"Can We Go Back" on TV, Radio, and In Print

It’s been one week since I released my new single “Can We Go Back”, and it has received really kind coverage on the three main major avenues of publicity - tv, radio, and print! It’s the first time that I’ve ever released something that was covered in all three realms in its first week. (“Pretty Words” received a lot of press, but not until it went viral a year after it came out.)

The morning the single was released, I was interviewed on CBC Windsor Morning by Peter Duck. We pre-taped the interview earlier in the week while Mike was at work, and I was so anxious about keeping Adeila quiet during the recording (especially since she wails if I leave her alone for more than a minute). It was no small miracle that I managed to get silence on my end of the call!

Then, I was interviewed on Sunday morning by Dalson Chen of the Windsor Star, and had new photos taken on Monday afternoon for the print version that came out Tuesday, with a nice big photo of yours truly on page 2. You can read the full article on the Windsor Star website.

Finally, last night I was on CTV Windsor. Sijia Liu interviewed me on my front porch on Tuesday, and in the broadcast, they shared a lot of great clips from the music video itself. Mike was especially pleased that his videography work got so much airtime in the segment (I think he’s still unsure whether or not he did a good job, which is crazy because I think he really nailed it for his first-ever video!).

One thing that didn’t come up in any of these pieces is that I had originally planned to release this earlier in the summer, but I postponed out of deference to the Black Lives Matter movement, and my fear that the song would be misinterpreted. (Some lyrics could be mistaken for expressions of white fragility.)

But when I was writing this song back in April, I also didn’t expect that there would be so many folks who would oppose mask-wearing and basic safety protocols, endangering people with their selfishness and ignorance. And a small part of me has worried that such people might take the message of “Can We Go Back” the wrong way, thinking that it might advocate some hasty return to normal. I’m really glad that nobody has misinterpreted the song this way as of yet. I think the music video, which shows me wearing a mask even when I’m alone, helps enforce that I’m on the side of science and caring about the people around me.

At any rate, in the end, I think August was the perfect time to share this song. We correctly predicted that there’d be a lot of conversation about how to approach the back-to-school season, and on top of that, it just so happened that the song’s release landed in the same week that Windsor joined the rest of the province in entering Stage 3 of our pandemic recovery, as some of us are now beginning to test whether or not we can resume some of our pre-pandemic rhythms. (Personally, in our house, we are more of a Stage 1 family.)

I just want to say, once again, in closing, how grateful I am for all the kindness and support that I’ve received with the release of this song. I wasn’t even thinking of the publicity angles when I was creating this tune - I was just thinking about creating some music that I was proud of, that might help people get through this traumatizing time. And I’m really glad that it feels like I’ve achieved this ❤️️