Drea Jeann - No Sympathy
DREA JEANN CAPTIVATES ON ‘NO SYMPATHY’
NorCal pop singer-songwriter Drea Jeann recently released the music video for “No Sympathy,” followed by the visuals for the piano version of the song, dripping with raw emotions.
Drea Jeann | Photo: Jeremy Lee
Drea explains the song’s inspiration, “’No Sympathy’ is about addiction. ‘No Sympathy’ depicts substance use in searching for something more of life than life had to give. Life itself wasn’t enough in that time. I needed more, and life didn’t meet my standards. It’s about using substance as an excuse, an escape, an emotion, a feeling, anything to overcome actual reality. I used substance to run way from myself when I didn’t even realize I was doing it. By the time I turned back to contemplate on how far I’d run off, and realize I was lost, the substance was then using me. I was then as inanimate as it, an emotionless being some called Drea, and she couldn’t hear the distant cries of her real self to be released and set free. And so she ran further, in fear. She’d look in the mirror and had no recollection of where she came from or who she was. I had become a side thought to myself. This is what ‘No Sympathy’ is about.”
While growing up in San Jose, California, Drea listened to blues, jazz, classical, pop, and rock music. By the time she was six-years-old, she was writing fragments of music and performing live.
"Even in elementary school, I'd make up my own melodies and write my own verses," she remembers. "I'd start a lot of songs but couldn't finish them yet. I didn't know how to do that. But I always had it in me, even if I didn't have the guidance yet."
Later, Drea elected to attend Pepperdine University instead of Berklee School of Music. After graduating, she hooked up with Emmy-winner Eddie Wohl. The two began working together in L.A. In the fall of 2019, Drea released her debut single, “Faithfully,” followed by “Come Back To Me.” Her first release of 2020 was the darkly layered “No Sympathy,” relating her personal confrontation with cocaine addiction, a battle she won, but one that left an indelible impact on her life and her music.
“No Sympathy” opens on surging colors topped by elevated spiraling tones, as Drea’s deliciously evocative voice narrates her encounter.
"I can't write about something unless I've personally felt it," Drea says. "I'm just not a good liar. I do my best work when it's coming from the heart, so all of these songs are based off different experiences I've had, whether I'm writing about a long-distance relationship or the sheer insanity of addiction."
She goes on to add, "I wouldn't change anything that's happened to me. Going through something like addiction — and getting help, which was necessary for me get better — has opened me up to talking about real pain and real emotions. It was the worst thing and the best thing that's ever happened to me because I've learned to be honest. I'm learned to be me. And I've learned that I can write and sing about all of that."
“No Sympathy” opens on surging colors topped by elevated spiraling tones, as Drea’s deliciously evocative voice narrates her encounter. Gleaming, ethereal timbres imbue the harmonics with radiant textures traveling over the opaquely thrumming alt-pop melody, exuding tantalizing, palpable wisps of tempestuous aching passion.
The visuals mirror the spectral mood of the gut-wrenching lyrics.
“Don’t know what’s coming over me / I open up my eyes yet I can’t see / My life is moving yet I’m standing still / Can’t stop the thrill / Can’t stop until / I’m on the ground again / Tryna find the words to speak.”
Wonderfully wrought, with “No Sympathy,” Drea Jeann conveys a luscious articulate cry of desolation, as she comes face-to-face with her demons.
