{"id":2122,"date":"2015-10-06T14:36:49","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T18:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/ebuckhor\/?page_id=1770"},"modified":"2015-10-06T14:36:49","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T18:36:49","slug":"fight-song","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2015\/features\/fight-song\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is Her ‘Fight Song’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rachel Platten \u201903 soars with pop music hit<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Maura King Scully
\nPhotos by Shane McCauley
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"F15-RachelPlatten_by-Shane-McCauley-SM15_#4CF50F4-(2)\"<\/a>IT\u2019S EVERYWHERE. You hear Rachel Platten\u2019s \u201cFight Song\u201d in the elevator or the grocery store. A Connecticut marketing firm used it in a video for Connecticut Children\u2019s Medical Center; it\u2019s in the trailer for the launch of the CBS TV show Supergirl<\/em>, as well as the new Ford Edge commercial. In April, Platten sang it at the Radio Disney Music Awards. In May, she sang it on Good Morning America<\/em>, simulcast on the Jumbotron in Times Square. In June, VH1 named her a You Oughta Know artist. Over the summer, the song hit Billboard\u2019s overall top 10 and reached No. 1 on the iTunes all-genre single sales chart. It also hit No. 1 on adult pop radio and the top 10 of top 40 radio. And her \u201cFight Song\u201d video had more than 30 million views.<\/p>\n

Platten is seemingly an overnight sensation. It\u2019s an \u201covernight,\u201d however, that was 13 years in the making and traces its roots to Trinity College.<\/p>\n

EARLY SIGNS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI always loved music; I just didn\u2019t think I was good enough,\u201d explains Platten, who grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, playing the piano and singing. At Trinity, she was a four-year member of the Trinitones, eventually directing the a cappella group. And it was at Trinity that she felt the first glimmers of a solo career. Sophomore year, she sang with her friend\u2019s band one Friday night at a fraternity party. \u201cWhen I was finished, I thought, \u2018Oh my God, that was the most fun thing I\u2019ve ever done!\u2019 \u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

A few months later, Platten, a political science major, was in class, listening to someone from the Office of Study Away talk about all the different opportunities. \u201cHe mentioned a new program in Trinidad. \u2018Music is everything in Trinidad,\u2019 he said. My first thought was, \u2018I have to go there.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

And she did, spending the spring of her junior year taking classes at The University of the West Indies and interning at a record label. There, she met Andre Tankard, a gifted songwriter, and took lessons from him. When she went home that summer, she enrolled in a songwriting course at Boston\u2019s Berklee College of Music and ended up making a demo CD.<\/p>\n

Back at Trinity as a senior, Platten met John Alcorn, principal lecturer in language and culture studies, who organized a program called Inside the Music. \u201cI would search for up-and-coming bands and book them to come to Trinity on a night when they were in between shows in Boston and New York,\u201d Alcorn said. Students who were part of the music scene on campus were invited to sound check and then to have dinner with the band.<\/p>\n

\u201cRachel showed up at a sound check in fall 2002,\u201d Alcorn recounts. Learning she had a demo, he asked for a copy. \u201cWhen I heard it, I immediately knew this was true talent.\u201d Alcorn helped Platten assemble a band of talented local musicians and book gigs at Hartford hot spots like Black-eyed Sally\u2019s, Sully\u2019s Pub, and the Webster Theater.<\/p>\n

On the sidelines, Platten\u2019s academic adviser, Brigitte Schulz, now a retired professor of political science, was a steadfast cheerleader. \u201cI kept telling her, \u2018Follow your heart, Rachel.\u2019 I could see she really had something special,\u201d Schulz recalls. Platten remembers panicking one day because she had an important show but also a paper due for Schulz\u2019s class the next day. \u201cProfessor Schulz told me, \u2018Of course you have to go and do your music, Rachel.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Though Schulz has no recollection of the event, the story doesn\u2019t surprise her. \u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong. If I had a student who was messing around, I would turn into steel about deadlines. But I never thought my own classes should necessarily be the most important to students,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted them to have open minds and treat all of life as a learning experience. Rachel was a brilliant student but also very passionate about her music.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Platten kept learning. In May 2003, Alcorn helped her record Trust in Me<\/em>, her first full-length CD of original songs. \u201cRachel ended up selling out of the CDs at Commencement,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

BUILDING FIRES<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Rachel<\/a>
Rachel Platten \u201903 rocketed to No. 1 on the iTunes all-genre single sales chart in June with \u201cFight Song,\u201d knocking \u201cBad Blood\u201d by Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar out of the top spot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After making it in Hartford, Platten decided to move on to New York City. \u201cI look back now and I think, \u2018Who was that girl?\u2019 \u201d she says. New York was a harsh wake-up call. \u201cMy singing wasn\u2019t good enough. My piano playing wasn\u2019t good enough,\u201d she says. And her parents were scared, though at first, they supported her financially. Eventually, that came to an end. \u201cI was broke, and my parents said to me, \u2018We\u2019re not going to help you anymore. If you\u2019re going to make music your life, you need to figure this out.\u2019 \u201d So Platten began playing covers every night from 1:00 to 4:00 a.m. in Greenwich Village. \u201cThank God I did that,\u201d she reflects. \u201cI can sing to any crowd now. I learned how to work a room and how to get a crowd of even the most seemingly uninterested people to pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2011, Platten\u2019s single \u201c1,000 Ships\u201d made it into the top 25 on the Billboard charts. \u201cThat got me on the map,\u201d she recalls, but the glow didn\u2019t last long. At the time, she was opening for Andy Grammer, whose hits include \u201cHoney, I\u2019m Good.\u201d She liked Grammer\u2019s agent, Ben Singer, and the way the two worked together. \u201cSo I called him and said, \u2018I\u2019d like to be part of your team.\u2019 \u2018Stop warming yourself on other people\u2019s fires,\u2019 he said to me. \u2018Go build your own fire.\u2019 \u2018Wow,\u2019 I remember thinking to myself. \u2018Okay, it\u2019s back to basics.\u2019 And that\u2019s songwriting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Platten locked herself in her apartment for three months and wrote. \u201cWhen Ben saw that I was serious, he called and said, \u2018I\u2019m in. I want to work with you.\u2019 That three months turned out to be the tip of the iceberg: Platten ended up spending two and a half years in full songwriting mode, composing 130 songs. \u201cIt took me 18 months to write \u2018Fight Song,\u2019 \u201d she explains. \u201cI rewrote the bridges five times and reworked the verses seven times. It was torture. Amazing songs don\u2019t have to be hard to write \u2026 they can come out very quickly and feel like gifts that you just get to channel. But \u2018Fight Song\u2019 for some reason was not one of them. It was laborious, and I had to go through the trenches for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

OWNING IT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to \u201cFight Song,\u201d Platten now has a large team, including a record label, publicist, agent, business manager, and others. She released an EP (extended play recording) of the same name in May and spent the summer on the road with Colbie Caillat and Christina Perri on the \u201cThe Girls Night Out, Boys Can Come Too\u201d tour, with stops across the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking around, I feel really so incredibly proud of where I am,\u201d Platten says. For years, she\u2019s strived to be heard, and \u201cFight Song\u201d has finally given her that chance. \u201cI felt like I deserved to be on those big\u00a0stages, to be told that my voice mattered and that my songs were valid. When that validation didn\u2019t come, that pain led to \u2018Fight Song.\u2019 It led me to need to declare, no matter what, that I still believe in myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud that a\u00a0song I wrote when I was at my lowest point is now helping people find light and hope as they go through\u00a0theirs,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what more I could ask for; I feel very very grateful.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel Platten \u201903 soars with pop music hit By Maura King Scully Photos by Shane McCauley IT\u2019S EVERYWHERE. You hear<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"parent":1464,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-full-width.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2122\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-fall2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}