Carson Rowland Says ‘It’s OK to Ask for Help’ on “Leave My Lonely Alone”

In our most vulnerable moments, it can be easy to shut down and shut out others, particularly when at our lowest point. On “Leave My Lonely Alone,” actor and singer-songwriter Carson Rowland explores the paradoxical nature of someone needing help and rejecting it.

“The theme undergirding that aspect is the self-destructive tendencies those philosophies can entertain,” Rowland tells American Songwriter. “The person offering help might not fully understand what the narrator is going through, however, help is help and writhing in self-pity rarely accomplishes anything.”

The piano-led ballad, tenderly driven by its poignant chorus No empathy can’t fix this… Just give me space to / Erase all the memories / So, thanks for all your concern / But I just wanna watch me burn, is a clear deliverance of hope, understanding and healing.

Co-written with Taylor Castro, “Leave My Lonely Alone” was built around a friend’s experience living through a very traumatic event and refusing help from a number of people. “Experiences inspire me more than anything,” says Rowland, “How people can go through the same experience yet gather completely different information, ideologies… about what they go through. How could someone so fundamentally broken “cut us out” this way, especially in the time (s)he needed us most?”

Currently starring in the Netflix series Sweet Magnolias, the 22-year-old artist, who recently joined friend Castro in her video “Abyss” and previously starred in Nickelodeons’s “I Am Frankie,” is focused on his new EP, u know who u r, a collection of songs narrates Rowland’s real-life experiences—and relationships. 

“[It’s] a compilation of experiences of or about different individuals in my life,” says Rowland. “The idea being, if they hear the song, they’ll know it’s about them.”

Rowland hopes his experiences connect to others, particularly during such uncertain times.

“All I could ever want is people to resonate with the song and understand the paradoxical nature of the narrator,” says Rowland, “and try to never fall into the same trap.”