Not all feelings turn into the relationship we imagine. Sometimes the dreams are true, the hopes are real, the devotion is there, but the other person doesn't feel the same way. M & J explore that uncomfortable reality with “NOT A LOVE SONG,” a personal release constructed around the tricky area between seeking love and understanding it isn’t happening.
The song is based on the personal experience of one half of M & J, which lends a very human quality to its central theme. What started as an attempt to write a love song for someone they’d met and cared about gradually shifted into something else entirely.
At first, the creative drive was one of love and potential. There were dreams for the relationship, hopes for what it might be, and enough feelings that seemed like they would form the basis of a romantic song. But as those hopes did not materialize within the relationship itself, the song evolved naturally alongside them. “NOT A LOVE SONG” acquires its identity. Rather than pretend that the story turned into the romance originally envisioned, the tune accepts what actually transpired.
There’s something real about that honesty. Few cases of unrequited love are as basic as wanting someone who doesn’t want you in return. It can also mean letting go of a future you dreamed up and realizing that the fiction in your brain does not always come to pass. M & J catch that emotional contradiction in a song that started as one thing and turned into another. The transition is aptly captured in the term itself.
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