Today, September 1, marks the release of I’m Sorry, Therese, the new single from Clay Oak. The song is now available to stream on all major streaming platforms, and the official music video is also available on YouTube.
The song is a very personal one. I was seventeen or eighteen, sometime around 1991 or 1992, when Therese became my very first girlfriend.
For me, that was a big deal. Someone had finally chosen me, and I was terrified of losing her.
And then I fucked it up.
The story behind the song is something I have carried with me for more than thirty years. I knew even before the relationship ended that I had made a serious mistake. I also knew I had a choice to make: tell her what I had done and risk losing her immediately, or stay quiet and risk losing her later.
I chose to stay quiet.
Even today, I don’t know whether either choice would have changed what happened. I don’t know for certain why the relationship ended so quickly, and I don’t want to pretend that I do. I can only tell the story from my side and from the memories I still have.
This isn’t a song about asking for sympathy. I know I was the bad guy in this particular story.
Sometimes I still think about Therese, not because I imagine that we would somehow have stayed together and lived happily ever after. I think about her because I wonder if I was one of her first real experiences of love and relationships too. If she ever found out what had happened, I can only imagine how deeply that might have hurt her.
I know how I would have felt if the roles had been reversed.
That is what I’m Sorry, Therese is about.
The song is the first single from a forthcoming Clay Oak album that will continue exploring personal stories and relationships. The album is still very much a work in progress, and there is no release date yet. But this is where that journey begins.
The song was created using Suno as an AI music production tool, followed by rough editing and adjustments in Audacity and final mastering in Mixea. The technology is part of the production process, but the story, lyrics and experiences behind the song are mine.
🎧 Stream “I’m Sorry, Therese” now on all major platforms.
And now the story has a video as well.
The official music video for I’m Sorry, Therese is available on YouTube. I wanted the video to capture the feeling of looking back at something that happened when you were young — remembering the people, the moments and the emotions, while knowing that some questions can never really be answered.
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