Brandi Carlile Joins Brandy Clark for a Haunting Single, "Same Devil"

Brandy Clark and Brandi Carlile teamed up for their collaboration track, "Same Devil" - and they didn't hold back. It's equally eerie and powerful, and touches on issues such as drug addiction, sexuality, and politics from a southern perspective.

     The lyrics are deep with a touch of darkness - Clark, who has written The Band Perry's "Better Dig Two" and Kacey Musgraves' "Follow Your Arrow," doesn't shy away from the typically taboo. She opens the first verse by describing a man selling drugs to a sex worker whose mother is worrying about her. She then transitions to a bully who is waiting to attack a classmate who's hiding his sexuality from his traditional parents. Carlile joins to sing the chorus to sing: "Same train, different track / Different mama, same heart attack." As the chorus develops, their sentiment becomes clear: while we all have different problems, different addictions, different "demons," they're all the result of the "same devil." The second verse develops it more, bringing in a powerful, uniting statement about politics that could hit home no matter which side of the spectrum you place yourself: "You voted for the snake and I voted for the rat / They're rollin' in the dough while we're fightin' for scraps." 

     The music is in a haunting minor key, giving the raw harmonies a deeper feeling and making the song more explosive. The artists wrote and recorded the song over a Zoom chat as Carlile was in Washington State while Clark was in Nashville. While this is their first official collaboration, they have sung together on their tours before, so their harmony came naturally - they refer to themselves as "BC Squared" as a play on their matching initials. This is Clark's first release since her recent full-length album, Your Life is a Record back in March, and Carlile's most recent project since her single for Disney's "Onward" movie, "Carried Me With You." You can stream "Same Devil" everywhere now.