Mackenzie Johnson “Feather”
Johnson, who is now a two-time finalist in our challenges, said the prompt “freedom” was “sort of loaded” and wondered which direction she’d take the song: patriotic? Anthemic? Something different? The latter won out.
“I kind of went inward,” she said. “The song’s really about following your intuition to me. I kind of used some sort of bird imagery, so that’s why I called it ‘Feather.’ And I felt like there’s the spiritual significance to that for me and my family because we’re Native American. I kind of just was thinking about America in that way.”
Her song, recorded on a dock in the summer heat by her cousin, is also about releasing burdens that you don’t need to carry anymore, something she admits to being guilty of at times.
“I am a worrier, so this is sort of like a mantra for me to just be more flowy with the universe and trust the signs and trust the timing,” she said.
She also said including avian imagery and symbolism was a bit of a cheeky way of shouting out the Philadelphia Eagles. “This is my roundabout way of saying, ‘Go Birds,’” she said.
