What Does "Home" Really Mean? (Plus Preview Kate's New Single!)

Now that we’re officially past ‘spooky season’ (and yes, I’m including the election in that bucket because I think no matter how you voted we can all agree that weeklong sh*t was a tad scary), it seems like we’re headed full force into holiday mode. And the main thing that comes to mind when I think holiday mode, especially during this circus of a year, is the idea of ‘home.’

Kate here, and today I wanna talk about what the idea of ‘home’ really means to us. I’m also sharing an exclusive preview of my new single that drops this Friday 11/13, “This Is Home.” I’m really proud of this song and feel like it makes a lot of sense given the circumstances we’re all in right now.

As you might expect, I started thinking a lot about what ‘home’ meant this year while I was, like most of us, quarantined at home. The idea of feeling at ‘home’ is so interesting because it’s not necessarily something that’s always fixed in one spot. Home can be a place, but it can also be a person, a group of people, or an idea.

For many of us, our physical homes change frequently over the years and sometimes, especially during a season like the difficult one we're in, we can't technically go 'home' at all.

As someone who has moved 5 times in the past 5 years, I definitely qualify as one of those people whose idea of ‘home’ has shifted a lot over the course of my life. Or maybe rather than shifted, it’s just grown? It’s almost as if it’s expanded to include more places and people and things and ideas over the years, which I actually think is pretty cool.

The first place I ever literally called home was the small town I grew up in - a little suburb in Ohio that is overwhelmingly charming, warm, and welcoming, but also comes with a healthy dose of some of the tricky hearsay and taste for scandal that any small town does. Even though I've lived on the opposite side of the country for over 10 years now, going back home has always been a huge priority for me because of the deep connection I feel to this little town.

If you still go back to your hometown for holidays or whatever else, you can probably relate to the weird juxtapositions that come with going back. It’s the rush of joy you get when you see old friends and family and it’s also the dreaded possibility of awkward political warfare conversations over mashed potatoes and weird run-ins with randoms from high school at the grocery store.

Like everything else, 'home' can be kind of messy - and that's ok. That's sometimes the very thing that makes it the place where we belong.

I’ve always wanted to write a song about the idea of ‘home’ but I didn’t want it to just be another boring ‘hooray we all love home so much’ message. I wanted to write a song about 'home' that encapsulated the complex feelings a lot of us have when we're there, with lyrics that are all at once about the aching nostalgia we have for wherever it is we call 'home' and also the sometimes complicated relationship we have to that same place.

Basically, I wanted to write a song about the fact that it’s totally possible and OK to adore your hometown and also at times absolutely dread going. My favorite movies are always the ones about dysfunctional families and friend circles, because not only is that reality for most people, it’s also beautifully human.

it felt like a perfect time to pay homage to the places and people that shaped us and raised us, so here’s an exclusive preview of “This Is Home!”

As we wrote the song, it also occurred to me that ‘home’ is a state of mind. Whether you feel a strong connection to your hometown or you’ve completely excommunicated yourself from the place, chances are you have someone or something that makes you feel like you’re just home.

In a time when it seems like we all need it most, I more than anything wanted the song to feel like a tribute to the idea of 'home,' whatever or whoever that may be to us.

Thanks for checking out the preview, and if you use Spotify or Itunes you can presave it here!