Feel Again

Album: Native (2012)
Charted: 36
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the lead single by the American rock band OneRepublic, from their third album. The song premiered online on July 28, 2012 and was performed for the first time on the August 10, 2012 edition of Good Morning America. It was released for digital download on August 27, 2012.
  • The song was inspired by children in remote villages who are in need of life-saving care. Part of the sales of the single were donated to Save the Children's Every Beat Matters campaign to support training frontline health workers around the world. According to the organization's website, when writing the song, Tedder drew on recordings of children's heartbeats for inspiration.
  • The uplifting video was filmed in a redwood forest near San Francisco, between July 31, and August 2, 2012.
  • Guitarist Zach Filkins commented to AOL Music regarding the song's meaning: "I think the thing about 'Feel Again' is the concept of coming back to life a little bit, not being so numb, you know? To slow down a little bit and feel again. It's such a universal concept. It's something that we all need to do. Get back to being in the moment... It's where our heads are at right now."
  • The song was inspired by another Native track, "What You Wanted," which singer-keyboardist Ryan Tedder described to The Toronto Sun as, "Kind of the backbone of the album." He explained: "It was like, 'Wow, we've never done anything that sounds like this and I don't know anything that sounds like this. Let's go here.' So the very next thing, like two days later, I think, we walked into the studio. We had one night to kill. (Bassist-cellist Brent Kutzle) got on this old analog keyboard and I got on drums and he just started playing. And we were both like, 'This is kind of cool.' And we recorded it and ended up knocking out about 90 seconds worth of a song. And in my mind that's all you need to know if a song is good or not. If you've not convinced yourself that you have something great after 90 seconds no one else is going to be."

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