New York, NY (Top40 Charts) "Because I'm triggered,
Won't let your words become disfigured
Won't let my temperament divide me
I'm coming in for a landing"
-"Triggered," written by Vicky Hamilton and Gregory Darling
Have you ever become triggered and then had to face the challenge of how to move on from past conflicts and disappointments?
This theme is explored in "Triggered," the newly released song from DARLING CRUEL featuring GREGORY DARLING. The beautifully orchestrated and haunting piano pop ballad was written by Gregory Darling, who also produced and arranged the song, and is based on Vicky Hamilton's (music executive, songwriter, author and music artist manager) lyrics. The two penned songs together in the late '80s when DARLING CRUEL was signed to Polygram Records and Vicky was the band's manager. The haunting, black and white lyric video for "Triggered," directed by Atlanta producer/director Ridge Beck, has been released today (August 23). Watch it HERE and listen to the song HERE.
"During Covid times, Vicky sent me a poem to look over," says DARLING, who produced and arranged the track. "Immediately I felt it was my own, so it was a walk in the park to write the music, sing and produce the song."
"Triggered" taps into Vicky Hamilton's early years as a manager (Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue, Poison, and others) which she wrote about in her acclaimed 2016 memoir, Appetite For Dysfunction. Hamilton—who also notably signed June Carter Cash to her label and released the Grammy Award-winning album Press On (Best Traditional Folk Album) in 2000—says: "The song started out as a poem—I often journal or write poems about situations that are troubling to me to work out my feelings. The poem is about how in my younger years as a manager, I would just allow myself to be drawn out into open battle with my management clients and debate the subject at hand. Now," she elaborates, "I really try to sit with my feelings and analyze why and what is triggering me in any given situation. With my current younger clients, certain phrases and ideas make me remember past experiences but it's hard to explain to them the pain of the past and bad decisions that were made. Sometimes in the present moment, you have to let them fall to know the ground is hard."
The songwriting reunion of Hamilton and her current management client Darling was a long time in the making.
"This is the first song we've written together in over 20 years!" Hamilton says. "Gregory and I went back and forth over how we should release this song…Gregory's band name, or to just under his name of Gregory Darling. In the end, we decided to use both names. He really got the music and arrangement totally right! It's hard for me to listen to the song without getting goosebumps. If you go back and look at the 'Everything's Over (Passion Crimes)' video by Darling Cruel from the mid 80's, which was the first song we wrote together, you begin to see the full circle of our relationship. We are both adults now…it's been Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, but in the end, we have crazy respect for each other, and we no longer sweat the small stuff."
Hamilton is reliving her early days in rock via her interviews in the current Paramount+ docuseries "I Wanna Rock: The '80s Metal Dream." "Can I just say how much I love Tyler Measom the director of the series?" she says. "It was a four-year journey and Tyler really got my story and brought it to life. I've recorded a lot video interviews but I feel like Tyler really presented my true story and edited it with clips of the bands I worked in the past like
Guns N' Roses and
Poison and he even got a clip of my current client, Lovely World, opening for
Bon Jovi which Ridge Beck shot! 'Triggered' is the song that takes my whole management career full circle…when you live long enough, it all starts making sense!"
