Singled Out: Floyd's What Do You Say

Keavin Wiggins | 08-09-2020

San Francisco-based alternative rocker Floyd recently released her debut video "What Do You Say" and to celebrate we asked her to tell us about the track.

What Do You Say came together as lyrics first. Bits and pieces really. I was struggling at that time with feeling like my life wasn't going anywhere. Like, so badly I wanted to be doing more, achieving more, feeling more inspired and feeling happy and I just wasn't. I felt really stuck and I was going through some heavy emotional things and feeling so depressed. One day, I was really feeling awful and I walked in my house and just starting crying. I sat down in the hallway with tears running down my cheeks and the lyric came to me, "I want to wake up, I want to feel good, I want to break through, I want to rise," and I wrote most of the verse lyrics right there on the floor in my own despair.

From there, those lyrics sat in my journal for several months. I usually write music first, which starts with me just grabbing my guitar or piano and seeing what comes. I typically will look through my journal to see if there's any content in there that will fit with a song structure and vocal melody. One morning, I found what I had written several months earlier, and it fit with some music I was working on. From there, I realized that I wanted the song to be about perseverance and choice; I wanted it to be empowering to others. And then the thought came to me about those moments in life where you are feeling really terrible - sometimes when you first wake up in the morning - but then you open the curtains and see that it's a gorgeous, sunny day outside and you realize that you can choose to feel better. You can change how you feel. And so the lyric came, "we've got to decide, if it's a beautiful day, then what do you say, are you going my way."

The video is really an extension of the message of the song. Natural beauty is everywhere, we can choose joy in the midst of angst and frustration and heartache. I'm from the Bay Area so San Francisco was the perfect homage to my city and to the idea of this song.

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