Betty Strings shares new single, “Trust Myself” (Interview)

Betty Strings Shares Trauma-to-Healing Single “Trust Myself” Co-Written With Brian Melo

Macedonia-born, Toronto-based artist Betty Strings (Elizabeth Anne Cook) unveils “Trust Myself,” a powerfully vulnerable new single that transforms years of trauma and healing into an anthem of self-reclamation.

Co-written with 2007 Canadian Idol winner Brian Melo and songwriter Paul William Stephens, and brought to life by the instrumental artistry of Matt Fasullo on banjo, the track emerged from an extraordinary creative process where Cook channeled her story in real time during Zoom writing sessions.

“We all got on Zoom, we decided on a topic I was struggling with that week—for instance, TRUST,” Cook explains. “I told my story, Paul took notes, Brian came up with a beautiful melody, and we all wrote the song together, in one session. It was beyond any of us. It was magic.”

Written in late 2022 but held until Cook had completed the healing work necessary to sing it authentically, “Trust Myself” captures the painful journey of learning to trust again when the voice inside your head has become your own abuser, echoing with lines like “After all the pain they put me through / Never believing in my magic / And now you’re telling me I have it / And I can trust myself with loving you.”

The song chronicles Cook’s path from survival mode to genuine connection, documenting what happens when someone who has only known chaos, addiction, and abuse is finally offered unconditional love.

“My normal was toxicity, addiction, and abuse. I became so addicted to the chaos that the light was so foreign to me,” Cook shares.

The track confronts the devastating reality of becoming your own abuser, when the protective voice that once kept you safe from danger becomes the very thing preventing you from accepting love and truth.

Cook’s therapist told her she had to treat her mind like an addiction and complete the 12-step program on herself—a terrifying prospect when the person you’re supposed to trust most has become dangerous. The five-year journey that brought Cook to this moment of authentic expression involved surrendering control to faith, asking God to free her not just from her past but from herself. With Melo and Stephens guiding her through the storytelling and Fasullo’s banjo work adding emotional texture, “Trust Myself” became a vehicle for Cook to reclaim the joyful, passionate young woman who had been waiting on the other side of fear, the version of herself she always dreamt of being even when surrounded by darkness.

“Trust Myself” is one of six songs Cook wrote with her collaborators in 2022, all circling back to the central theme of getting in her own way and learning what trust looks like when you’ve only known pain. The decision to wait until now to release the music speaks to Cook’s commitment to authenticity—she needed to do the work first, to stand firm in trust and acceptance, before she could sing these songs with the conviction they deserved.

“I wasn’t ready to bring them fully to life until I’d done the work, so I am able to sing and talk about them, in all of their authenticity,” she reflects.

The result is a deeply moving piece of art that transforms personal struggle into universal truth, offering hope to anyone who has ever had to learn to trust themselves again. Betty Strings emerges as an artist unafraid to excavate her own story, turn debris into beauty, and prove that the road map home—no matter how many times it’s been burned to ashes—can always be rebuilt.

Hi, Betty! Good to meet you! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?

I’d love to! 

It’s an absolute honour to introduce myself to you, as the highest version of myself. 

Betty Strings is the version of myself I always looked up to, through the fog, through the darkness, she was my light. 

She is my light. 

There is a bit of a story behind my artist name as well. 

Betty is a nickname my Baba (Macedonian grandmother) gave me when I was a little girl, and I was reminded of it by my Mum when the nickname really stuck – I tried out so many different variations of Elizabeth, and this is the one I really felt close to. 

Now, Strings, the last name of my chosen name. 

I began to play the violin at the age of 3 years old. Years later, once I’d mastered a few pieces, I taught my Dad to play as well. 

My Dad is the main reason I have never given up on my dream, my gift, my purpose.

So, as a tribute to him, I named myself Strings so I could carry on the incredible bond through music my Dad and I had, and will always share, even though we are now worlds apart. 

When you say “Trust Myself” was written in real time from whatever you were struggling with that week, what did it feel like to turn something so raw into a finished song in one session?

Honestly, inspiring. 

I was able to look at myself from a different perspective, birds eye view in a sense. 

To really see that I was capable of telling my story, sharing my story, and having lyrics flow so effortlessly while doing so. 

It was the beginning of a long healing journey for me, it opened the gates. 

I was finally being accepted, for me. 

The good, the bad, and all that’s in between. 

You chose to wait before releasing this song until you felt ready to sing it authentically. How did you know when the timing was finally right?

When I stopped fixating on all of the reasons that were confusing me, with trust, to begin with. 

When I really took a long, hard, look at myself, on a soul level. When I looked at every version of myself, really picked myself apart, understood every version of her, and forgave every version of myself as well.

I kept looking for reasons to understand why I couldn’t trust, and of course, all of those reasons are undeniably valid. However, finally recognizing that I was no longer in any of those versions of myself, I had to really make a decision. Whether I wanted to stay in the comfort of being unable to trust anyone, or to finally accept that I could. It was a choice.

A choice I tried to make over and over again, and then those past versions of myself crept back in like the devil was knocking on my door, much like the temptation of a substance one has given up. 

At times, that substance wins, and people experience a relapse.

I continued to relapse, with my past identities. The ones that weren’t trustworthy, the ones that were built on survival, the ones that had narcissistic, manipulative, abusive people surrounding her, and I didn’t even know myself anymore. 

I’d been beaten down so far in to the ground, that I didn’t know how to dig myself out any longer. 

I had to get to the root of what was essentially making me sick. 

And, the harsh reality of that, well, it was me. 

I had become my own manipulator, my own abuser, my own demon, I couldn’t trust the voice in my head, because she was so afraid of getting hurt again, so afraid of being tricked again, that she looked for evidence to prove her theories right, constantly. 

I looked for trust in other places, outside of myself, and while I did find those, the voice in my head tried to expose them as the same people from my past, and they weren’t. 

So, through therapy, through deep emotional work, through deep spiritual work, through many tried and failed methods, I finally had a come to Jesus moment, when the person who proved to be nothing but trustworthy to me, really opened my eyes, and held the mirror up to my face. It was not pretty. And my ego took a long time to accept that, to forgive that version of myself, and I decided that I no longer wanted to be trapped in my own mind. 

I wasn’t interested in looking in the rearview mirror any longer. I choose what I always wanted, and that is the version of me that still believes in the magic, in love, in trust, in God, in faith, and most importantly, in myself.  

Writing with Brian Melo and Paul William Stephens sounds deeply collaborative. What did they bring out of you that surprised you?

It really was a deeply collaborative experience. 

They brought out of me a vulnerability I didn’t know I had. 

I’ve always been open, but they really shined a light on my own darkness.

They asked me questions no one else had the courage to ask, and I answered honestly, which allowed me to open those parts of myself up, and to heal. 

Without that process, I don’t really know where I’d be. 

I’m deeply grateful to both Brian and Paul. We are a team, for life. 

There is a strong sense of hope in “Trust Myself.” What do you hope listeners who are on their own healing journeys feel when they hear it?

How you worded it, is exactly the way I want listeners to feel.

Hopeful. 

I want them to really hear my music, to listen to my story, to have it resonate with them, and for it to inspire them to really look within themselves, if they are struggling. I mean, in all honesty, everyone is. And sometimes we just need a good song, to really evoke the feelings in us we haven’t been able to find on our own.

I hope the song and the lyrics allow people to view trust in the light, and to let go of the darkness.

We have all experienced life, and in life, people hurt us, and people prove to be untrustworthy. 

Friends, family, romantic partnerships, coworkers, the list can go on and on, and I could share stories with you for hours and hours on end. 

What I have learned is that when you, yourself, become the best version of yourself, the best friend to yourself, the one who wants what is best for you, when you treat yourself with the love and respect you are looking for, the same love and respect you treat everyone else with, you open a door, or perhaps the crack of a window at first, and the light comes pouring in. 

If you can focus on that, and stay strong in your faith, and ask God for what it is that you really want, everything will come to you.

Now again, it doesn’t mean that with one prayer everything will be solved.

The prayer will be answered, and it will be up to you, on how you get to the next phase, how you climb to the next step, and how you eventually free yourself, from not only your past, but from the conditioned versions you have become.

I hope people will have the hard conversations, and choose to surround themselves with people who love them, who prove to be trustworthy, and who support them on their own journey. 

The same people y’all choose to keep close, the ones in your circle, allow yourself to be in that circle, because you too are trustworthy, and you too are worth it. 

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