(Radio.com) Barns Courtney is a singer/songwriter who is just starting to break into the pop mainstream after years of work, thanks to two new songs, "Glitter and Gold" and "Fire."

The former song is about Courtney's experience of being dropped by a record label, after working on an album for years. "'Glitter and Gold' is similar to a lot of the rest of the record. It's just kind of about striving to be successful. After I lost my first deal I was woefully unprepared for the real world. I had no qualifications whatsoever. And I got a job in this computer store directly across from the five star hotel that I used to stay in with my old management."

"So I'd come out on my lunch break and look at this huge monolith to all of my past failings, and I'd hear my manager's new band on the radio, literally, while eating my sandwich, and thinking, 'This sandwich actually equates to about an hour of my time.'"

"And I wasn't sure if I'd ever make music again. Not because I didn't want to, but because I had no contacts or anything, and I had no way to make new music. So, I think it's just about trying to hold on to that passion that you have in your youth and realizing that you're trying to follow in the footsteps of people who have done all these great things. Yeah, and just like defiance of the situation that you're in."

While the experience of being dropped was, of course, a difficult one, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. "Yeah, absolutely," he agrees. "It was impossible to tell at the time, but in retrospect, that's the best thing that could've possibly happened. That gave me something real and honest to write about, and I think the experience made me even hungrier to make music for a living. I think losing the first deal was one of the hardest things I've had to deal with, 'cause I was so used to having everything dealt with [for me], and just making music every day. Came straight out of high school into a record deal."

"And that was my experience of the real world. 'Okay, so I just sit on the piano, and I just write these songs and people just let me do my thing and play Xbox. And then it's like, 'Bam!' I have to go out and get a job; I can't afford to pay rent living on like 5 pounds a day. It was a really intense, quick change. Read more here.