Turning Isolation Into a Creative Obsession

On "when it's dark out," Outlaw Cartier transmutes heartbreak

into momentum and finds something close to freedom on the other side of the dark.

Grief is something that can either dissipate over time or solidify into a substantial fortification. This is something very true for Outlaw Cartier’s “when it’s dark out.” The song begins with an expression of that solidly erected fortification: one who was worthy of fighting for and is now gone; a reflection of the person they were. But it doesn’t spend too much time in mourning.

“Making the decision to escape the dark is a very personal decision, this song represents someone making that decision.”

Then, with a pivot that is almost unsettlingly sharp in its nature, Outlaw Cartier takes that feeling of having lost someone through their current absence, and redirects that energy not into a state of hopelessness, but into a mania-like desire to create, or leave their mark on this world. The mental toll being taken by this level of substance abuse, for them, seems unbearable and the drive to create music became borderline insane; the instrumental production on this song reflects that level of restlessness—and does so without regret.