I wasn't quite sure I believed but felt compelled to articulate so that I could see the words, sing the words, embrace the great contradiction of living as a woman getting older whose experience is at once mundane and miraculous. As a mom and the partner of someone with a very public and essential job, I have grown accustomed over the years to the idea that I always must be okay. That no matter what was going on, what sort of ailment I might have, what my dreams may be, my primary responsibility is to remain afloat and tuck myself into the corners of the very full lives around me. It's an old habit born from being a middle child, an oldest daughter, and a product of late nineties evangelicalism. Writing this song offered the opportunity to declare my inherent worthiness and also lament the areas of my life I've allowed to be stifled.

My producer, Matthew Odmark (Jars of Clay), worked so hard to make this song into what it became. I knew the arc of intensity I wanted, but the way he molded the mood with both band instruments and produced sounds was super masterful, spacious, and light-handed. The beginning of the song is quiet, understated, an honest and often sad reflection of what felt like something lost or missing. But for me, the most important part of "Extraordinary" is the bridge, which comes after a little hinge section of the song talking about the contradictory feeling of getting older and still becoming. It's a series of declarations affirming the goodness of pleasure and anger, of bodies that expand with age and experience, all told through this unhinged, loud, wild instrumentation and melody. Matt really pushed me in the studio to withhold nothing and really let go, and in the end I think we left everything we had on the track.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the album here