Born into a working-class family of Lebanese and Italian heritage in Buffalo, New York, Scibilia left town a month after graduating high school, moving away from the Northeast and resettling in East Nashville. His school guidance counselor had unknowingly set those wheels in motion several years earlier, when she sat down with Scibilia to talk about his future. Frustrated with his lack of conventional plans after graduation, she sarcastically asked him, “What are you going to do? Go to Nashville and write songs?” To the budding musician, that question sounded like a great idea; giving Scibilia the extra motivation he needed to head south. At 18 years old, he became one of the first members of his family — a family that includes several part-time musicians — to leave the Buffalo area.
Nashville — a town rooted not only in country music, but pop, rock, and dance, too — has become an appropriate home base for Scibilia’s music. He doesn’t limit his songwriting to one genre. Instead, he writes songs that spread themselves wide, mixing pop hooks, rock & roll energy, and dark storytelling into the same pot. Taking cues from the artists he grew up with — including the Beastie Boys, Lauryn Hill, and Bob Dylan — he sings about the greatness of ordinary life, filling his songs with regular characters who resembled Scibilia, his family, and his friends. He tours heavily, too, opening for everyone from James Bay to the Zac Brown Band. Every night, the audiences are different but they all respond to Scibilia’s music.
Eventually, his growing success earned him a record deal with Capitol/IRS Records. With Butch Walker serving as his producer, he recorded Out of Style, a major-label debut album whose title hinted at the music’s broad, multi-genre appeal. “I wanted it to feel like a mix-tape,” Scibilia explains, and he succeeded, creating an album that seemed poised to create just as much buzz as his cover of the Woody Guthrie song “This Land Is Your Land,” which had appeared in the most Shazam-ed commercial of Super Bowl 2015. Then, one week after the album’s release, the label closed and Scibilia was on his own once again.
Fortunately, Scibilia had always thrived on independence. Wholly in charge of his career once again, he began making new music at his own studio, embracing the freedom to record and release songs whenever he wanted. There was nothing standing in his way: no boardroom meetings in Nashville skyscrapers, no focus groups, no record executives weighing in on his marketability. Even better, Scibilia’s fans were just as supportive as ever, turning his cover of John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” — recorded as a duet with fellow songwriter and Nashville TV star Lennon Stella — into a viral smash. Released during the 2016 holiday season, the song racked up more than a million Spotify streams during the week before Christmas.
Scibilia kicked off 2017 with another viral hit, “Summer Clothes,” a nostalgic single. “I was 18 when I moved from Buffalo to Nashville,” he reflects, “and my dad would call me once a week and end every conversation with, ‘One more time, what’s your address?’ But he would never send me any mail. The song is a little bit about my hometown, my family, but mostly just someone looking for an excuse to call someone they miss.” Scibilia released the song as a double-sided single: the first featuring synthesizers, acoustic guitars, and drum loops, and the second fueled by a stripped-down combination of vocals and unplugged guitars. Then, while the song gathered steam on the Spotify and iTunes charts, Scibilia did what he’s always done—continued writing and creating from his life experiences out on the road and at home in East Nashville.
Believer
Marc Scibilia Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's hard to think about anything changing
So much f'ed up
So much i can't face
But I woke up with an angel
I have to say
I'm a believer
I'm a believer
Yes it's true
I'm a believer
I'm a believer
I'm a believer
I believe in you
City's on fire
Streets are in flames
So much of a damage
Done in the name
Baby you don't worry when skies turn black
You know in a hurry
I got your back
I'm a believer
I'm a believer
I'm a believer
Yes it's true
I'm a believer, yeah
I'm a believer
I'm a believer
I believe in you
And I know sometimes
It feels like we're trying
To walk on water
Just to go outside
It's getting better
All the time
If it's hard to see it
You can use my eyes, yeah, use my eyes
I'm a believer, I believe in you
Walk with me baby
The lyrics in Marc Scibilia's "Believer" reflect the struggle between feeling overwhelmed by the world's problems and finding hope and faith in oneself and others. Scibilia sings about the challenges of facing a world with so much pain and destruction, acknowledging that there are days when it feels impossible to keep going. However, he also recognizes the importance of finding support and encouragement in the people we love, singing "I woke up with an angel...I'm a believer, I believe in you."
The chorus of the song is all about faith and optimism, with Scibilia repeating the phrase "I'm a believer" over and over again. He acknowledges that the world can be a pretty scary place, with the "city's on fire" and "streets...in flames," but he has faith in the power of love and community to heal and overcome even the toughest of challenges. Ultimately, the song is a call to stick together and support each other through difficult times, to hold onto hope even when it feels like everything is falling apart.
Line by Line Meaning
I wanna give up some days
There are some days when I feel like giving up.
It's hard to think about anything changing
Thinking about things changing can be difficult for me.
So much f'ed up
So many things are messed up.
So much i can't face
There are certain things I can't bring myself to face.
But I woke up with an angel
I woke up feeling blessed and grateful.
I have to say
I must admit that
I'm a believer
I am someone who believes in something or someone.
I'm a believer
I am someone who believes in something or someone.
I'm a believer
I am someone who believes in something or someone.
Yes it's true
It is indeed true.
I'm a believer
I am someone who believes in something or someone.
I'm a believer
I am someone who believes in something or someone.
I'm a believer
I am someone who believes in something or someone.
I believe in you
I have faith in you.
City's on fire
The city is in a state of chaos.
Streets are in flames
The streets are burning.
So much of a damage
So much damage has been done.
Done in the name
Done under the guise of something else.
Baby you don't worry when skies turn black
You don't have to worry when things get tough.
You know in a hurry
You already know
I got your back
I will support you and be there for you.
And I know sometimes
I am aware that sometimes
It feels like we're trying
It can feel like we are attempting to accomplish the impossible.
To walk on water
To achieve the impossible.
Just to go outside
Just to live our everyday lives.
It's getting better
Things are improving.
All the time
Constantly.
If it's hard to see it
If it's difficult to recognize this improvement.
You can use my eyes, yeah, use my eyes
You can see it through my perspective.
Walk with me baby
Join me on this journey.
Writer(s): Marc Scibilia
Contributed by Grayson M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@franksinclair3375
Dope and chill. I likey
@ms.jayraymond2547
Amen Marc!!!! We need the Love! Awesome song!
@madisonh9350
love this
@WereInATightSpot
Very soulful bro!
@carolflynn9249
would love to learn the chords for my keyboard!!!
@natedogg265
very nice
@thisbambibites
Saw him with Gavin James last year, he is great!
@spyro1159
Legend says, if you're one of the first comments, Marc Scibilia replies.
@marcscibilia
That's a myth
@airyndoyle1155
That was EPIC! I needed that laugh-Thanks! Too funny! lol