A few years ago, Israeli-born, LA-based pop artist Yarin Glam was battling an eating disorder. Now, she’s singing about her experience to help others who are in the same dark place she once was.
Glam’s latest single, “Free,” is a catchy, upbeat, motivational song about battling your demons and making peace with yourself. “I used to change my shape so that I could feel some power/I thought I killed that voice, but it’s trying to come back louder,” she sings powerfully in the poppy chorus against playful guitar and snappy percussion.
“I suffered from anorexia for years, and I was in denial for a long time; I didn’t get the right help for my whole life, basically,” she remembers. “And last year, I went into recovery at the same time that I started working on this project, so both have been extremely therapeutic for me.”
She was afraid to talk about this with her writers and producers when she went into the studio, but she wanted to be as real and vulnerable as she could be. “A lot of the time, people go into recovery, and it’s not a smooth and straight path. There’s a lot of ups and downs, and people relapse and go back into their disorder. You reminisce about the stuff you used to have and think, ‘Oh, it wasn’t that bad,’ and you go back to the old, dark patterns,” she says. “I told them how my whole life, I wanted to be free of the disorder and free in my own head of the self-doubt and the bully in my head.”
Visually representing the inner freedom she describes, the video shows her singing from mountaintops, destroying a pillow, and dancing as feathers fall around her.
Despite the heavy subject matter, the sound is intentionally fun. “I was like, how do I talk about the struggle I have and have deep and meaningful lyrics but, at the same time, if you don’t look at the lyrics, you’re just having fun with the song and jamming to it?” she explains. “Sometimes, people can steer away from songs that are too dark-sounding.”
Glam met her first producer at age 17 and released her first three singles in 2017: “Mr. Calvin Klein,” a flirty ode to a budding love interest; “Before I Go,” a song mourning the end of a relationship; and most recently “Alright” featuring Kodie Shane, a sassy breakup song incorporating EDM and hip-hop elements. After that, she took a step back and rethought how she wanted to present herself as an artist, realizing she wanted to put out deeper, more meaningful music.
“Free” is the first single off an upcoming four-song EP out early next year, whose tracks all deal in different ways with embracing who you are and shutting down self-criticism. The project functioned almost like a diary for Glam. “I was in a dark place still when I was writing those songs and was struggling, and I felt like it was very therapeutic for me to open up about stuff I’d never talked about before to my own family,” she says. Some of the songs make use of Middle Eastern instruments, drawing from her Israeli roots.
Through the openness and vulnerability in her new music, she wants to show people they’re not alone and inspire them to share their stories as well. Eating disorders in particular can be very isolating experiences, since survivors face a lot of judgment and misunderstanding, so she hopes “Free” can provide a compassionate voice for these people. “I talked about that in hopes to get more people talking about it and have more people going through it feel less alone,” she says. “I wanted to be that voice for others who may be suffering and feel scared to talk about it and feel misunderstood.”
She also wants to show others that recovering from an eating disorder is possible. For her, the key was recognizing that the part of her that engaged in disordered eating patterns was not really her. “When you get your team behind you to remind you you’re more than a number on a scale, you get to get out of your head and be like, it’s not me. What am I doing this for? It’s not worth it. It’s not the life I want to live. It’s not the life I would want for my loved ones,” she explains.
Having music to focus on gave her another, healthier identity – and she aims to inspire others through her career, as well. After moving to the U.S. at age 14 from a small town in Israel where people doubted she could make it big, she’s now realized what once felt like an unrealistic childhood dream. “I always tell people to dream big,” she says. “I don’t feel like any dream is too big. And if I came from such a small town in Israel to LA to make music, I feel like I can give hope to others who may be doubting themselves to chase their dreams.”
Follow Yarin Glam on Facebook and Instagram for ongoing updates.
