This is Verse Chorus Bridge, I am Jonah Lefebvre. Today we are talking about sad songs, and specifically how to write one that does not feel sorry for itself. My guest wrote a song about her father after he died, and it is one of the most restrained pieces of writing I have heard in years. There are no violins, no big words, and the first verse is just a list of objects on a kitchen counter. We will talk about why that works, why she kept the melody so plain, and about one line in the second verse that she nearly cut and that now makes people cry. We play the first voice memo, then the record. At the end, an exercise about writing with only things you can see. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.