Photography by Heather Carpenter
Brei Carter
Brei Carter has seen it all.
The artist, who has dabbled in both country and pop music, has seen husbands cheating on wives and wives cheating on husbands. She has experienced mental abuse and has seen physical abuse. And more often than not, she has seen many a relationship fall apart because of it.
But through it all, one truth remained.
“Paybacks are hell,” Carter says, chuckling, about her new single, “Paybacks.” The lyric video premieres exclusively on stlmag.com today. “It all goes back to karma." She pauses. "Some people say life is too short, but my philosophy is that life is too precious. And it’s far too precious to spend it in a relationship that is never going to work. Time is the most valuable commodity that we all have. Once it's gone, it's gone.”
And while the song takes a somewhat sassy look at the idea of karma, it’s also a song of power, with potent lyrics that encourage listeners to find the strength to take hold of their life once again.
“You just have to sometimes take a step back,” says Carter, who currently splits her time between an apartment in Nashville and a home in Edwardsville, Illinois. “If you're in a relationship that you don’t want to be in, you just might need to shut that door.”
It’s a predicament that Carter has personally experienced a few times in her life, starting with when she was a little girl growing up in Louisiana watching her parents go through a somewhat ugly divorce.
“It’s something I've just tried to bury for so long,” she says quietly about those tumultuous years. “It took me a long time to forgive my father for not being the father that he should have been. And you know, life just wasn't kind to him after the divorce.”
She draws in a deep breath.
“At the end of the day, the fact is that there is enough going on in this world to not treat people with respect,” continues Carter, a proud Army veteran who received much love last year for her cover of Charley Pride’s “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'.” “We need more love in the world today, if you ask me.”
Watch the lyric video for "Paybacks" below:
