SHAB Discusses the Meanings Behind Her Songs ‘Skin & Bones’ and ‘Ain’t Thinking Bout You’

Pop artist SHAB has been releasing music non-stop, and we can't get enough of her latest songs "Skin & Bones" and "Ain't Thinking Bout You."

The singer, songwriter, wife, mother and refugee has a beautiful energy that comes across in her songs and music videos. From dancey hits to pop sensations, we've been listening to her music on repeat. Curious to find out more about "Skin & Bones" and "Ain't Thinking Bout You?" Continue below to find out what SHAB told us in an exclusive interview!

The Story Behind 'Skin & Bones'

SHAB: "Skin & Bones" was effectively a meditation and a prayer, founded in a personal trauma from a couple years ago and involving my love, Rob.

We had been in the California high desert during mid-November 2019 for the joyous celebration of the shoot for my first music video ever, for "Spell On Me." For the two of us, it was something of a magic day as were actually seeing my career dreams begin to come true.

But early at dawn on the following day, a Sunday, Rob traveled home to Dallas to watch after our kids, while I was staying in Los Angeles for a couple more days in order to record with Damon Sharpe at his studio.

On the next day, Monday, I had just exited Damon's vocal booth during the late afternoon (as we had been recording my song, "What I Do") when I got a phone call from a Texas State Trooper. After confirming that I knew Rob, the officer informed that Rob had been in a catastrophic car accident in his Land Rover and was taken to trauma ward of Parkland Hospital in undetermined condition.

I could not get home to Dallas until the next day, and when I got to Rob's ICU suite, it took every fiber in my body to avoid a meltdown. With three compound breaks of his arms and legs, a fractured skull, dozens of other broken bones and severe internal injuries, his prognosis was uncertain. And it began to dawn on me that my life had likely permanently changed.

That's what "Skin & Bones" is all about. You will now hear it from the opening words:

I heard your siren
Won't you take me to the sound
And you can take my heart

The song is my conscious meditation about the possibility of living without the love of my life.

 

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What 'Skin & Bones' Means

SHAB: For a long while, I was reluctant to record the song as the lyrics were intensely personal to me. The song was written at a time of great sorrow and uncertainty for both me and our kids, because we didn't know for a long time as to what would be the permanent extent of Rob's injuries, and how that would change our lives.

However, 19 surgeries later, Rob is doing fine, and most people have no idea as to how massively he was damaged. So today, the song is for me is something of a celebration: as our mutual love and commitment to the other was only deepened by that trial.

 

SHAB's Favorite Lyric From 'Skin & Bones'

SHAB: That would be:

Real I feel so real with you
In this illusion in this illusion
Changing key put me in tune
And I'm dancin' to it

What I was trying to say is that we usually feel ourselves to be at our most authentic with those that we love the most, free from the masks that we too often put on for the rest of the world. But despite sometimes having our lives violently and permanently rearranged, so long as our loved ones are with us, we manage for life to roll on.

 

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The Story Behind 'Ain't Thinking Bout You'

SHAB: Actually, "Ain't Thinking Bout You" is one of the two songs on my first album that I did not co-write. Damon Sharpe and Eric Sanicola had written the song and gave it to me to record during the early stages of our working together, and for what became the Infinite Love album.

But look: here's the deal. Just about everyone, it seems—and I mean, everyone—has had a romantic relationship in their life where they literally couldn't stop thinking about another person. So essentially, the song's about longing and desire and fantasy and frustrated dreams, which we all experience.

 

What 'Ain't Thinking Bout You' Means

In "Ain't Thinking Bout You," my character repeatedly insists that she is not thinking about her wayward lover, despite the reality that such is pretty much all that she is thinking about, almost continuously.

It's understandable but pathetic, right? During the course of our romances—unless you are Kanye—many of us have been fixated upon not letting that other person or even the world at large know how much we long for that other person. And that facade extends into attempts to convince even ourselves that the other person really does not mean that much to us in the first place.

Accordingly, it's mad and illogical and ridiculous, all of which render the sentiment both human and universal. It is our passionate obsessions that either reinforce or degrade us. We have all been there and we are still not thinkin' about that person, right?

 

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SHAB's Favorite Lyric From 'Ain't Thinking Bout You'

It's hard to pick a favorite lyric from that song, but:

Take that love on your lips
And I'll tell it where to go.

And frankly, the main reason that I like the lyrics is because they are fun to sing!

 

Love SHAB? Look HERE to find out all about her song "Music To My Heart," made in collab with the Martinez Twins!