Life, Loss, and ‘The Truman Show’: Madison Cunningham’s ‘Revealer’ Sparks Conversations Around Life’s Most Challenging Questions
Samantha Colleran, September 2022
As a multi talented artist, Madison Cunningham has made a name for herself in the world of music. A singer songwriter who emulates a young Joni Mitchell, Madison has had incredible success so far; from her 2019 release Who Are You Now, to opening for Harry Styles’ Harryween shows back in 2021, Madison has had an incredible career so far. Cunningham would describe her newest album, Revealer, as a self portrait. The process of creating this album was a long one, but the end result is an honest, powerful body of work that feels as though it’s Madison’s Blue.
Speaking with º1824, Madison revealed the intricate details of bringing the songs that make up Revealer to life. The album title came to her at the beginning of the album making process; it isn’t a positive or negative, rather, Madison uses the ‘revealer’ as a character that sheds light on who you are and what’s going on inside your mind. Trying to get back in touch with her love of music and ditching fears surrounding the success of the album, Madison had a lot of what she called ‘stop and go’ progress. Whenever she had a breakthrough moment, there were more hurdles she had to overcome which led her to question if what she was working toward was good or not. Completing the album and having it out in the world for some time has proven that not only is writing from a pure place important, it makes people want to listen, and that’s the mark of a successful release.
Going from her previous album, Who Are You Now, which talks about challenging feelings and emotions while going after your dreams, Madison has grown tremendously as an artist. Being 25 and learning to navigate the world made Madison realize that a lot of adulting is pretending you have everything together when in reality, you may not feel that way. As an adult you’re expected to be at 100% all the time, but not everyone can be at their best constantly. There are some things in life we have to accept in life because they’re inevitable, like growing older. Talking about those things and learning to accept that we may never have an answer for bigger life questions, like why we get older, can make life seem a little less daunting. Revealer opens up these conversations in an authentic way.
A massive spark of inspiration for Cunningham while making this album were movies, The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless mind specifically. The Truman Show has elements that make you feel as though there’s more going on than what the camera shows, and Madison hoped to draw on that feeling through her music and the accompanying videos. When first listening to Revealer, it appears to be lighthearted due to the instrumentation of the tracks. However, the more you listen, you’ll realize just how deep the lyrics are. Putting a visual to songs like “Hospital” helps further develop that feeling; while The Truman Show is a bit more sinister in its feeling, Revealer does have elements of there being more to the story than you think, you just have to listen to find what’s actually going on beyond the instrumentals.
One of the most pivotal moments on the album is a track called “Life According to Raechel”. Madison shared her thoughts about working through writing this song, which is about losing her grandmother. Grief is an ongoing feeling, it never ends. There is no perfect way to deal with losing someone so special in your life, there’s no right way to say the things you’re feeling (“I’ll bet you’re making Heaven laugh / But it feels like tеars and memories are all we have)”. Trying to step out of the perfectionist mentality was a challenge for Madison, who is careful in every aspect of caring for the art she makes, but embracing the imperfect reality of the situation Madison was able to honor her grandmother in a heartbreakingly beautiful way. “Once your girl, I’m always your girl”.
Madison’s main goal with this album was to start conversations. Writing from experience is the most honest way to write, but it’s also a gamble of seeing if people relate to the vulnerable content you put out. The conversations surrounding Revealer have been beyond supportive, and hearing people talk about how they relate to the tracks has made Madison feel less alone.
As someone who’s so used to being the opening act and performing to smaller audiences on late night talk shows, headlining a show comes with both excitement and nerves. Being an opening act, especially for someone like Harry, has allowed Madison to learn how to wield an audience and shed nerves on stage. She showed so much gratitude for being able to share her music with Harry fans, and was even shocked that people in the audience knew her songs (I was one of those people, and I’m proud to say a number of other people around me were getting into her music as well). Headlining her own show means she can get truly into her element and allow the songs to build lives of their own. However, there’s a bit more on the line. Although there’s a great amount of pressure as an opener, you know as a headliner people are coming to see you. Cunningham doesn’t take this lightly, she emphasizes just how much bigger she wants these shows to be for the people spending their time and money to experience her music live.
Revealer is available to stream and download now. If you listen to the album and love what you hear, you can check Madison’s tour schedule to see if she’ll be playing a show near you. Let me know your favorite Revealer track in the comments, and follow Madison on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to stay up to date on tour content and future releases!