"Rather Have You Wild" Song Story

I had a little seven year old girl drag me to a mirror and point to parts of her face saying, "I don't like this, I don't like this, I don't like these......". Then in the same week I was teaching music to children in a circle and said to a different girl, also seven, "Come sit by me, beautiful". She said, without missing a beat, "Oh I'll come, but I'm not beautiful, I'm ugly". She was absolutely matter of fact and sat down ready for class.

That week a song was born.

Why, by the tender age of 7, have girls decided that their worth and attractiveness is based on outward appearance alone, and what is their measuring stick? The voices who know them best and love them inside and out MUST be loudest and speak the truth plainly - that they are beautiful exactly as they are; rugged, wild, and uniquely created. And that truth must cut through the words they hear from others and words they speak over themselves.

The imagery in this track is a beautiful tamed horse, pretty, but bound by bit and bridle, contained. Compare this to a beautiful wild horse running with abandon, feeling its stride and made for running wild. That’s how I want them to feel inside. Free to be themselves, unaffected by societal pressure to conform to looking like something else and thinking that is normal.

“I'd rather have you wild and free than tamed to perfection" is the underlying sentiment. Freedom. Identity. Truth.

“Rather Have You Wild” track musicians:
Vocals, Violin, Viola, Piano: Rebekah van Tinteren
Cello: Antonio Marin
Guitars: Seth Carlson
Drums: Nathan Sletner