Singled Out: Permilla's It Ain't Right

Up and coming Niagara, ON trio Permilla recently released their new single "It Ain't Right" and to celebrate we asked Nicole Cerminara to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

Sometimes songwriting gives you these wonderful (albeit, rare) moments where you sit down with your guitar and an idea instantly comes to life with little to no thought required. I had one of those moments for "It Ain't Right" when one day I sat on my bed and sang the first 2 lines of the chorus like I already knew the song. The irony of this great moment was that I really didn't want to go through with writing the rest of it, as it didn't seem like my sound at the time. I've gone through many phases as a writer as my taste and style progress over time, and at this particular moment "It Ain't Right" was feeling too simple and foreign to my ears.

I went back and forth between thinking I shouldn't throw away an idea and wanting to stay true to who I felt like as a songwriter at the time. Ultimately, I decided, or maybe learned is a better word, that I should never tell myself "This isn't you" simply because it hadn't been me yet. Who was I to deprive the songwriter in me the opportunity to explore new ground? So, the question was no longer "Do I write songs like this?" but rather "How do I approach writing a song like this?"

For starters, this was clearly a romantic relationship-based song and I wasn't in a relationship, so I had to figure out who I was writing this for. "How could you ever wanna let me down?" was the first line I had sung, so that set the tone for the rest of the song. I began thinking of my loved ones and the difficult, sometimes even abusive relationships I had seen them go through over the years. With that mindset I was able to craft the verses around their perspective in these situations using a sort of "point and counter point" structure.

Each line in the verses were set up so that the first image would be the victim trying to salvage a situation, only for the abuser to counter it somehow. I also tend to use a bit of humor when I write, so I came up with a few cheeky lines that made me chuckle to myself. "I put a little sugar in your coffee so you'd talk sweet" was one of those lines, countered with "but instead you went and pulled the rug from under my feet" which was less about being humorous and more about the reality of dealing with a narcissist. By the end I had put enough of my signature lyrical and melodic traits in there that it began feeling a lot more like my song rather than just a song.

It sat in the vault for nearly a year before my bandmate and writing partner, Myles, suggested we try it out as a band. Now, this song was clearly a bit of a 180 for me as I've explained, but for Permilla it was a big one. I had mainly kept my acoustic creations separate from anything I brought to the band as they were typically far too different, sonically speaking, and it rarely felt right. However, I now had a new mindset as a songwriter and Myles strongly believed in our ability to properly translate the tune. We figured if we could get this one feeling good, it would be one more style we could add to our bag of sounds. The experience was a learning curve for all three of us, but we came out on the other side feeling a lot more versatile and quite proud of the product.

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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