I Sleep Fine Now is Gatlin taking fans on a journey of grief, what it means to rediscover the things that matter most in life, and just learning to move on from every bad relationship. Gatlin kicked off her music career in 2020, and since then she has been thrilling audiences with emotionally open pop songs. She has accumulated over 36 million streams to date, and frankly, that number will only skyrocket in the wake of her latest EP. While the songs may represent the pain that comes from love, there’s also a message of joy that’ll leave listeners feeling like they came a full circle by the time the record ends.
We caught up with the pop star prior to the release of I Sleep Fine Now and talked about songwriting, Taylor Swift, and her upcoming tour.
Hello Gatlin, it is so nice to be chatting with you about your EP I Sleep Fine Now. First things first, congratulations! How does it feel to finally release this record?
It’s a sigh of relief for sure. I have never loved something I’ve created in this way. I truly love this record, and I enjoy listening to it as well. I just am very proud of it, myself, and the little family that made it with me.
You made this EP to feel like a journey through the different stages of grief over a past relationship. Why did you do that?
I didn’t set out to do it intentionally – just when I was listening through it one time while we were in production I realized that I truly was grieving the loss of this person. It really felt like a death having them out of my life and I really went through processing all of that during the relationship when I knew it was going to end. Then when listening through, I realized it really covered a spectrum of emotions that walked through the five stages of grief.
What was your most memorable moment creating this EP?
It’s so hard to pick one! There were so many magical, funny, emotional moments throughout this process for sure. One that comes to mind is when writing/recording “How Do You Sleep At Night”, Liza and Ethan had me play the guitar and sing all the way through it without a click. I just sat crisscrossed on a piano bench and sang and played. We ended up just keeping the one take and also Liza had happened to record the whole thing on her phone. Afterwards, we just all could feel the “thing”. It was powerful. I also definitely blacked out while singing it so it’s nice to have it on video to help with memory.
I am very interested to know why you chose the name I Sleep Fine Now for the project.
It’s an answer to “How Do You Sleep At Night?” which was the last song I wrote for the EP. It felt like after writing that song I could finally let go.
I love that your songs have lyrics that are emotionally stirring, for example, your song “Really Funny” has this line, “Maybe I hate you cause you don’t want to love me,” which will definitely cause many people to reflect on how they feel about a certain ex. Do you consciously add those kinds of lyrics or does it just happen?
I’m not sure – I definitely remember when writing that one being stuck on that line because it’s the last line in the chorus. So I remember thinking, well what’s the main thing… the real reason I’m feeling this… the one sentence to wrap up how I was feeling at the time. Oh, and the thing my therapist and I would discover once we got to the root of it all, ya know.
In the closing track, “Be Your Home,” is it that you’ve moved on with another relationship but you still find yourself cradling the pain from the previous one, or is it deeper than that?
So “Be Your Home” is the black sheep of the EP. It’s the one that’s not about this relationship. It’s a song for my siblings, and it’s the first time I’ve ever shared some music that touches on some childhood trauma that I’ve always been too scared to write about. In the past I’ve definitely used relationships as a distraction, especially when it comes to my writing. It’s a lot easier for me to write about a boy than some deep, sad shit from growing up. It’s the closing chapter because this was the first time I’m truly ready to change some of my patterns in dating, and I’m ready to grow and be more vulnerable about other parts of my life in writing.
How have you grown in terms of songwriting since your debut?
I am so confident in my writing now. I think I’ve never really believed I was a good songwriter until this year – a lot of imposter syndrome was happening.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how vulnerable would you say you are whenever you’re writing songs?
Depends on the song – I’d give an average of 8.
It must have been super exciting to have “What If I Love You” open to such massive success. What was it like for you at the time?
Absolute insanity! It just is such an amazing feeling to have people connect with something you’ve made. LIKE WOW!
Was there a gut feeling that the song would be as special as it is for so many people around the world prior to release?
Yes, respectfully. But yeah I just knew it was special, it just makes people feel which is the coolest thing that could ever happen ever, wowowowow!
Has the fame impacted any aspect of your life?
Hahaha, that made me giggle! I think the fact that I have fans and people who know my song is still quite mind-blowing. I definitely live in a little LA bubble where everyone is pursuing their dreams, I think it is really inspiring to keep working hard and making great art!
If you could collaborate with any artist in the world right now, who would it be and why?
Taylor Swift, duh
I understand that you’ll be touring several US states this fall, what can fans expect from your shows?
Tears, dancing, jumping, glitter, sparkles, and feeling free!
