After 15 years of silence, Matthew Ryan and Neilson Hubbard of Strays Don’t Sleep have reconnected to create a song that palpably encapsulates the anxieties that have weighed on everyone during these unprecedented times.
Guided by the chaos and strife of our modern world, “I Walked Away” is a song of deep-seated fatigue – a final attempt to remain intact with oneself. Their voices whisper pleas of quiet desperation so hushed it’s almost as if they are the voice in all of our heads.
“The song tells an intimate story with a wider message, that reclamation is possible if you willfully choose it. It took me weeks after we wrote it to understand what we had written. I just liked the song, it feels good to sing because it has an honest sense of hope about it… It’s a song about man vs himself, and how losing that battle affects others. It’s a love song,” they explain.