Singled Out: bog berries' Nobody Told Me
bog berries just released a new single called "Nobody Told Me", and to celebrate we asked mastermind Cooper Evello to tell us about the track. Here is the story:
I started writing "nobody told me" when I was driving around Massachusetts teaching teen band ensembles, private piano lessons to 7 year old who didn't really want to learn, and writing music for a non-profit that didn't really care that much about what I was creating. In most ways I had a really great life and felt grateful for my community, food, shelter, having a job where I was involved with music, my partner etc.. But also in a lot of ways I felt without purpose, I felt meaningless, I felt like I wasn't doing anything with my life that mattered. I think I felt like what I had imagined my life to be was not coming true. I had toured with bands before but nothing ever took off. I had recorded and released songs before but nothing went viral. I continued to see friends and hang otu but sometimes social gatherings or just existing felt a little hollow in a way I never thought I would feel. It felt a little bit like I was just trying to find enough pleasure to get through each day or week but it wasn't really building to anything with deep meaning. I wasn't playing in a band at the time and was feeling lonely and started to write short little songs for tik tok. On January 5th 2023 I posted the first verse and chorus of "Nobody told me" and it didn't go viral or really do anything but it was fun to share with a tiny part of the internet and had some positive responses. It encouraged me to finish the song and now a full year later I'm releasing the full song. The song is about feeling disappointed with how my life turned out. As a kid I imagined myself touring the world as a saxophone player, or working as a professional musician, or doing some wild art projects with my friends as adults and writing musicals and having sleepovers. As a kid I imagined I would be doing something fantastic as an adult and maybe even be a little famous. I didn't' expect to just be driving around, alone in my car. Bored, a little depressed, very much a traditional sad adult.
The song is also about infertility and a horrible 5 months me and my partner had to live through together. My partner had a miscarriage in June 2022 and then again in January 2023 and now finally we have beautiful healthy baby in February 2024. In between the second miscarriage and getting pregnant was 5 months where my partner really lost herself and became extremely sad and angry. She was so jealous of friends around us getting pregnant, she was so angry at her own body. She didn't' know how to get from month to month waiting to see if she could live out her life's dream and become a mother. So the chorus of the song "nobody told me" is really from ehr perspective. "Wait for me I'm stuck I can't leave the house" is really how I know my partner was feeling. I want to be pregnant and full of love and connecting with people but she couldn't do it and was just stuck in the house spirling.
In terms of the music and the production the song feels quite different. I don't think the muted piano (I recorded a 76 key acoustic piano and had my partner hold her hands on the strings to get a muted plucky sound) at the beginning feels like all hope is gone. In the last chorus I tracked two full acoustic kits, MIDI drumming samples, recorded a tambourine, a ride cymbal separate track, 7 acoustic guitars, flutes, saxophones 4 singers tec.... It has sort of an epic emotional release with this huge sound. I was hoping the muted piano and chill groove in the Verses/Pre-choruses would feel a little curious but hopeful then the last chorus feels pretty massive - like a big emotional release and then the outro has a moment to say "hey maybe dreaming that I am gonna become something amazing someday is a good feeling to hold onto.
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here
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