It’s well known that R&B is one of those genres that will truly never disappear and part of that is due to its amazing adaptability. Whether it’s someone in Finland making R&B beats in their home studio or a K-pop star singing R&B melodies, but then there’s countries like America who have a special relationship with the genre. Natalie Carr, who hails from Charlotte, North Carolina, clearly has a deep connection with the emotive aspect of R&B, as you’ll hear in her very first single ‘Scraped Knees’.

In the quote below, Carr speaks about the creative process behind the song, which started out with free-styling over a wobbling Serum sound before progressing onto  an AABB/CCBB rhyme scheme until the pre-hook, where it became more conversational and melodic. We love this journey of using tried-and-tested songwriting rules, but giving herself the space to allow thoughts and feelings to wander, resulting in great lyrics like “I gave myself a bad bleach job, in the tub, I cried a lot…”

While this might only be Natalie Carr’s first single, it shows a boat load of potential and we look forward to hearing more.

“Honestly, Scraped Knees was one of those songs I wrote that just kind of came out of me. I wasn’t looking to write about any particular thing or any given concept, and I remember free-styling parts of it (as I’ve done with several other songs). As the lyrics came together though, and I began to structure it, I knew it was about the futility of trying to please other people. In the first verse, I talk about getting sober and making tons of changes for a relationship that inevitably failed. It’s almost as if you become the person you think you need to be in a bad relationship just so that you can stay together, but as we are well aware, that doesn’t work. I wrote the hook, ‘scraped knees, jagged teeth, bloodshot baby’ about being emotionally broken and exhausted due to the stresses of preserving a bad relationship and being someone you’re not. ‘Don’t you worry about me… you never worried about me’ is in reference to (said person) coming back into your life at an opportune moment.”

Follow Natalie Carr on Instagram.