'Stand By You' is about sticking by the person you love not only when things are easy, but being there for them during trials and letting them know they aren't alone.
Rachel Platten
My biggest fear is that I'm not good enough. I have this voice in my head that I've been battling for years that says, 'You're not really talented enough. You don't really deserve this.'
When I wrote 'Fight Song,' I was in a particular low point. I needed to remind myself to not give up, that I still believed in myself and that I still had fight left.
When I got on stage, I felt this bolt of electricity hit me, and it was this shock of, 'This is exactly what I'm supposed to do with my life.'
In general, I think the world is a good place if you work hard, believe in yourself, have good intentions, and if you are kind to people, I believe that good things happen to you.
I love helping friends, and I like to think I am a good listener and supportive. I'm also just kind of nosy, so it would satisfy my need to know other people's stories.
I wrote 'Fight Song' as this declaration to believe in myself, and that is similar to what you are taught to believe in Girl Scouts. Building confidence. Building character. And above all else, being there for each other as a community.
Music truly heals, and I am so grateful to have learned that through Musicians on Call.
There are a lot of people who give you the message that maybe you are not good enough, and the best thing you can do for yourself is to block out all of that noise.
I think I made this decision that I just loved making music, and it didn't matter what level I got to do it on, and 'Fight Song' was this declaration that I'm going to keep going, and I'm going to keep believing in myself, even if it seems like it's impossible.
I used to visit London when I was younger with my family. I feel very close to the city.
No matter what, I still was gonna make music, even if it was on a small scale. Even if it was just for me.
My friends and family have always been extremely supportive, but the support I've received from fans has been so overwhelming. I love hearing all of their 'Fight Song' stories; I have been so inspired by so many of them.
I have a song about being in love. I have a song about being supportive. There's inspiring ones, and there's some that show a little bit more fun and daring. It really is a range of who I am.
I cannot believe that I get a tour bus. I've been traveling in a van for 15 years. I used to look at people who were on buses and be like, 'Whoa, man, some day.'
The adventurer in me would love to visit Patagonia, Chile.
I think you find universal truth when you get really honest with yourself and you can reach people. If you go deep enough, you have that core feeling, and that feeling can transcend the details of your experience.
I'm one of those people at the airport holding a pillow like a little kid.
I wrote my first song when I was six or seven, a silly little song. But I used to write poems in high school - not songs.
I feel like I have some stuff that matches 'Fight Song,' not in necessarily the message exactly but in the emotion and honesty.
I work extremely hard to stay positive and happy. But I get sad and anxious, too, just like everyone.
Wherever I go, people are so kind and so lovely and so warm and show their best self. So I feel very lucky.
I have volunteered for Musicians on Call for the past 12 years because of the incredible one-on-one experiences in hospital rooms when no one other than the patient and I would remember the love that was exchanged.
Even if the songs are at times painful - 'cause some of the songs are not all roses and balloons; some of them dig into deep things that I've been going through - there's a joy that I think people feel from my music and, hopefully, from my performance because I am so in love with doing what I do.
I can beatbox. Well, sort of. I have one beat that I can do, but people get fooled.
I'm a closet outdoorsy athletic enthusiast, and I would love to do a rafting and hiking trip someday and maybe sleep in a treehouse and bathe in a chilly winding river.
I think my best friend is dry shampoo and dry texturizer spray.
I love Kelly Clarkson's message, and I've heard comparisons to P!nk.
I think, like any artist, those baby songs are not the best things you've ever written, but they count because they're you're first attempts at creating art and expressing yourself.
I wish I'd gone to music school or just started playing in bands sooner.
I have always loved music. My mom used to sing with my sister and I when I was younger, and I was in choirs and loved to perform, but when I was in college, I went on a study abroad to Trinidad, and while I was there, I sang backup at my first concert.
I had my first concert in front of 80,000 people at the International Soca Monarch Finals.
I played cover gigs and traveled the country in my mom's old car, and my drummer and I set up a fake email and sent it out to agents. We pretended to be our own agent.
Andy Grammer is probably the closest friend I have in the music industry, so touring with him was just incredible. He's such a soulful, kind guy, and he gives great advice. And he also scares me a lot. He does a lot of pranks.
I learned a lot from playing those late-night, 1-to-4 A.M. gigs with my band, and playing when no one was listening.
Vocally, I have learned to find my strength, and my voice has developed a lot since 'Be Here.' I learned to sing with all of my body.
I learned that I truly am a fighter and that I cannot give up.
It didn't scare me to be vulnerable because I think that's when you get something great.
I used to feel it was too late for me; I'd had my shot. You couldn't make a pop star out of me.
I've been doing this career for a really long time, but there was not a lot of reason, at the time when I wrote 'Fight Song,' to believe that I should keep going.
There's this misconception in the industry that you might have to go a little lighter or skate on the surface in order to reach people - and then in your second album, you get to tell who you are.
I got a little bit lost in the writing process: like, that moment in the 'Fight Song' music video where I'm throwing the crumpled paper on the bed, that was really true life. I was filling journals with different possibilities of lyrics for the first verse. And none of them felt right.
If I wake up in the middle of the night and have an idea, I want to go to my computer and be able to do it. So I hired someone at Guitar Center to come over to my house and teach me Logic music program, and I learned it over a couple months.
I'm a big yogi.
I feel crazy that me sticking with my dreams actually worked. It's wild and incredible.
Even if I'm making music for people for $20 a night, at least I'm making music.
I do a lot of visualisations and meditation and a lot of hippie stuff.
I want to continue to remain present and grateful each day that I get to be doing what I love. Making and performing music I believe in.
I've always sung in choirs and acapella groups, but when I was in college, I finally started writing songs and playing with a band, and that ignited a desire to do it full time and pour everything I had into it.
I played piano growing up. I played classical piano since I was 5, and I sang in choirs, and I sang in plays and musicals.
