Fans of Jason Mraz and Gavin DeGraw will gravitate towards Los Angeles, CA solo artist, Keaton Simons, with the familiarity of his raspy voice and catchy pop-rock melodies. Take an in depth look as he explains the muse behind his heart wrenching single “Beautiful Pain” off his latest album that drops on April 30th. Keep an eye out for this artist, because his vulnerable, yet catchy tunes have the potential to one day pop up through the speakers of your car radio.
Background
“Beautiful pain is a concept that I’ve been fascinated by for my entire life. I’ve only now been able to put it into words. It’s about loving something or someone so much that it hurts. Experiencing something so beautiful that it is painful. About three and a half years ago I was performing at a festival in Upstate New York. The last thing I expected was to be overcome by beautiful pain, but I was when I met my now girlfriend Laura. We connected very intensely very quickly and then went our separate ways. Neither of us knew what would happen next. I got in my rental car and started driving 8 hours to my next show.
I was so inspired by the way I felt that I began frantically scribbling and singing lyrics. “Why’s it gotta be so hard? Why’s it gotta be this way? It’s like I’m being torn apart by all this beautiful pain.” Then, “You never lost, but you never won. ‘Cause you never fought and you never moved on.” Pretty soon I had the first few verses and the beginning of the chorus.
The song kind of stalled there. The story needed to play out before the song could be finished. I’m happy to say that the song was finished a few months later with Laura sitting right next to me on my couch in LA (I had stolen her from Boston, where she was living at the time that we met). The overall message is that love is worth fighting for and that that fight starts within all of us.”
Lyrics
Why’s it gotta be so hard, why’s it gotta be this way
It’s like I’m being torn apart, all this beautiful pain
I know you wanna be with me, but you gotta go to him
Freedom isn’t really free, you sink before you learn to swim
And I shudder in my sleep, I can hardly close my eyes
Then I wake up in a dream, free now from a life of compromise
Well you never lost but you never won, cause you never fought and you never
moved on
You never lost but you never won, cause you never fought and you never
moved on
Don’t be afraid of looking back, no, everybody has a past
Now you got my heart racing in just a few dates and I wanna be patient so
this doesn’t fade away
If you’re gonna save a life, baby it should be your own
Cause baby we don’t have much time, before we go stumbling home
And I know that we just met, but what I never understood
How can something be that bad, when it feels this good
And I shudder in my sleep, I can hardly close my eyes
Then I wake up in a dream, free now from a life of compromise
Oh you never lost but you never won, cause you never fought and you never
moved on
You never lost but you never won, cause you never fought and you never
moved on
Don’t be afraid of looking back, no, everybody has a past
Now you got my heart racing in just a few dates and I wanna be patient so
this doesn’t fade away
No so this doesn’t fade away
No so this doesn’t fade away
Well you never lost but you never won, cause you never fought and you never
moved on
You never lost but you never won, cause you never fought and you never
moved on
You never lost but you never won, cause you never fought and you never
moved on
You never lost but you never won, cause you never fought and you never
moved on
Don’t be afraid of looking back, no, everybody has a past
Now you got my heart racing in just a few dates and I wanna be patient so
this doesn’t fade
You got my heart racing in just a few dates, I wanna be patient so this
doesn’t fade away
Why’s it gotta be so hard, why’s it gotta be this way
It’s like I’m being torn apart, all this beautiful pain
