Bloodlines is the lead single from Gemma Laurence’s upcoming album We Were Bodies Underwater, and it sounds like the kind of truth you only share with someone who’s earned it.
The Brooklyn-based artist, shaped by both American and British folk traditions, mixes raw acoustic textures with lyrics that land like confession. This isn’t her story—it’s hers to carry.
Inspired by Adrienne Rich’s Diving into the Wreck, the track doesn’t just reflect—it bears witness.
It’s about choosing to love someone who’s survived more than they should’ve had to. And sitting with that.
The lyrics aren’t abstract. “High school, you were sixteen when your brother tried to kill you”—the kind of line that doesn’t blink.
Laurence doesn’t write around it. She walks toward it, holding space without judgement.
The production holds a retro charm: banjo, cello, and space. Nothing crowded, just room for her voice to do what it does best—waver slightly, ache honestly, and hold the kind of vulnerability that makes you sit still.
The melody is gripping, not because it climbs high, but because it keeps returning to the same haunted place. “You got a big heart in spite of it all”hits harder each time, unpolished and direct.
Shot on Super 8, the music video deepens the feeling: two people building a life, while the edges quietly warp.
As Laurence says, it’s not a love story—it’s a memory, shaped by what came before and what never fully leaves.
A stark, clear-eyed indie-folk offering that chooses empathy over escape.
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Gemma Laurence Bloodlines Lyrics
Blue hands holding mine in a vice grip when we dive in
and we’re bodies underwater in the wreckage
and we circle round the bend and we climb in to the hold
Pink walls, grout lines in the bathtub water brine
Scuba mask on too tight, Daddy’s shouting all the time
Half-dead blue light from the TV down the hall
Your Mama’s staring at the wall
You got a big heart in spite of it all
You got a big heart in spite of it all
High school, you were sixteen when your brother tried to kill you
In the backyard beneath the Oklahoma new moon
Three shots in the dark and he missed but he didn’t mean to
Blue-veined bloodlines, broken in a single night
You left without a fight, when the sun began to rise
Five months went by and you slept inside your car
And your Mama never called
You got a big heart in spite of it all
You got a big heart in spite of it all
You got a big heart in spite of it all
In spite of it all