George Collins Finds Fire and Fatherhood in “New Way”

There’s a particular kind of urgency that runs through George Collins’s latest single “New Way.”

It’s not the urgency of rebellion for rebellion’s sake, but one of transformation — personal, societal and deeply generational.

On the surface, this song is a stomping, riff driven rocker with shades of Seven Nation Army and echoes of Springsteen’s resilience. But beneath its electric charge, George Collins shows himself as a songwriter who is not just working through the chaos of the modern world.

He is re-imagining it through the eyes of a father.

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Becoming a parent at fifty has given Collins a second lens. A deeper sense of stakes, of responsibility and of wonder. “New Way” channels that sharpened awareness. He is writing it as someone who has lived, who has loved, who has made peace with the past and now wants to carve out a better future for his children.

The song’s central riff, distorted, gritty and pulsing with life, had apparently been kicking around in Collins’s head for years.

It only found its match in the lyric after he stumbled across a line from the 1970’s movie A Clockwork Orange: “It’s part of the new way.” That idea — the tension between chaos and reinvention — struck a nerve. But in Collins’s hands, it’s not dystopian. It’s defiant, sure but also hopeful.

What’s especially moving is how Collins manages to inject that optimism without softening the edges. This isn’t the sugar-coated cheer of someone trying to distract from reality. This is most definitely a father who is looking out at a fractured world and still choosing to believe that change is possible.

That his daughters deserve better. That there’s still time to rewrite the story. He sings, “Make way for the new way … I know change is gonna come,” and it lands not as a political slogan, but as a personal mantra.

That emotional depth is what separates “New Way” from other socially conscious songs. You can hear it in the conviction of his vocals, in the tight and purposeful arrangement, and in the way it never veers into self-righteousness.

Collins says:

“Becoming a first-time father at the age of fifty has certainly influenced my creativity. At a time of life when many of my peers are firmly set in their ways, or worse, shutting down, I have been forced through parenting – in the best way possible – to engage with new experiences and perspectives that most men my age never encounter. As an older parent, I am grateful that I have regained the ability to see the world through a child’s eyes and perceive the magic and sublime in our daily lives. These important lessons inform and influence my writing and song writing every day.”

As part of his upcoming album “New Ways of Getting Old”, this track sets the tone for what promises to be a mature and vibrant collection.

Like much of his recent work, “New Way” draws power from the collision of youth and age, of raw energy and seasoned perspective. It’s rock and roll through the eyes of a dad who still believes in wonder and who is making damn sure his daughters know it’s worth fighting for.

“My previous release, “Songs for Grown-ups,” had two tracks that were specifically written with my daughters in mind. “Where Have I Been All Your Life,” started out as a clever play on words but ended up as a personal reflection on being present and absent in the lives of those we love – including my children. A follow up, “My Wish for You,” is a tender, hooky love song I wrote expressing my hopes for my daughters, and I released it on my younger daughter’s eighth birthday.

This trend continues with my upcoming album, “New Ways of Getting Old.” I wrote a wistful Paul McCartney-esque ballad called “My Tomorrow Is Already Missing You Today,” about the painful realization that my children will eventually grow up and leave home. Another song, “Stay Young,” is an upbeat, quirky, retro-rocker advising my daughters not to grow up too fast – it even features some words spoken by my younger daughter at the very end of the track, when she responds to my well-intentioned advice with an exasperated “Oh, Daddy!”

In that sense, “New Way” is very much a statement as well. A beat-driven love letter to change, to persistence and to the creative spark that fatherhood, at any age, can ignite.

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