Getting into a relationship can take a lot of time, patience and hard work, but getting out of one that’s toxic, can be even more difficult. Rising country artist Spencer Crandall wrote the breakup anthem that perfectly describes what it’s like to finally escape this situation and reflect all the “Red Flags” that were blinded by love.
“It’s a chance to put up your middle fingers and be like, ‘I’m out, I’m breaking this toxic relationship cycle once and for all, and I’m not looking back.’ It’s actually hard work to do that, so I wanted a song that matched the energy of that.”
Crandall makes it a point to write music about how he’s feeling at the moment, to keep his music authentic. Sometimes, that means love songs that show his romantic side and emanate the emotions of someone in a happy relationship, and other times, he ends up with something like “Red Flags.” He teased that the songs he’s currently working on will dig deep into the realm of mental health.
“I wrote ‘My Person’ and ‘Things I Can’t Say’ close to each other because I felt both of those things really close to each other,” Crandall told Music Mayhem. “Similarly with breakup stuff, you write that kind of stuff when you’re going through it. Even on this next project, we have more mental health or songs just about my life and what I’m going through. That comes with certain seasons of feeling extremely anxious or feeling like I’m addicted to work or making the wrong decisions in my life and being vulnerable and putting that in a song. So, I just show up and try to write about how I’m actually feeling. ”
This single was co-penned over zoom with him and two songwriters out in LA. One of them brought a track to the writing session, which instantly sparked Crandall’s idea for the chorus. The lyrics speak on the personal growth that comes from being able to finally move on from the relationship that was probably doing more harm than good in the end.
“It was just so vibey, I was like ‘woah.’ I had this hook on my phone that said, ‘I’ve taken off the rose colored glasses, now I can see your red flags.’ I thought that was a cool way to say, ‘when you’re in it, you can never see the things that are going wrong. It takes time and distance.’ When you do, I’m sure we’ve all felt this way, you’re like, ‘I dated that human? What was I thinking, What was I doing?’”
Crandall was humble enough to share what some might consider his red flags when it comes to relationships. For one, he doesn’t like pickles, which could be a major deal-breaker to any pickle lovers. He also considers himself to be a workaholic, which can often make it hard to put enough time and effort into making a relationship work. This is one struggle Crandall can definitely relate to in his personal life because of how passionate and driven he is with his career.
“My girlfriend and my baby is this music career. I’ll even turn off a good thing when it’s happening because I’m like, ‘oh it’s getting in the way,’ which is toxic, that’s a big ole red flag.”
His soulmate-oriented single titled, “Made,” is what Crandall calls, the “sister song,” to this breakup track because one talks about the start of a relationship while the other talks about the end.
“‘Red Flags’ is the hard work to get out, and ‘Made’ is the hard work to get in,” he explained. “That is the toughest part of where I’m at in my personal life…it’s tough to know who you need to sing ‘Red Flags’ to and who you need to sing ‘Made’ to. There’s a very thin line so I want to give people both these emotions ’cause I feel both those things, and I think that’s my job as an artist.”
While on the road with Lauren Alaina for her Top Of The World Tour, Crandall got to open his set in Chicago, IL with this new song for the first time, and the crowd was nothing short of excited for the track to drop. By the end of the song, the audience members had already picked up on the catchy chorus.
Crandall revealed that he and Alaina became “fast friends” since they learned they would be spending a lot of time together, traveling from city to city playing their music. This is no surprise, considering their bubbly personalities and great passion for music.
“She is a ball of energy, she’s like if Red Bull was a person, she’s a singing robot from the future, she is like the best singer I’ve ever heard in my life, but just a sweet human being. They are also so good to us and really accommodating. Lauren is the kind of person that’s the least famous, famous person, she’s just awesome.”
Kick-starting his career on social media, Crandall got pretty used to performing to his fans through a screen, but now, he finally has the chance to experience the energy of a live crowd again.
“It’s incredible. You build this thing on the internet and you never know what it actually means,” he said. “The fact that people show up early to a VIP, the fact that we had this 6-year-old boy that came early tonight and was crying, that’s the stuff that you can never dream of happening until it happens. It’s so surreal, it’s incredible to watch it translate from a TikTok thing to a streaming thing, to a radio thing, to a thing that people actually show up and sing the lyrics back to you. It’s the exact reason I got into music.”
@musicmayhemmagazine @Spencer Crandall kick off his set tonight with his brand new unreleased song #RedFlags which is destined to be a smash hit! 📷: @Maddyoconnell
The Top Of The World Tour will run until April 15, when they reach their last stop in Charleston, SC.
