Four years after American rising artist Gatton came out with the track When Scars Become Art, he didn’t expect that it would become a fan favorite here in the Philippines.
The song became one of the fastest growing songs in the country after he uploaded a TikTok video of it last January. It immediately went viral with 5.4 million views, 664,000 likes, 6,441 comments and 900,000-plus user generated content videos using the audio and sparked the song’s incredible growth, as cited in the media release.
He credited the newfound fame of the song to the concept itself, which is trying to “make art out of your scars and find beauty in every situation.”
“I think that’s probably the concept that people are clinging to more and more in the world that we live in. I think the world is just, you know, it feels crazy and busy and it’s exhausting and all the things,” he told The STAR in an exclusive virtual chat. “So, I think that people are looking for comfort and I think right now, more than ever, it’s really necessary to recognize that out of all the pain and all the sorrow and the grief in this world, we can still choose to make something beautiful out of it and to find art in every single scar.”
Gatton believed that it has something to do with the “timing the world is right now,” when asked for a possible explanation why the song became a fan favorite, years after its inception.
The acoustic pop song has a tinge of melancholy, but is hopeful and inspirational. The artist wrote the song after he underwent one of the toughest seasons of his life, having “lost multiple really formative relationships and opportunities at the time and in turn lost myself.”
When Scars Become Art eventually became the “anthem of my life which is to cultivate art out of every scar and to choose resilience.” It kind of resonated with the audience because, “We all are trying to do that in some way. We are all trying to overcome our pain. And then (it is) something like making something beautiful and discovering a new found strength from the pain.”
He mused, “I think that’s why it resonated with people (because of) its concept that can be applied to so many different contexts and so many different seasons of life. We’re constantly ebbing and flowing and overcoming things.”
Gatton grew up singing in school and church but never was a songwriter until about four years ago. “I’ve always written poems, journals but never really had a song (written). When I was writing When Scars Become Art, there was something different the way I felt,” he recalled. “I said to myself, ‘coz I wrote it so quickly, I just had an inexplicable feeling and I remember saying like, I know that the song will change my life in some way. I don’t know how. I don’t know how it will look like but I do know that my life will not be the same from this concept (of) when scars become art and from this song.”
Moving forward, he felt that he has fully healed from that darkest part of his life. He learned so much from that experience and was grateful for that “season.”
As he looked back, he said, “I recognized that I needed that pain, sorrow and loss to cultivate this new found strength. I think it really made me who I’ve become. And so I feel really grateful that I went through the pain because I think that’s what I exactly needed — to kind of grow up and to heal.”
Gatton is a huge fan of Adele and Yebba. At present, he is busy putting together the materials for his debut album slated for release this year.
He couldn’t hide his excitement when he expressed his intention of coming to the Philippines and sharing more of his music to the Filipino fans, whom he said had saved him from quitting his career as a music artist.
“The Philippines just genuinely changed my life. I don’t even say that lightly because I honestly wanted to quit music last year. I was so burned out and exhausted. I didn’t know the direction I wanted to go. I’m in Nashville, so everyone is doing music here and that’s kind of overwhelming at times,” he shared.
“I was like so confused on what I wanted to do. I really did consider like, maybe this (music) is just not for me and move on. Right at the beginning of this year, everything just took off, specifically, in the Philippines,” he went on. “I am just so touched and blown away by how kind and supportive they are. So just to meet all my ‘fellow’ Filipinos and hug them and sing for them, with them, and to explore (the country), it looks like a beautiful place. I wanted to try some food and I want to have the full experience.”
He ended the interview with these words for his fans: “I love you guys. Mahal kita. I love the Philippines with all my heart. It changed my life completely and I am so, so grateful. Thank you so much for loving my music. There’s more that comes in.”