JP Saxe Releases Emotional Breakup Song 'When You Think of Me' After Julia Michaels Split
Singer-songwriter JP Saxe is wearing his heart on his sleeve in his new single "When You Think of Me."
The musician, 29, shared the emotional new track on Friday after weeks of teasing it — and on the heels of his split from girlfriend Julia Michaels, which multiple sources confirmed to PEOPLE this week.
"I was sitting at a piano alone and thinking of a somewhat pervasive idea among young people. In songwriting, we tend to look at love in a binary way. It's either like, 'We're together, and I'm obsessed with you,' or it's like, 'We're not together, and I hate you,'" Saxe says of the song in a statement. "I don't subscribe to the notion that for love to be valid, it needs to be endless. I believe if something beautiful ends, it's still beautiful. At the core of the song is my belief that love can be over and real at the same time. Love doesn't need to be endless to be important, meaningful, and sincere."
Saxe also unveiled a music video for the song, which shows the emotional end of a relationship. The clip was shot in Colombia by Paloma.
"When you think of me/ Am I just another man who leaves?" he sings on the song. "I hate myself for hurting you, but it would make it worse to fix it/ I wish I'd figured out a way/ of keeping myself in it."
Matthew Barnes JP Saxe
The singer-songwriter has been teasing the track for several weeks on social media, leading fans to believe that there may have been romantic turbulence in his relationship with Michaels, 28.
Sources confirmed to PEOPLE that they had, in fact, broken up, and Michaels has also been sharing lyrics of her own to Instagram that appear to be a response to Saxe's lyrics.
"You're just another man / And this is just another doorway / Using promises like they're some kind of twisted fore play," the "Issues" singer shared. "You keep saying that you're staying / When we both know that's not your forte."
RELATED: Julia Michaels and JP Saxe Split After Three Years of Dating as Both Tease Breakup Songs: Sources
Jordan Strauss/AP/Shutterstock Julia Michaels and JP Saxe
"Cut to: you give me one last kiss / And leave your keys there in the foyer / And say you're sorry / You never meant to hurt me like you do / Well I'm sorry to me too," continued Michaels before posting more lyrics in a follow-up story. "For all the love I wasted on you / Baby I'm sorry to me / Sorry to me too."
Michaels and Saxe began dating after writing 2019's "If the World Was Ending," a ballad about a flawed relationship and hope for its reconciliation that went on to sell over three million units in the US and earn the pair a Grammy nomination for song of the year in 2020.
