Rising indie-pop star Gatlin has released her mesmerizing new single, “When You’re Breaking My Heart” today. Brimming with raw emotion, the track is a powerful slow bloom into a heart racing anthem about the fear of letting real love in. Carried by Gatlin’s impressive vocal range and a simplistic, tender production, the song can be heard now below.
The accompanying music video is lush and surreal. Gatlin, dressed in blue silk, navigates a mystical hedge maze, searching for her lover. The unknown twists and turns of the maze perfectly represent the internal maze of Gatlin’s mixed emotions towards her partner and love itself.
Gatlin says this of the new single, “‘When You’re Breaking My Heart’ is a satirical window into all the unhealthy thoughts and habits I have in relationships. I often put up a front of being bored or apathetic when someone is “all in” and pursuing me in earnest, and I convince myself that I didn’t actually want them in the first place. But the reality that I explore in the bridge and final chorus of the song is that it’s all just fear and vulnerability. If I actually let someone in, I’m giving up control and they have the power to really hurt me.”
“When You’re Breaking My Heart” is Gatlin’s second release of 2023, following January’s “Still Not Me”. The gentle, swaying track is the perfect kiss-off to an ex that has found love with somebody else. Solemn and yearning Gatlin strikes a delicate balance between vulnerability and restrained confidence. The soft-spun song proves definitively to the person the song is addressed to, and the music world at large, that she is a force to be reckoned with.