The Hardest Part

Dan Croll spent seven years on "Hail Mary," a song about last chances, time running out, and coming to terms with a career that didn't keep the shape it started with. On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, he opens it up with rare honesty: the early success he feels he squandered, the full-time job he works outside music now, and why everything, ideas, songs, deals, and touring, feels like one more throw of the ball. And why he's still here, still giving it a go.

They talk about craft as persistence: the archivist's...

Luke Hart wrote "Biding" about seeing someone, an infatuation that felt amazing and awful at once. Then he posted it online, people found it, and strangers started messaging him that the song holds their grief, their old cities, their goodbyes. 

On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, he opens up the song that's done more than he ever intended.

Kieron and Luke talk about the song written on the couch of his old Manchester flat under a salt lamp, the diminished chords he learned from listening to his friends, the inspiration of A...

Maddie Zahm was watching Meryl Streep deliver "that is all" in The Devil Wears Prada when she had a realisation: "that's gay." 

On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, she opens up "Meryl," a flirty, joyful, proudly queer song about loving older women.

It's a conversation about honesty as a superpower: how she came out through a song she accidentally sent to her mom, why she writes hyper-specifically, as though no one will ever hear it, and why the songs that scare her most always resonate most.

At the end o...

On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, the band's songwriter and frontwoman opens up "Serpent," the song that fought her hardest on The Bestiary: the one where every band member hated a different part, and the only fix was to scrap everything but the lyrics and start again.

It's a conversation about ego and letting go, the first genuinely collaborative Castle Rat album, tears in the rehearsal space, the heart-to-heart that revealed her bandmates wanted to write too, and the fear that sharing even 10% of a song would void her contribution, sharpened by years...

One of these songs took Gently Tender three years. The other took two minutes. On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, Gently Tender's Sam Fryer and Francesca Brierley opens up "Staring at Fields" and "The City of the Beast," both from their upcoming album ,This Was Once Fields.

It's a conversation about a lifelong Londoner mourning the city's lost magic, think the Astoria and Madame Jojo's, and about why he keeps escaping it on foot: the hyperacusis that makes city noise painful, the walks that became meditation, the "I'm staring at fields" mantra sung...

Izzy Steele had a full-time job acting on a TV soap, and left it to chase music before she knew if it would work, one of the hardest decisions she ever had to make. On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, Izzy opens up "Something Infinite," the title track of her EP: a song about the frustration that comes with ambition, that awkward middle part between leaving something safe and arriving anywhere at all.

Izzy talks about how honesty is a job description: years of bottling emotions and saving them for the camera, then...

Pixie McCann convinced herself in a toilet that everyone hated her, and filled her Notes app with the evidence: "literally everyone here is rotten." 

Then she woke up, read it back, and decided... this is good content. 

On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, she opens up "Rotting," the song that came out of that night, and the debut EP it belongs to.

It's a conversation about the pocket between beautiful and horrible things: her first year making music professionally while her personal life fell apart, the pre-chorus that turned in...

On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, Julian Pratt opens up "See You Again," from the band's new record: a song whose chorus, "I'll see you again, no grave or cemetery can keep you from me," was written for his mentor, San Diego hardcore legend Mike Down. 

After it was recorded, Julian's close friend passed. Now the song belongs to both of them.

It's the rawest conversation this show has had: on belief, and what happens when grief shakes it; on riding motorcycles with Noble and refusing to regret the best memories o...

Jamie Webster joins Kieron Banerji on The Hardest Part to break down the writing, meaning and performance of his song “Small Town Life.”

Jamie explains how years spent touring through towns across the UK inspired him to write a song celebrating the people, characters and communities that exist beyond the country’s biggest cities, places that might look imperfect from the outside, but mean everything to the people who call them home.

Jamie takes us inside his songwriting process, from keeping fragments and ideas in his phone to beginning “Small Town Life” with a musical manifesto...

Le Ren almost threw this song away. On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, she opens up "Die Inside" from her album Don't Be Funny Without Me, a song that was easy to write but hard to sing, about a crush that was never going to be reciprocated, and the strange courage it takes to perform the plain, un-metaphored truth.

It's a conversation about honesty in songwriting: why singing it live once made her "feel like a loser," how Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" gave her permission to be vulnerable, why...

Rosa Walton spent over 18 months getting one song right.

On this episode of The Hardest Part, Rosa opens up "Halfway Around the World" from her album Tell Me It's a Dream, her first attempt at a "straight-down-the-line" love song, and the hardest lyrics she's ever had to write.

It's a conversation about craft: why literal songwriting scares her more than abstract imagery, how she knows the moment a lyric is finally right, why she refuses to explain what her songs are about ("it takes away the magic"), and the new ending she wrote just the...

Tenderness didn't find "Playing Country Roads" hard to write, she found it almost impossible to hold. On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, she opens up the closing song from her album: written on her late father Ivor's guitar, built on a voice memo she couldn't bring herself to re-record, and carrying two griefs at once.

It's a conversation about turning loss into art without letting the performance swallow the feeling — the "healthy middle place" every songwriter has to find. Along the way: the hidden thread of John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (vi...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Julia Cumming to discuss “Please Let Me Remember This,” one of the most personal songs from her debut solo album Julia. 

What began as an attempt to write about the smallest possible moment gradually became something much bigger. Julia describes songwriting as visiting her subconscious, placing a cup into a flowing river, and seeing what comes back. But while writing this song, she found herself confronting thoughts she wasn’t ready to face. 

As the writing process intensified, so did the pressure. Weeks of obses...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Ava Joe to break down the making of “Am I a Dreamer”, a song inspired by one of the most complicated emotions she experiences: nostalgia.  

Unlike most of her songwriting, which begins with a specific experience and the feelings that follow, this song started with an emotion. Ava set out to write about nostalgia itself, drawing together memories, places, films, relationships, and moments that all carried the same emotional weight.  

This episode explores why nostalgia can feel more painful than comforting, the strange experi...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Metric to break down the making of “Victim of Luck”, the opening track from their latest album and the song that took longer to finish than any other. The challenge wasn’t writing it. The challenge was knowing when it was right.

Emily and Jimmy Shaw tell Kieron how the song was intended to introduce the entire record, setting the tone for everything that followed. But as the album evolved, so did the song. Lyrics changed, arrangements changed, production choices came and went, and even the ti...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Will White to break down the making of “6:30 AM”, a song that became the catalyst for everything that followed.

Unlike most of his work, the song stayed with him for years. That alone was unusual. Will describes a songwriting process where songs either arrive fully formed or disappear entirely. He rarely revisits unfinished ideas, yet somehow “6:30 AM” refused to go away. 

Kieron and Will explore discomfort as a creative tool, the mystery of songwriting, and why some songs seem to know more about your futu...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Witch Fever break down the songwriting process and music production process behind “The Garden,” a song shaped by religious trauma, feminist rebellion, and the emotional tension of leaving the church behind. We talk about how the band nearly abandoned the song after feeling the chorus sounded “too Jesus-y,” triggering memories of Christian worship music and charismatic church environments.

The band explains how growing up in a strict religious setting influenced the lyrics, which reinterpret the story of Eve as something empowering rather than shameful. We also chat about collaborative songwriting, instinct...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Lily Moore to break down the making of “Grown Up Girl Regrets” and why it became one of the most important songs she has ever written. Written during her first studio session after lockdown, the song emerged from a period of uncertainty, isolation, and emotional exhaustion. Walking back into a writing room for the first time in months, Lily found herself confronting feelings she had spent years avoiding in her songwriting.

Kieron and Lily explore the difference between songs that slowly evolve over years and songs...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Young the Giant break down the songwriting process and music production process behind “Different Kind of Love,” exploring how the band tried to return to the spirit of their first record.

After years of touring, remote writing, adult responsibilities, and fragmented workflows, Young the Giant wanted to reconnect creatively by getting back into a room together and writing instinctively as a band again. Through writing retreats in Joshua Tree and Idyllwild, they rebuilt their process around collaboration, momentum, and live energy.

We talk about songwriting process, music production, crea...

What happens when you can’t move, can’t escape, and a song is the only thing you can build.

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Westerman to break down the making of “Mosquito” from his 2025 album A Jackal’s Wedding. 

The song was written during a period of physical and emotional isolation, after Westerman tore his meniscus while travelling in northern Greece. Unable to move for months in extreme heat, with little contact with anyone else, the song emerged slowly in fragments, built from a looping guitar idea and moments...

Sometimes the hardest part is not writing the song, it is making it feel right.

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Winter to break down the making of “Misery” and how the song transformed completely in the studio. 

What started as a faster demo in a different key with only one verse became the longest and most complex process on the record. Through experimentation with tempo, pitch, and arrangement, the track slowly evolved into something entirely new.

She explains how working closely with her producer led to key d...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Athens-based band The Overjoyed to go behind the scenes of their track “Party Eyes,” exploring the songwriting process, music production, and the emotional realities that shaped it. 

The song begins with a deeply personal place: sleepless nights, hangovers, and the emotional comedown that can follow moments of excess or difficult periods in life. What starts as a reflection on insomnia evolves into something more vulnerable, touching on mental health, isolation, and the quiet, often unspoken moments where everything feels overwhelming.

We break down how t...

In this episode of The Hardest Part podcast, Tigercub break down the songwriting and creative process behind their track, "Fall In Fall Out".

The track sits at the centre of their new album’s core tension, exploring contradiction, cycles, and the difficulty of articulating feelings that don’t fully make sense yet. Jamie explains how the song began with melody on acoustic guitar, before any clear meaning was attached. From there, the process became one of discovery, using stream of consciousness writing, dream journals, and notebooks filled with fragments to uncover what the song was actually about.

Sometimes the hardest part of songwriting is figuring out what you are actually feeling.

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Madi Diaz to break down the making of her track “Heavy Metal” and the songwriting process behind it. The song began as a feeling she could not fully access while finishing her record, something unresolved that she knew was there but could not yet put into words. 

Madi reflects on the challenge of writing when you feel emotionally heavy, and the patience required to keep peeling back layers until the me...

What happens when you enter the studio with a song that is not finished and no time to figure it out?

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Julia Cumming and Nick Kivlen of Sunflower Bean to break down the making of their track “I Knew Love” from the album Mortal Primetime.

The song was one of the only tracks that was still being developed once the band entered the studio. With time, budget, and pressure all in play, they found themselves building the structure in real time, chasing a feel...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Foy Vance to explore the realities of songwriting and the role ego plays in the creative process. The conversation focuses on how ego can shape, and sometimes block, the way songs are written.

Foy reflects on the importance of stepping back, letting go of control, and allowing the song to take the lead rather than forcing it into a preconceived idea. They discuss the balance between confidence and humility in songwriting, and why some of the best work happens when you stop trying to prove...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Sam Fischer for a behind the scenes look at the songwriting and music production behind his track “Sweet Contradiction.” The conversation dives deep into the songwriting process, the emotional reality of creating music, and how a studio writing session meant for another artist turned into one of Sam’s most personal songs.

From the first lyrical idea to the final acoustic performance, Sam breaks down how the song came together and why the theme of contradictions became the core of the track.

Guest...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Matt from Mariachi El Bronx for a behind the scenes look at the songwriting and music production process behind their track “Songbird.”

 The conversation dives into studio life during the making of the band’s fourth Mariachi El Bronx record and how the song came together in a completely unexpected way. Unlike the rest of the album, “Songbird” did not exist as a demo. It emerged in the studio after bandmate Vincent Hidalgo shared a fast, melodic guitar idea that immediately sparked something new.

Matt expl...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Dream Nails to unpack the making of their track “The Information,” a song that went through multiple versions and nearly did not make the album.

The band explain how the track began as free writing for a completely different idea before evolving through co-writing, shifting styles, and eventually returning to their post-punk sound with new hooks in place. The line “I’m gonna download all the information” became the one constant, anchoring the song even as everything else changed.

They talk about using stream of...

What happens when two ideas don't fit — until they finally do? What does that process actually look like?

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji is joined by Ulrika Spacek to break down the making of their track “Weights and Measures.”

The song began as two completely separate pieces. One was built around a heavy fuzz section. The other drew on early 2010s London electronic textures. For a long time, they simply would not work together. Bringing them into one track meant shifting tempos, adjusting pitch, and committing to the contrast rather than smooth...

How do you turn fear and anxiety into something creative? In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with UK band Chartreuse to unpack the story behind their song “I’m Losing It” — a deeply personal track written by vocalist Hattie following the news that she’d need major surgery at just 29, forcing her to relearn how to walk. Hattie shares how months of anxiety and fear about becoming a burden turned into a creative outpouring.

The band speaks candidly about the power of songwriting as emotional processing, how they instinctively built the song from a sma...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, host Kieron Banerji is joined by Hrishikesh Hirway — musician, composer, and creator of the iconic podcast Song Exploder.

Known for helping artists dissect their songs and uncover the stories behind them, Hrishikesh does something rare in this conversation: he breaks down his own song — a track called “Between There and Here,” written in the wake of his mother’s death. It’s a deeply personal piece, one that reflects the quiet complexities of grief, love, and the gaps left by what’s unsaid.

Hrishikesh talks about the emotional expectations in...

What do you do when you have five separate demos and no idea how they fit together?

In this episode of The Hardest Part, host Kieron Banerji sits down with NYC psych-pop collective Psymon Spine to unpack the twisting, turbulent process behind their song Wizard Acid. Written remotely during the pandemic and born from five conflicting demos, the track became one of their most ambitious—and hardest to finish.

They break down how Wizard Acid evolved piece by piece: from early voice memos and lost choruses to Bowie-inspired edits and haunted house energy. Along the wa...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, host Kieron Banerji sits down with Elles Bailey to unpack the long, personal, and painful process behind “Ballad of a Broken Dream,” a track that sat in her voice notes for over five years before she could face recording it.

Originally written after an emotional phone call, the song felt too raw, too unresolved, to finish. Elles shares how she rewrote it again and again—changing verses, adjusting melodies, pulling back—trying to make it more manageable. But every version felt wrong.

We also talk about:

How trau...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, host Kieron Banerji is joined by Adult Jazz to unpack the long and winding process behind “Earth of Worms,” one of the most technically complex and emotionally unruly songs on their album So Sorry So Slow.

The song had been in progress for nearly seven years, and at one point, it was too clean—too correct. The band talks openly about how chasing technical polish nearly stripped the track of its emotional weight, and how they had to unlearn their habits in order to start again. The final version was built...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, host Kieron Banerji sits down with Deep Sea Diver at Third Man Records in Soho to unpack the complicated road behind their track “Shovel.”

It started out as the easiest song they’d ever written—and nearly became the one that didn’t make the record at all.

The band explains how the song went through multiple versions, two cities, and nearly three scrapped attempts. They talk about trying to hold together wildly different ideas—from Nick Cave-inspired spoken word sections to a Kate Bush–style pop outro—and the challeng...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, host Kieron Banerji sits down with Sophie Jamieson to explore the writing of “How Do You Want to Be Loved?”, a delicate and emotionally loaded song from her album I Still Want To Share.

Unlike many of her songs, this one had a clear emotional target from the start — written for someone close to her, while navigating a mix of love, frustration, and grief. It wasn’t just a songwriting challenge. It was a personal risk: how do you tell the truth when the person it’s about might hear it?

In this episode of The Hardest Part, host Kieron Banerji is joined by Anna B Savage to unpack the long and winding process behind “Donegal,” a standout from her album You and i are Earth.

Anna reflects on her changing relationship to songwriting—from the painstaking process behind her early work to a more forgiving, open approach that still carries its own challenges. “Donegal” took over two years to finish, shaped by periods of creative block, ongoing emotional reckoning, and the pressure of articulating a feeling that hadn’t fully settled.

She talks through the tension of t...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, host Kieron Banerji is joined by London band Famous to unpack the writing of “Leaving Tottenham,” a climactic and emotionally charged track from their debut album Party Album.

The band’s frontman opens up about the long and often painful process behind the song—one that wrestled with personal embarrassment, grand ambition, and the frustration of trying to make private feelings mean something beyond the self.

“Leaving Tottenham” started as a raw reaction to seeing an ex and evolved into something much harder to finish: a song that tries to hold...

In this episode of The Hardest Part, host Kieron Banerji sits down with Devi Mambouka, the artist and music producer who performs as Masma Dream World, to explore the deeply spiritual and emotionally raw process behind the making of her art.

Unlike traditional songwriting, Devi's process is entirely intuitive—a sonic ritual guided by the goddess Kali, whose presence she channels through daily meditation, field recordings, and unplanned studio improvisation. She describes the act not as writing, but as receiving: “I just do what she asks me to do.”

Alongside longtime collaborator and engineer Chris Weiss...