The Morning Edition Song Project is a series where songwriters are asked to write an original song about the COVID era – our newest addition is from music collective and sibling band Infinity Song.
Angel and Victory Boyd are two of nine children from a musical family – five of those kids, including the two sisters, form the band Infinity Song. Growing up, music was all around them: their dad founded the Boys and Girls Choirs of Detroit. “We grew up being a part of his choir, helping to arrange songs and lead vocal sections of the choir,” Angel says. Victory adds that, “Like any family, when they do something, and it’s their livelihood — you just kind of create a culture around it,” she says.
The older sister, Victory says lockdown gave their band of siblings fewer distractions and a chance to work on their relationships with each other. It also forced them to figure out how to survive without touring. They began by singing, making videos and posting covers of different songs online. “But in order to do that, we first had to harmonize in our relationships,” Victory says. “Like, you can’t get those kinds of harmonies without first harmonizing internally.”
Songwriting is about collaboration, but with a big musical family, it can be hard to find your own voice. Victory was 16 when she wrote her first song, around the time that her parents separated. “Life was chaos. I prayed, ‘Jesus, please hear me when I cry. Don’t leave me here to die,’ ” she recalls. “I just sang that over and over again, I said, ‘This is my song.’ Like, I never looked back after that.”
But for Angel, the song that made her realize she had her own voice and her own musical story to tell, is the same one the group is sharing for the Morning Edition Song Project. It’s called “Outside Myself.”
Angel and Victory Boyd of Infinity Song spoke with Rachel Martin about “Outside Myself,” singing to overcome anxiety and finding the confidence to write in your own voice. Hear the radio version at the audio link, and read on for an edited transcript.
