Gatlin Discusses Self-Assurance Through New Single, "When You're Breaking My Heart"
Gatlin Thornton has been making herself at home on stages of all kinds from a young age. From the elementary and middle school theatre programs she participated in to her teenage attempts at travel blogging and influencing, the indie-pop artist (who goes by her first name only) has always enjoyed trying to connect with others. Now, as a touring musician with streaming tallies in the scores of millions, she has the capacity to connect with more people than ever before. Case in point: her upcoming EP's lead single, "When You're Breaking My Heart", a masterclass in relatability. This song, along with Gatlin's return to the road playing festivals as well as supporting various other acts, shows that Gatlin isn't just ready to get back on a literal stage, she's also ready for the next stage of her career.
Twenty-four-year-old Gatlin originally hails from Florida, but now largely splits her time between Nashville and Los Angeles. She's quick to identify how the influences from these three locations braid together to form her unique folk-rock-meets-indie-pop sound. "Loving the band vibe, loving always playing an instrument - that comes from Nashville," she tells me, her miniature cowboy hat earrings swaying where they dangle. "Loving pop music, melodies and hooks and stuff getting stuck in your head, probably comes from LA. And then growing up in Florida, what I naturally listened to from my parents and my grandparents is what's the most ingrained in me."
You can hear nods to the 70's and 80's music Gatlin was raised on in the breezy electric guitars and Nicksian vocal riffs that dominate her work. In viral singles like "What If I Love You", Gatlin manages to bottle that timeless driving with the windows down feeling, underscoring how much setting and travel has impacted her music. "Even though every day [of this job] is different," she explains, "I can feel very trapped in my brain if I'm in one place. So getting out - literally a change of state - I feel like shakes things up a little bit and also gives me more life experience to then grow, or write about and connect with people. Because that's my main basis for my artist project: connection."
A big part of Gatlin's relatability is her knack for portraying how one person can be host to a myriad of different attitudes towards life and love, even ones that are self-contradicting. Some of her dreamiest sounding tracks, like "Talking to Myself" or "Whenever He Asks" tell stories of speakers who love people too much, past the point of self-preservation; or too long, past the point of their leaving. Conversely, she also has several songs about self-sabotaging through isolation, like the appropriately titled "Never Been in Love".
"I think I’m definitely both of those things," Gatlin admits, "But the real me is probably definitely more like, 'I don’t need a relationship, I feel very alone and isolated.' I still say I’ve never experienced love. I very much so get obsessed and ‘fall in love’ with the idea I make up in my head, and the idea of love. But then it’s never…" She takes a deep breath. "Then I like, take a step back and I’m like, oh I wasn’t in love with you, I was in love with the chase or I was in love with the obsession or the infatuation." With a smirk so slight I almost doubt I see it, she adds, "But I get off on the drama of it all."
This is exactly the energy that sets the single "When You're Breaking My Heart" on fire from within. "You never used to drive me home; you never told your friends, I was just a fake name in your phone," Gatlin laments as the track’s warbling synths come into focus. But what could easily be a classic, straightforward tale of pining is quickly turned on its head: "Now something is different, you're saying you're all in," the speaker confesses in what feels like a panic over the chorus' swelling drums, "but I think I like you better when you're..." Yeah, you guessed it.
Even though she has a soft spot for folk music, Gatlin's pop sensibilities have always been sharp. Still, "When You're Breaking My Heart" feels elevated from her previous work. The deeply satisfying resolution of the soaring bridge will certainly be enough to draw comparisons to songwriting titan Taylor Swift, while the shimmering edge to Gatlin's powerhouse vocals give her a sound all her own. Gatlin credits her growth to her constant immersion in music and a strong sense of vision. "I feel like I’m in my boss bitch era of being really secure in what I like."
This self-assurance culminates in Gatlin's forceful upcoming EP, slated for release later in 2023. Gatlin views the project as a dynamic journey through the stages of grief. "I didn’t mean to [talk about that] when I was writing these songs, but I looked back on it and I was like, 'Oh, I’m grieving this person in my life.' Having a project where I can see myself going through that and then finally letting go... it's really emotional. I feel like that in and of itself is such a lesson." As long as Gatlin keeps turning her life lessons into the types of songs you can't take off repeat, the connections she builds with her fans are only sure to deepen.
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