IU 2022 graduate Anna Fagin released her debut single “She Was an Hour” as Fleeter on June 10. She wrote the pop folk song for a songwriting class last semester. The single is available on all streaming platforms.
“I used a symbolism with time,” Fagin said. “There's a motif throughout the song about ‘she was an hour and I'm just a minute.’ It's mourning yourself when you are full and glorious and missing that part of you when you're not feeling like that anymore.”
Fagin will perform at Midnight Reality’s Realfest on June 25 in Dunn Meadow, and she frequently performs at The Orbit Room through Cosmic Songwriter’s Club.
The name “Fleeter” pays homage to bands Fagin enjoys, like Fleetwood Mac and Fleet Foxes. She said she thought it was good luck.
“The best part of the song has been this weekend and experiencing a real release. The feedback and support from others has been incredible,” Fagin said. “Friday felt like my birthday with all of the love. And in a way, it was the birth of a new chapter of my music.”
“She Was an Hour” was written in a grieving process, full of lines like “She was full of the sun but somehow burned away.”
“I wrote it about seasonal depression and losing parts of yourself to mental illness and waiting for the months where it's warm outside for those parts of you to come back,” Fagin said.
Fagin said she’s working on new music to possibly release an EP or album this summer. She will play her original songs at Midnight Reality’s Realfest.
Fagin wrote, produced, sang vocals and played acoustic guitar for the song. IU 2022 graduate Matthew Teden also helped produce the song, played acoustic guitar and mixed and mastered it.
Teden said they got musicians together throughout late March and April, mixed it at the end of April and mastered the song last week.
“It's not a sad arrangement,” Teden said. “It doesn't sound sad, it sounds more optimistic in the sense that the song and the arrangement won't let you dwell in that place of depression.”
Alec Lubin helped produce the song and played piano and acoustic guitar. Niko Albanese played drums, Seth Jenkins played electric guitar and Luc Charlier played bass guitar. Charlier said the process was collaborative and casual.
“The whole environment was very positive,” Charlier said. “It comes across when you listen to it, that all of us are friends.”
