Merrick Winter Shares New Single ‘Try Me’
British-American songwriter and producer Merrick Winter shares his brand new single Try Me, a memorable singer-songwriter gem.
What I like the most about the song is its warmth and intimate atmosphere, with the acoustic guitar-based melodies creating quite a soothing soundscape for his gorgeous vocals and storytelling to soar. Try Me is Merrick Winter's way of addressing the several school shootings that have swept across American since he was a child. It shows how these things can happen in any small town in America and how he is simply trying to understand why these things keep happening. This honest, heartfelt storytelling is wrapped around a memorable production that pairs the intricate guitar riffs with echoing backing vocals and violin, together creating a warm, intimate atmosphere perfect for an introspective day. Check it out below!
Speaking about the song, Merrick Winter said,
‘Try Me’ is a song about the wave of successive school shootings that have swept across America since I was a child. So often the perpetrators are kids. Recently I discovered that a similar tragedy had happened in my hometown after I left, and suddenly the narrative became very real, very personal. It deeply affected my community, and really got under my skin. I wanted to write a song that explored how it might happen in any small town in America, but I wanted to do it with empathy - to just imagine for myself how it could have gone so wrong. Something I notice is that blame for school shootings gets shifted around as a political tool, and the human factors that lead to them - mental health, inequality, the crisis of masculinity - are overshadowed by a narrative of good and evil. The response is likewise reduced to ‘thoughts and prayers’. But when you know both the victims and the perpetrators personally, it just seems totally ineffective.
The title ‘Try Me’ came from watching a courtroom proceeding and realizing that when some of these kids commit these atrocities, they are children under the eyes of the law, but they are men when they go to trial. For me, the song is a kind of tired sigh - it’s putting my hands up in the air, stepping back and just observing the issue. I’m not trying to pass judgment, just trying to understand.