540: Accepting and Loving Yourself To Power Through The Nightmare- J.R. Price

A massive breakup. Moving back in with the parents. Then getting thrown back out of that house. It’s enough to make most people give up. But not J.R. Price. He found song, after song, after song to share with the world and turn his nightmare into his music. His inspiring story of accepting and loving yourself in your music and your life is what we are exploring today.

About J.R.

Grammy-nominated songwriter J.R. Price is out now with his Nightmare EP, the follow-up to his debut EP, Daydream.   Where Daydream was vibrant, exuberant and full of hope, Nightmare is the opposite.   “My light has been completely depleted,” Price, who has recently sustained a devastating break-up, admits. “When a dream is drained of all its light, it is by very definition a nightmare. The darkness I have felt lately is unlike any of the other things I have been through, because I was given hope first, then had it ripped away.”  To those who say it’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all, he adamantly disagrees. “After heartbreak, I am the exact opposite of who I used to be. I’m full of shadows and hatred. I am mad all the time. I cry myself to sleep. I wake up every few hours. I can’t talk to my friends. I am living in a nightmare.”

The EP explores the five stages of grief, navigating through the dark, chaotic journey one must travel after experiencing loss; before ultimately, hopefully, achieving some level of normalcy.   The EP starts with “Dagger,” about the first cut to bleed and the denial one must feel in accepting the reality of the situation.  The second is the title track, about suffering through the aftermath of the split: the anger, the resentment, and the crushing heartache.

In “Tiny”, the third single on Nightmare EP and the first release from it, Price sings about coming to the realization that the love who diminished him is really the one who is miniscule with little compassion and a shrunken heart. The song calls out all men who cause pain and feel no remorse.

Through the process of writing and recording Nightmare, J.R. Price has finally come to the realization that the love he has been seeking from family and friends his whole life cannot be found until he loves himself.   “I have learned that I must accept what I have been dealt in life and that the only thing I can change is how I view myself. I have to love myself. That’s the real message I received while making Nightmare.”

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