Straight Into The Light

"This song started with a lyric. I don't usually write words or music separately but that's what happened here. I was on a walk and words were running through my head and the sun hit the path in front of me and the line 'I walked straight into the light' popped into my head. By the time the walk was finished I had a story about someone lost and out of steam, walking through the streets of New York City and heading down a dark alley and seeing someone walk through a door and following them straight into a whole new reality. It's a bit of a metaphor for what happened to me when Afton and I got together. I had the words, but no melody. I went round and round with several different melodies and had whole arrangements but nothing was feeling authentic to me. It felt so contrived and really started bumming me out. I did something I never do and programmed a very simple drum beat into my keyboard from the early 90's and picked up a guitar and boom it all clicked. A completely different melody came busting out. Afton jumped in with her harmony and later Matthew Von Doran came up with a really killer harmonic electric guitar part. It all really clicked in the studio with a retro sounding keyboard bit to offset the harmonic guitar. Considering how difficult it was to get this tune started, once it was moving it just fell into place. The drum intro on the recording was never discussed, it was something Matt Crouse did when he sat down to take our first run at the tune. I liked it and kept it. This song has become one of our absolute favorites to play live." ~ Robin Salmon, Surrender Hill

The Tom Petty-esque “Straight Into The Light”, released today, is a catchy rocker about a weary wanderer finally breaking through the darkness to find hope and clarity. This is the 1st single from Surrender Hill's forthcoming album, "Wild Country", to be released August 7th, 2026.