‘I Knew The Pain’ by Hayley Marsten – Video Premiere

Brisbane based singer-songwriter, Hayley Marsten has released I Knew The Pain. The deeply personal single, co-written in 2020 with Kieran Stevenson, was penned during a challenging time for Hayley and was the last song they wrote together for the new record, Girlhood, out June 16. It developed from an idea that Hayley had simply recorded on her phone whilst travelling home from a day job that was bringing her little happiness and fulfilment.

Hayley explains, “I had been suffering from severe burnout and struggling a lot financially and emotionally from cancelled shows. Our standing co-write dates were my reason to get out of bed on those days and before we started them, I really considered that I would never return to music because I couldn’t see a way out of the way I was feeling.  I thought the idea was pretty nothing and it was probably going to break our streak of great songs but as we talked and unpacked how I’d been feeling and the breakthroughs I had been having in therapy, it slowly formed into one of my favourite songs we’d ever written.”

“I Knew the Pain came from a sad, lonely, dark place where I wanted to crawl back to the familiar numbness I knew so well sometimes, rather than face the world full of new things to hurt me. It sounded so sad when I explained it to Kieran in our writing session but I’m so lucky he totally understood.  It was really a healing process for me. I’ve gotten to play this song live more than any other before release and I don’t think of it as the song I wrote about my poor mental health but the one that everyone gets excited to play and hear on our setlist now.”

The accompanying music video, which premieres today exclusively on Countrytown, was shot at The Station Brisbane, a studio and event space in Fortitude Valley.  

Hayley says, “We shot the clip on the same day we shot the album cover (very big day!) and I worked with Jazmyn Produces on this video again. My concept was 3 different stages of healing, one when I'm still in the thick of the bad days and looked a little dishevelled, which was how I felt when I first had the idea for the song. One where I had put on a brave face and still wasn't out of the woods, which is how I felt when I wrote the song, and then finally the tinsel ponytail version of me is on the other side, which was where I was when we shot the video and finished the album. They all link and mix together because if I've learned anything, it's that healing is never linear. We also played around with projections of I Knew the Pain across all of the versions of me in the video to link to that notion.”  

Watch the video below or via the link here.

Hayley’s forthcoming album Girlhood is out on June 16 and features her previous singles, I Am a Rich Man, Drowning Myself, I’m Fine, Thanks and Bittersweet at Best.

On the record, Hayley says, “For me, Girlhood is the album I wanted and needed to hear when I was younger. Everything from the songs down to the way the album looks was really inspired by who I so badly wanted to be when I was a teenager and I’m really proud of what I made for that younger self.”

Keep up to date with Hayley Marsten via her Facebook page here.

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