Carpenter, who recently signed with Island Records, released the surprise song on January 22. Fans speculated that it was a response to Olivia Rodrigo’s hit “Drivers License” due to rumors of a love triangle involving Rodrigo, Carpenter and Joshua Bassett. (In “Driver’s License”, Rodrigo sings, “And you are probably with that blonde girl / Who always made me doubt / She is much older than me / She is everything that makes me insecure.” In “Pele”, Carpenter sings, “Maybe you didn’t want to / Maybe ‘blonde’ was the only rhyme.”)
But in an Instagram post last week, Carpenter said “Skin” “is not calling out to a single person. Some lines address a specific situation, while others talk about many other experiences I had last year.”
“I was not bothered by a few lines of a (magnificent) song and I wrote a nasty track about it,” she wrote. “I was at a critical point in my life for a number of reasons. So I was inspired to do what I usually do to deal with it, write something I wish I had said to myself in the past. People can only reach you if you give them the power to. and many people were trying to reach me. “
Watch a preview of the video clip for “Skin” below and tune in to see the full look at 5 pm ET / 2 pm PT on Monday (1 February).