The weeks leading up to the release of singer-songwriter Katie Herzig’s new album Moment of Bliss propelled the somewhat cryptic artist into a world of freedom and relief. The long-time Ingrid Michaelson collaborator has always created personal and meaningful works of art through her music, welcoming fans into a safe and inclusive community. To Herzig though, she’s always felt she was still withholding something. While creating her album Moment of Bliss, these feelings were accentuated and she knew something had to change.
“There’s a song called ‘Beat of Your Own’ on the album that’s all about living your life authentically and out loud,” the songstress says. “I just knew there was something about myself that I was still holding back.” Herzig references another song off the album called “Feel Alive” where she asked fans to submit personal stories on how they related to the track in order to receive artwork created by Herzig’s sister. “It was a really special thing. I had people tell me their personal stories about being scared to come out and things like that,” she says of the initiative.
Following this emotional initiative, Herzig allowed her feelings to come to a head on Valentine’s Day when she publicly announced her relationship with artist Butterfly Boucher through an Instagram post. “I’d been out about who I’ve been with, Butterfly, for a long time in my personal life. I just never knew how to talk about it publicly,” she admits. “I was starting to feel a little caged in so I was just like, ‘Fuck it. I’m going to say it, here and now.’” Herzig released her single “Weight Lifting” in the days before her Instagram post, and in retrospect, she can’t help but feel as though it was fate. “I never anticipated releasing that song as a single. It snuck up on me but ended up being super timely with what was going on in my personal life.”
Prior to turning to social media for her announcement, Herzig was interviewed by Billboard and vaguely explained that the song came from a place of feeling as though a weight was being lifted. The interview seemed to have sparked something in Herzig and although she’d played the moment out over and over again in her head, she never expected herself to proclaim her love that day. “It was a very surreal thing,” she says. “But I just knew that if I died, I’d want people to know I was with this person because I have been for a long time.”
While this romantic gesture may already seem cinematic, there’s more to the story. The photo Herzig chose as the public introduction to her intimate relationship was one taken of her and Boucher at the Women’s March in Nashville. “My friend sent me that picture and if she hadn’t sent it to me, I don’t think I would have done that. There was something about that picture in particular that invited me to do it,” she tells me.
The writing and release of “Weight Lifting” meant something to Herzig in a way that she never could’ve anticipated. With her public and private life now integrated, Herzig says she feels somewhat of a relief. The same way she feels relief to have her album Moment of Bliss released. “It feels like the closing of a chapter in my life. It’s self-indulgent in terms of production elements, music that moves in a certain way or lyrics that I’ve returned to,” she says of the album.
With a bright and airy sound that is all her own and a new-found cohesive identity, Herzig is full of life and love on Moment of Bliss and we can’t help but agree: this artist is living a moment of bliss.
