Jenna McDougall has released the second track from her solo project Hevenshe, “Trying Not To Feel” today. The new track serves as a glimpse into McDougall’s reclamation of autonomy and an exploration in trying to find faith in a brighter future. Listen to it now below.
“‘Trying Not To Feel’ was written in my backyard, which was a saving grace through our extended lockdowns in Melbourne,” says McDougall on the new single. “While I was workshopping the song I’d occasionally hear a neighbour’s applause from over the fence, which would make me scurry out of sight laughing, as I was often taking advantage of the sun, ‘nude in the garden’ to quote the second verse.”
The track acts as the follow-up to Hevenshe’s debut single, “No One Will Ever Love You”, released in June. Hevenshe (Heaven – she, a mirrored expression of Divine Feminine) offers us a bold delivery of original, open letter artistry, both lyrically striking and sonically timeless. Welcoming the entire spectrum of emotion, Jenna McDougall once again invites her beloved audience into tell-all melodic journeys, rippling with transcendence.
When asked how this project came to be, McDougall stated that Hevenshe felt “inevitable – like the potential I’ve always had. She was waiting for me. The blueprint was always there.”
Hevenshe is simultaneously a departure from McDougall’s punk-emo roots and a continuation of her original mission: self-empowerment and emotional freedom. “There’s an element of limitation to being in a band. When Tonight Alive decided to go on hiatus, I was immediately trying to write my own songs and develop something new, without even really knowing or believing that I could. I felt blocked by my expectations and eventually had to surrender what I wanted this project to be. From that place I was able to find my authentic sound. Hevenshe literally feels like what my voice is made for.”
Hevenshe is a self-managed and independently released project on the artist’s budding label PREMA Records. For the first time in over a decade, McDougall is experiencing what it’s like to be an unestablished artist. This seems to excite, rather than intimidate her. “The hiatus combined with the pandemic has been a very humbling chapter of my life. It’s reinforced how fragile and temporary everything is. I’m looking forward to cherishing every moment of Hevenshe.”
“The birth of Hevenshe is not the death of Tonight Alive,” says McDougall on the future of the band. “We are not disbanding. Individually we’ve all found fulfilment from our personal lives and projects through this time, but having a shared goal is starting to become exciting for us again. We look forward to sharing news with fans as those conversations develop!”