ANOTHER WOMAN: A SONG BORN IN THIRTY MINUTES
Updated: May 30
I accidentally found out that he'd found someone else, and when I finally sat down to write about it, the song took only thirty minutes to materialise.
I don't really know how to explain it, but Another Woman arrived almost fully formed, the way things only do when something cracks open and everything that's been sitting beneath the surface finally has somewhere to go. I wasn't trying to write or sitting at my piano with a concept or a plan, I just needed to put my feelings somewhere before they completely inundated me, and the song was what came out.
It's a portrait of unrequited love – not the soft, nostalgic kind, but the kind that pulls you under, the kind you keep returning to even when you know better. The lyrics don't reach for resolution, because there's no making peace with it or closing the door – all there is is the raw reality of loving someone who has chosen someone else.
Sonically, this song is dark and guitar-driven, with violins woven throughout – a final touch added in post-production, one that I love so much. The verses are softer, more internal, while the choruses erupt, which seems to be quite a common occurrence in my songwriting (just take a look at Burning Bridges). And then there's the outro... oh, the outro!
The outro is the moment the song has been building towards the whole time, and it's my favourite part. It's grand and soaring with its explosive drums, electric guitars and violins finally breaking completely open, while underneath it all there's... me, screaming. During recording, we ran my vocals through a guitar distortion filter in real time and later layered more in post, and the result is deliberately ambiguous – it catches you off guard with this sound that could be a guitar solo but isn't. And I think that ambiguity says something about the song as a whole: the line between what's controlled and what's completely falling apart isn't always clear.
I could listen to that outro on repeat – it's so "rock" and mesmerising. I also think it's the kind of thing that makes you feel something you don't quite have words for thanks to the uncanny ambiguity of the scream. And that, I suppose, is what the whole song is trying to do.
Another Woman is out everywhere, hope you love it.
Yours truly,
