Aurora, ON Singer-Songwriter Laura Fortini Turns A Private Family Struggle Into Her Most Vulnerable Song Yet On “Shattered”
Aurora, Ontario singer-songwriter Laura Fortini releases “Shattered,” the second track she has released to the public, though it will land as the tenth song on her forthcoming 14 track, self-titled debut album. The song arrives eight months after her debut single, “Look In,” released October 10, 2025, and comes ahead of her later radio debut, “Lights Went Out,” which looked back on a bittersweet teenage memory.
“Shattered” pulls from something far closer to the bone, a private family struggle Fortini watched her twin brother go through, and the helplessness of wanting to stand beside him while not being able to say so out loud.
Fortini wrote the song four days after witnessing the conflict unfold, sitting in her grandparents’ spare room while her family’s new home was under construction, the same room where she would later write “Lights Went Out” under similar circumstances. Unable to speak openly about what she had seen, either with her brother or her parents, she put everything into the song instead: the emotions, the unspoken weight carried on every side of the conflict, even the shape of the panic she felt in the moment. She was two days away from turning sixteen when she wrote it.
“This song has the most exact, vulnerable and honest portrayal of how I felt at the time,” Fortini says, “and it’s also the most accurate demonstration of the type of person I am.” That clarity shaped the recording process from the start, with Fortini determined to carry the song’s rawness through to the finished version rather than soften it. “When we were working on this song, Mat and I, we tried to get to the core of the situation,” she says of collaborating with producer Songsbury. “I tried to have it so that the actual thoughts, sensations, sentiments and, ultimately, the intentions were what was communicated in the way we did the music and composition, and of course the lyricism. We wanted to make it abundantly clear what the gravity of the situation was, or at least how it felt back then. Hopefully, when you hear it, you understand what I meant in forming the song this way, and hopefully it can be related to.”
“Shattered” was written and composed by Fortini and produced by Mathew Teofilo, known professionally as Songsbury, continuing their ongoing collaboration. A lyric video for the song is available now on YouTube, with a full music video still to come.
The response to “Lights Went Out” has already carried Fortini’s story well beyond Aurora. The single earned coverage from Tinnitist, Cashbox Canada and Record World International, along with a feature in Aurora’s own Aurora Today, and picked up broadcast attention as far as CW33 in Dallas, ATV Today in the UK and Concert Monkey in Belgium, proof that a deeply personal, small-town story can travel further than expected.
Fortini’s foundation in music runs deep. She began piano lessons at four and voice lessons at six, going on to complete Royal Conservatory of Music examinations with honours and First Class Honours, before picking up guitar and songwriting together at twelve, not long after attending Taylor Swift’s 1989 tour as her first ever concert. Alongside years of choir and theatre, she taught herself basic production to shape her own demos, the same rough recordings that ultimately convinced Teofilo to work with her. She continues her Royal Conservatory studies while pursuing a degree in English, History and Humanities at York University, where she has also taken a Concert Choir course within the Fine Arts and Music program.
With “Shattered,” Fortini adds another deeply personal chapter to a 14 track self-titled debut album now three songs into completion, continuing to use her own experiences, including the ones hardest to say out loud, as her clearest way of connecting with listeners.
Hi, Laura! Good to see you again! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
Hey!! Very nice to see you again, as well! For those of you who don’t know me: I’m Laura Fortini. I’m a current student at York University, hopefully within my last year now. And I also make music. I have been writing songs for the last ten years or so, and I’ve just finally started getting to record and release songs within the last couple years, around 2023-2024. I’m so over-the-moon to be here, and to get to do this; it’s my most cathartic way to communicate what’s going on and how I’m feeling to other people. I love ambient music, as well as pop, folk, alternative, country and classic rock (the songs that are on the softer side). So: I tend to feel like there’s a bit of influence on all parts of my music, from those differing genres. I’m working on my first/debut album [Laura Fortini/Self-Titled], and so now there are three tracks released out of what will be 14. Each song I write is always so close to me, so I hope it can relate and make sense to other people at the same time. I always want to make sure I’m being honest about things, and to try and relate, as I want to understand and help others. My Spotify page is: Laura Fortini (verified account), provided you want to come along. <3 in advance, I love you and am grateful you’re here.
You wrote “Shattered” just two days before your 16th birthday, only four days after everything happened. Looking back now, what do you hear in that song that your 15-year-old self couldn’t yet say out loud?
When I hear the track, I hear a lot of the pain and emotional weight that I actually physically felt, over the whole stretch of the scenario while I was having a panic attack in the middle of it — which is actually what I wanted. When we were making the song, as we went through the entire process, Mat and I (he goes professionally by Songsbury), I wanted to really distill everything; to let it ferment and develop organically, based on how it internally-felt…. Hoping that that would enhance the production. I’m really glad, because most of the commentary I’ve gotten from other people and listeners who don’t have the background, has just been the kindest and seems to point towards getting that feeling across. It’s been really nice.
The song is inspired by your twin brother’s experience, but it’s really told from your perspective. Did sharing it with your family, especially your brother, change any of those relationships or conversations after they heard it?
That’s extremely thoughtful of you to consider! Thank you for saying that. It was something I thought about a lot. At the time, especially, I was concerned about how it might come across, because the situation that happened was really sensitive for a while. But, as it happened, I was really fortunate, because it didn’t manage to create any riffs or turbulence past the length of the situation. This was within my immediate family, or any of the extended/relative circles. As this much time has passed, I was also trying to wonder about what would happen if this situation got rekindled in any amount, but that hasn’t changed the dynamic or structure of the close relationships we’ve had. I’m grateful for that.
You and producer Songsbury focused on preserving the emotional weight of the moment instead of polishing it away. Were there any lyrics or vocal takes that were difficult to keep because they felt almost too honest?
That was actually one of the best parts about it. Along with doing the literal composing of the song, going through the motions of the creating-and-releasing process: arrangement, production, tracking, more production (that lasted for 7-9 months) mixing, mastering and then the distribution… the entire thing was all about encapsulating as much transparency and emotion/vulnerability as we could. There were times that we would even spend hours just talking about how to physically convey specific aspects of feelings through the mixtape, and in the decisions we made for it. I recall my parents both thinking this was too personal to put-out; saying it should be a B-side release. And having over hour-long conversations on the phone with Mat, just trying to go through everything I was overthinking about it…. Not knowing if it was wrong. It definitely felt personal, but that was the whole point. When we were there together, Mat and I, we would constantly be mulling over this during sessions, trying to contemplate all the options for how to communicate the sentiment(s) through the sounds themselves— and then just putting our heads down to listen to it. We’d close our eyes and sometimes have our hands over our head to take ourselves out of the bias/experience of the situation, and try to see if we could feel the same weight as someone who might not have been there, would. It was a long, therapeutic process. I genuinely wouldn’t change a single part of it for anything.
You’ve now released songs about very personal moments in your life. As you build toward your debut album, are you ever afraid of revealing too much of yourself, or has songwriting become the safest place for you to tell those stories?
This is an extremely reflective and kind question, thank you. As you said: Songwriting has most-definitely become the safest place for me to tell these stories. I’m always worried, in one way or another, that I’m saying things that would be considered too-personal, but then at the same time, as someone with anxiety, it’s something I’m always going to overthink. So, from that frame of mind, it’s not enough of a reason for me to not want to reach out: there isn’t enough separation between the intensity of what I would be feeling, versus knowing what the type of isolation would be for others if you didn’t try to connect. Having the consolation and acknowledgement of what you’re dealing with, or even trying to say it to someone else is already hard enough, so I don’t think leaving people out in the cold is worth the while at that point. That just makes it worse. My writing is very abstract most of the time, and is emotional; but it is very much personal. It’s never removed from the depth or intensity — because I often think I feel too much — of what I’m experiencing at any given time. Vulnerability is hard, but this has always, in music, been the place where it is most thoroughly- and properly-reached. That’s where I’ve felt most understood. My songs are not removed from the type of person I am. My songs are me: and if I have an opportunity, like here, to make them and share them in full; with detail and with precision, I’m going to totally and wholeheartedly do that.