The more things change, the more they stay the same — even when it comes to heartbreak, as Stephanie Erin Wittmer discovers in her new song “The Difference.” She’s premiering the brand-new track exclusively with The Boot; press play below to listen.
“Nothing’s different, it’s all the same,” Wittmer sings in the chorus of “The Difference” — except, as she slowly reveals, the truth is that things have changed, all because of a heartbreak. That “same coffee in the morning” has actually been sitting there “cold for days;” the “same bed where we slept before” has one side still made.
“It’s all the same,” she tells an ex. “Difference is, you’ve gone away.”
“Everything [is] left in its place because the person never came back, which is the only difference about the house,” Wittmer tells The Boot. “It’s a bit of a brain-twister concept in a way I guess.”
“The Difference” comes from Wittmer’s forthcoming debut EP, Pilot; in fact, she says it might just be her favorite song on the record. She recorded the project with Beau Bedford and Jeff Saenz at Dallas, Texas’ Modern Electric Sound Recorders, pulling ’90s country and modern folk-pop influences.
“I love timeless country music like Chris Stapleton or George Strait. Those are my favorite songs to write and I really wanted a similar timeless sound to this song,” Wittmer says. “Beau and the band totally captured exactly what I imagined it sounding like when I wrote it. I don’t think I could have asked for a better production.”
A native of small-town Illinois, Wittmer can remember giving musical performances for her parents when she was a toddler. Piano lessons and journaled poetry combined in her teens. She moved to Los Angeles, Calif., after college and has worked both in electronica — a project with friends — and on solo, singer-songwriter songs on piano, too.
“The Difference” will be available widely on Friday (May 28), while Pilot is set for release on June 11. It’s available to pre-save and pre-order now.
Listen to Stephanie Erin Wittmer’s “The Difference”: