Faith Zapata’s chasing adrenaline in her latest single, ‘running in circles’
Faith Zapata is an indie singer-songwriter from Northern California, best known by fans for her captivating storytelling and tender, melancholic soundscapes.
Having gained over 90,000 TikTok followers through posting acoustic covers with her guitar and clips of original upcoming tracks, Faith has made an iconic name for herself in the indie music scene.
Since her debut album, Songs for the Moon released in 2019, the singer-songwriter has catalogued two EPs and 17 singles, with running in circles being her latest.
Released on July 31st, you can read Faith’s Instagram announcement post for the track below:
Faith recently called running in circles a song “about exes trying to one up each other after the breakup”, and the track itself is as addictive as the spirals of post-breakup jealousy that many of us can relate to.
Accompanied by dreamy guitar, Faith sings: “It’s fun to see you bite back and try to get under my skin / Use the same attack over and over again / And I’m firing back, each time I hope you stay down / But hope you get up again in secret.”
After the relationship’s fallout, she and her ex make a game of outdoing each other, chasing after the petty, pain-infused rush of moving on by, actually, moving back around again in circles.
In the chorus, she confesses: “I guess I’m into this, I like running in circles / And it’s not you I miss, I’m chasing after the hurdle / Crave the adrenaline I get from hurting your feelings / There’s a part of me that needs this.”
The nostalgia of the track swells as Faith sings: “I could be well-behaved, but I don’t feel like it / I don’t have to explain what I really meant by it / It’s all in history, and you can’t rewrite it.”
In a moment of catharsis, Faith is joined by her friends’ scream-singing throughout the bridge. Excitingly, one such friend is Thomas Parrish, the indie folk singer-songwriter who Faith previously collaborated with on his song, there was something here once. You can read VoiceNoted’s review of the track here.
And for the full list of credits on running in circles, check out Faith’s Instagram post below:
Calling running in circles a song “for the girlies with a revenge streak”, we can certainly say that if there’s one thing that Faith can master, it’s a bitter breakup ballad.
Being a literature graduate student, it’s no wonder that Faith found herself influenced by the literary when writing running in circles.
In particular, she was inspired by a passage from Elif Batuman’s coming-of-age novel, “The Idiot”. A journey about the exhilarating disarray of first loves, it’s no wonder that the following lines sparked Faith’s imagination:
Screenshot via @faithcore on TikTok
Much to the excitement of fans, Faith answered questions about how she wrote and produced her new single, running in circles via her Instagram Story:
How did you come up with the idea of the song?
“Whenever I write a song it’s usually the result of something being on my mind so much to the point where it’s overwhelming and I need to put it somewhere else. The events of the song were happening to me actively at the time, so it wasn’t hard to come up with the concept!”
Any advice for people who relate to running in circles?
“The great thing about this song is that I think it addresses the slightly toxic side we all turn into after a bad breakup, and I think a lot of people are afraid of writing about those feelings - I was and still am - because it’s almost like confessing to a crime in a way.
But, just like how we all have learned to embrace our sadness over the years, I think it’s good to also embrace the frustration and anger you feel while you’re feeling it, because it is a part of grieving and healing too, after all.”
What are your favourite lyrics?
“I don’t need to prove I’m doing better than you / I just thought that you should hear this” & “There’s a part of you that needs this / I can’t be the one to fix it.”
Which verse/chorus of running in circles did you write first?
“Structurally, I wrote it pretty much the same as the way you hear it in the final version with all of those parts in order. I started off with the line ‘I’m so sick of the game but never tired of winning’ and then just bulldozed through the entire thing in an hour because it sparked something in me.”
What’s your writing process like - is it music or lyrics first?
“Both, kind of? But more often that not it’s lyrics first. The way it usually goes is that I will come up with a couple of banger opening lines and try to make a chord progression to match them, then structure the rest of the song going off of that.”
What was the hardest thing about the song?
“That I knew I wanted to release it before I was even done writing it, but because of how blunt and bold I was being in the lyrics I was afraid that certain people would get mad at me. For a while, that anxiety plagued my mind but I realised that it’s my song and that should be the last thing on my mind.”
What was a detail during production/writing that really made the song feel complete?
“Having all my buddies and siblings involved in the final product! I feel like there is so much symbolism and significance behind having everyone back me up on this song and it just feels so right and so empowering.”
Faith created a playlist of her inspirations for running in circles alongside songs with similar moods…
…and there’s also a video game version of the song that can be found by following the instructions on Faith’s Instagram post:
If you loved running in circles, you should check out the rest of Faith Zapata’s music on Spotify below:
Though, it won’t be long before Faith’s next release as - if you didn’t know - she’s in a band called moviestar (formerly known as pinoygenius) alongside her best friends Regina Pimentel and Wesley Preis.
The trio have been teasing a new song called kill you the same, so make sure to follow them on socials whilst we wait for an announcement!
