Another hit from Kelly Boesch - Not Made For The Cage(with Marshall Altman)

 Kelly Boesch

Kelly Boesch

 is with Marshall Altman.

I’ve written a few songs about my childhood, and this is another one. I grew up in a Midwestern town where most people conformed to fit in and not stand out, and I just always felt so out of place. I loved to wear and make very different clothes; I loved fashion even as a young girl. I think so many kids go through this. I always knew I would leave there for a place where I could just be myself with others who felt the same.

I ended up in Los Angeles, where weird thrives. In LA, I was actually pretty “Midwest boring”, not at all different or strange. But I was living my best life and met so many lifelong friends.

I always say it’s harder to make a video after writing the song. I really don’t like making videos that tell exact stories. I prefer an abstract representation that allows the viewer to interpret it any way they want. I made a video a while back using this style reference with these strange faces, and for some reason, I thought of using them again. The way they stand out against the people walking around them. I love how it works with the song.

Thank you to Marshall Altman for the guitar and synth he added to the song, and for the additional production and mixing. This is for sure one of my favorite songs I have written. Working with Marshall has been so wonderful. We had our first co-write a few weeks back and made a song together that will come out in the next few weeks.

This whole process with Nettwerk Records has been really amazing. If someone had told me four or five years ago that I would be writing songs, getting signed to a label, and doing a TED Talk, I would have thought they were insane. NONE of this was even on my radar as a path I would follow. AI has opened doors for me I couldn’t have even imagined. When an artist finds their perfect tool, it can open creativity inside them they never knew they had. Pretty wild.

Not Made For The Cage

[Verse 1]

I was born with paper skin

Letting all the feelings in

Watching my entire world unwind

Leaving all the rules behind

Their strict rules fit like borrowed clothes

On my strange and tender bones

I never felt like I belong

A half-remembered, distant song

[Pre-Chorus]

So my heart I rearrange

Even when they call me strange

If this world feels hard and vast

I will try to move right past

[Chorus]

I am not made for the cage

I don't mind if you find me strange

(oh, I am strange)

I bloom where the wild wind stays

I am not lost, I am true

A star with a different hue

(I am true)

I was made to outgrow you

[Verse 2]

The room is full of polished faces

All their smiles in perfect places

I move like rain running down glass

A little shy, a little brash

My mind is a sprawling tide

With secret currents locked inside

And when the night begins to bloom

I am the fever in your room

[Pre-Chorus]

And I hear, beneath the noise

Some soft and ancient joy

Saying, child, don’t disappear

You were written to be here

[Chorus]

I am not made for the cage

I don't mind if you find me strange

(oh, I am strange)

I bloom where the wild wind stays

I am not lost, I am true

A star with a different hue

(i am true)

I was made to outgrow you

[Bridge]

If I am odd, then let me be

A little ash, a little sea

I do not need their neat design

My broken edges are divine

[Final Chorus]

I am not made for the cage

I don't mind if you find me strange

(oh, I am strange)

I bloom where the wild wind stays

I am not lost, I am true

A star with a different hue

(I am true)

I was made to outgrow you