Madeleine Besson’s new album, Journey Home, is named for a trek in both the literal and metaphorical sense. As the Nashville singer-songwriter puts it herself, “the album is about taking a journey back to your own heart. It’s about my journey of leaving France, coming to Nashville, and finding my home in music. Finding my sound. Finding peace within, too. Wherever we are, that’s our home. There’s some real depth to that idea—to the idea that we can have unconditional love and support for ourselves—and that’s how I approached the songs on this album.”
“With You” is the last song that Besson wrote for Journey Home. Steeped in soul, the track carries an obvious influence from the torch songs of old from the likes of Etta James but never falls into these powerful melodic entrancements enough to be properly called “retro”. Moreover, Besson is an entirely contemporary pop/rock artist with a knack for incorporating elements of Americana into her work in a way that supplements her inherent style without overpowering it. In other words, she’s genuine, and an intriguing songwriter and performer as juxtaposed against Nashville’s population of purebred roots panache.
Besson calls “With You”, “…a song about togetherness and going through the darkness to finally find peace with one another, to transcend our shadows and reconnect with our own heart. It is a journey into self, finding our true self, and seeing that we are all connected, all one breathing being, going through the same searches in the end.”
“For a few days prior writing this song, I was going around in circles trying to write this song. It was not coming out. I stayed for days at my piano, and nothing was coming out. The blockage was real! I finally decided to let it go. And a couple of days after, I was just humming a melody while cooking, and there it was! It came out all at once the melody, lyrics, and structure. It was so clear; there was no questions, no back and forth. I just received and ‘With You’ was born.”
In regards to the song’s video, it came to Besson just as naturally as the tune itself did. It is strikingly poignant in its simplicity, featuring Besson performing the song while staring directly towards the camera as if she were speaking straight to each watcher one-by-one. She tells us, “It was evident that it needs to be simple and go to the point. Focusing on the emotions of the song with no artifice and talking straight to the listeners, connecting with the eyes, the soul.”