The new single from Brian Revels & the Heat Lightning, “Anywhere With You,” is an affecting indie-folk / Americana ballad—a genuine, hard-fought love song that radiates joy, devotion and healing. The song’s story traces a winding path that took Revels from his old hometown of Atlanta to Anchorage Alaska, Chicago and ultimately Rochester N.Y., as he sought gainful employment, a sense of home and a lasting relationship. In the song, Revels captures the feeling of falling in love with a supportive partner, becoming a step-parent and, in the process, finding healing for childhood trauma.

"The song came directly from me being head over heels in love with my girlfriend, Jenna [Robinson, who lends backing vocals to the new single], and knowing that I was gonna do everything in my power to make it happen," Revels says. "It’s been a wild experience—becoming a parent to her 6-year-old son, too. My dad was never around when I was growing up, so I always wanted to be a dad, though I'd never imagined stepfatherhood. But, man, this kid is just like me when I was a kid. In all the best and worst ways. He and I have become like a little improv duo."

The road to “Anywhere With You” began several years back when, after years of scraping by on music and odd jobs, Revels—who was living in Atlanta at the time—decided to go to advertising school. “It was a daily struggle back then,” he says. “Leading up to and during school, I was teaching music lessons and waiting tables; I did carpentry for a year, I was a grunt on a house-building crew. I had no car, so I was biking all around Atlanta. I’d bus tables in the morning, then bike across town to teach a music lesson, then bike to wait tables at night. And in between I’d be going to class or to the studio. I was in the best shape of my life, but it was tough. Going to school, I always took a change of clothes because I'd be so sweaty that I'd have to change after the commute.”

When Revels finally graduated from advertising school in 2020, he found himself in the midst of the pandemic. There weren’t many jobs, but he did get one offer—from an agency in Anchorage, Alaska. “So me & my dog drove halfway across the world,” Revels says. “It was two weeks from Atlanta to Seattle, then we flew the rest of the way to Anchorage. Going to Alaska changed me in ways other places haven't—just seeing the mountains out West for the first time. And once I finally had a steady paycheck, it felt like stepping off a sinking ship onto solid ground.”

But Revels’ experience in The Last Frontier wasn’t all just gorgeous vistas. He moved in with a friend, which he says somehow made him feel even lonelier, and as a Georgia boy, he struggled with the long winters and perpetual darkness. “Alaska is awesomely weird,” Revels says, “But winter is just so long that it can start to mess with your head. I guess eventually once you spend a few thousand dollars on cross-country skis and snowshoes and all these tools to get you through, it's a little less daunting, but I was just out there with nothing, walking my dog in two feet of snow, like, ‘What the hell am I doing so far from home?’ I started losing my mind a bit. It made me nervous thinking about staying in Alaska too long. It's one of those places you can start to disappear into.”

Things did start looking up when Revels met and began renting a room from fellow artist Nick Carpenter, who plays under the name Medium Build and recently scored a major-label deal with Island Records. “Nick is like the mayor of Anchorage,” Revels says. “He had been playing shows regularly there and bartending at the local brewery for the past four or five years, but he's actually from Atlanta too, and we instantly hit it off.”

After a year-and-a-half in Alaska, Revels landed a new job in Chicago, which sounded like a tropical paradise compared to Anchorage. So he packed up and moved back to the contiguous 48 states, working his day job, and spending just about every free moment writing songs and working on his music. During this time, Revels met his girlfriend Jenna randomly on Twitter when they bonded over both having a stomach bug at the same time. Once they were on the mend, Revels noticed Jenna—who was living in Rochester, N.Y.—about wanting to explore a new city, so he offered to show her around. She bought a plane ticket that same day, and six weeks of daily phone conversations later, she came to visit him in Chicago and they clicked immediately. Not long after she left, Revels wrote “Anywhere With You.”

The song was recorded by Damon Moon at Standard Electric Recorders in Atlanta, with Moon, Revels and bassist Matt Pendrick co-producing, Paul Stevens on drums, Molloy VanGorder on lead guitar, and Jenna—spontaneously—on harmony vocals. “She came down to Atlanta with me to take some video and document the recording process,” Revels says. “At the end of the last day I asked her if she’d try to sing. I kinda blindsided her, but she said yes and it ended up sounding great.

“We’ve just been yes-anding the hell out of everything ever since we met,” Revels says. “We moved in together in Rochester Jan. 1 of this year. We’ve become this parental unit and we're strategizing and just really leaning into it, and she seems just as gung-ho for it as me. Jenna and I have been bringing each other to life, which has been helping me heal in some major ways. I love that after I go out and play music or if I’m out on the road, I’ve got a place to come back to now. For a long time, I was searching for a sense of home, and now I’ve got it.”