The Story

Back then, I believed only I could save me.

I was a couple of years into running my online business, and I hadn’t written a song in a long time.

Two of my longtime co-writers, Justin and Stelle, came to visit me in Arizona. We’d all spent our careers writing for TV, film and sync. Writing for other people.

That day I asked, “Can we not write for anyone? Can we just write what we feel?”

Stelle had the word renovate in her notebook. I said, “What if it’s Renovate Me?”

The song poured out in under an hour, and all three of us were crying.

It comes from the version of me who still believed only I could save me. Get the right tools, fix the holes, do it alone. That’s why it closes Act One. The first half of this record is all the trying to fix it.

And then this vision dropped into my head: everyone singing it with me. My community had been such a big part of my life, and of my healing, and I wanted them inside this song.

So I went to my former students, plus friends and family who’ve been around since long before any of this, and asked: if you want to be on this record, send me your voice.

Seventy-one people did. That’s them in the “whoa” at the end.

The song says only I can save me.

Then seventy-one people showed up
to sing it with me.