Kelsea Ballerini has teamed up with singer-songwriter Patrick Droney for the sentimental single “Math of Us.” The song features on Droney’s new album, Made You Look, out today.
The track was released alongside a video featuring the duo duetting in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Directed and edited by Droney, the artist chose the park specifically because of the view of New York City from the bench where much of the filming takes place.
“Patrick sent me Made You Look a few months ago and I walked the West Side Highway listening top to bottom, but stopped at ‘Math Of Us,’” Ballerini said in a statement. “I sat on a bench and listened over and over, even more compelled to look at the life happening around me. It’s about fear, presence, taking inventory, and at the end of the day, the love that we hope to find along the journey that makes us never want the journey to end.”
She added, “I’m a superfan of Patrick’s craft, more so the heart and intention he does it with, and feel honored to have lent my voice to this brilliant record.”
Droney called “Math of Us” an “unspoken conversation” he feels in every room. “I’m constantly running numbers in the background of ordinary moments, trying my best not to show my cards to the people I love. At its core, this record is an acknowledgment of that universal human process,” the singer said. “Kelsea and I have always had Nashville in common, but getting to share a creative season in New York has meant so much. The video grew out of that practice of looking closely, and it reflects something Kelsea and I both connect with: being one within life’s tapestry and recognizing a greater story unfolding around us.”
Among the cast of people featured in the video, Droney’s oldest friends PJ and Anya and their two children are featured. He shared that he also met Nelson and Vicky, both 80, while scouting the location, and while he first thought they had been together for decades, they had met just last year. “Everyone is the same on a park bench,” the singer said. “The math might be different, but it all adds up to the same bottom line: we just want to hold on, for as long as we can, to what matters most.”
Droney’s North American tour in support of Made You Look launches Oct. 14 in Los Angeles.
