‘Day One Sober’: Youngwood native Mia Logan explores cathartic side of songwriting

Going the autobiographical route for your first musical release represents a bold move.

So does including lyrics along the lines of:

Now I’m sleeping in the bed that I have made / Every day I try to fix my past mistakes

Plus Youngwood native Mia Logan named that tune “Day One Sober.”

“I asked a lot of people what they thought about it, if they thought it was too personal,” she said. “And a lot of the people felt they could really connect with it.”

That’s part of her intention with regard to the song, which is scheduled to be available on various streaming platforms starting Sept. 19, her 24th birthday.

“I feel like even for people who don’t have that first- or secondhand experience, it can relate with other things,” the 2018 Hempfield Area High School graduate said. “It can relate with not being mature enough. It can relate with being a little on the dramatic side. It can relate with being a little self-absorbed. It doesn’t just come down to use.”

But at its core, “Day One Sober” serves as Logan’s way to convey “what I wish I could have said at the time instead of doing the things that I did.”

The song features her emotive voice, honed since her childhood singing along to dance-school numbers, backed by instrumentalists from BruNjo, a studio in her hometown of Nashville, Tenn. Throughout, Logan explores lapses in judgment, especially with regard to failed friendships.

“I probably shouldn’t have them, but I looked through some of the old text messages,” she said. “I looked through some of the, ‘Hey, we can’t do it anymore. We can’t be friends anymore. We’re not mad at you. We just can’t handle it.’ ”

The correspondences, though, ended up in a prominent place as she recorded the ninth and final take of “Day One Sober”:

“I had the phone on the stand with the messages. I wanted to get in the moment.”

Along with her own catharsis through song, Logan seeks to call attention to what seem to be increasingly prevalent difficulties.

“Addiction comes in so many different forms, and with the way that we are opening our minds up to mental health issues, I don’t think it’s a bad time to address it at all,” she said. “So it didn’t feel too outlandish and too dark and too depressing.”

Overall, she strives for a positive message:

“I wanted it to be a hopeful thing at the end. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you can’t be hopeful about something. It can be both.”

Whatever it ultimately means to the listener, “Day One Sober” features the talents of the BruNjo crew, including Western Pennsylvania natives Tanir Morrison of Moon Township on percussion and sound engineering and Heaven Parkinson of New Brighton handling artwork and social media.

Jordan Ezquerro of Mission Viejo, Calif., plays keyboards, later augmented by more instrumentation.

“After we recorded the first take, it was just me and the piano, and I thought it was done. I was like, ‘Thank you, guys. That’s amazing.’ And they were like, ‘Oh, we’re not done,’ ” Logan said. “I can’t believe what they did with it.”

She played alto and tenor saxophone at Hempfield Area, and as a sophomore took her vocal talents to audition for the TV shows “American Idol” and “The Voice.” And thanks to an uncle, the late Fred Neilen of Lower Burrell, she had plenty of patriotic opportunities to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“He would present colors all the time with his Marine buddies,” she recalled. “If they didn’t have anyone to sing, he would say, ‘I have a niece who sings. Do you want her to sing the anthem?’ And they would say, ‘We were going to play a recording, so why don’t you bring her.’ ”

In November, she sang the national anthem at the Marine Corps League of Pennsylvania’s “Light the Night for the Purple Heart Bill.” The event at Downtown Pittsburgh’s Koppers Building supported legislation, later passed, that requires the U.S. Department of Defense to include individuals who are awarded the Purple Heart on its website.

A 2021 graduate of Belmont University in Nashville with a degree in commercial voice, Logan performs around Tennessee’s capital and plans to record further with BruNjo personnel on a full album.

“I am also in the gym constantly,” Logan said. “I’m taking classes to become a certified personal trainer.”

As a matter of fact, she is employed at TITLE Boxing Club Nashville, which offers another perk:

“I can go to work and hit things,” she joked, “and not get arrested.”

For more information about Mia Logan and “Day One Sober,” visit www.facebook.com/mia.logan.3576 and Instagram at @mialoganmusic.