Songs written and co-written by Ben Hewerdine over a seven year span. A kind of best of recorded with just piano and vocal.

Darling

This song took as long to write as it did to sing. I sent it to my dad’s long time collaborator Eddi Reader and was thrilled when she recorded it. This was written relatively early on in my songwriting venture. I consider it objectively one of if not my best.


Hometown

The oldest song on here. I wrote the verses the night after my first day of college. I consider it the first good thing I’d written. Eventually my dad Boo Hewerdine added a bridge and an ending. We worked together on the words. He called it “one of his happiest writing memories” and I concurred.

The Kiss That Landed

This was one of the Simon songs I had worked out musically before he sent me the lyric. The hardest I’ve ever worked on anything in my life was the initial pre Simon version. Jazz chords are not my forte. I was walking down the stairs when the verse melody popped in my head and wouldn’t leave. Worked on it two days straight. Soon after Simon sent me his lyric and I thought it fit well. Eventually Chris Pepper put his own spin on it in the studio.


Liars Dice

Here’s a song about being frustrated with uk politicians set to a bondy theme. I’ve written a lot of what I’d call “bond songs” but this is the only one I’ve been happy with. It went through countless permutations. I put a version on a James Bond forum and it went down well.


Dopamine

This was a weird one. Written on an old electric organ my friend gave me. I was working very hard on the verse and my hands just played the prechorus and chorus. I thought “will work for dopamine” was a wholly unique lyric but as it turns out it shows up in the Simpson’s as all things do.


Butterfly Kisses,

This was a lyric Simon Wells’ had sent me for the initial Simon and the astronauts album. I wrote my music for it just after a patch of extremely bad mental health, and missed the initial recording day as well. We later worked on it for Simon’s ep project. Chris Pepper the producer of that session made a few chops and screws that really bought the whole thing together. I see the open chord sequence to be a reference to the funeral marches of yesteryear. As the song progresses you are lifted out of that place with a faux beatles vibe. My favourite of songs I’ve been a writer on.


Admission

The music was initially written for a Simon and The Astronauts song. But Simon chose to take the music a different direction for that lyric. So I wrote my own lyrics. I’ve always been fascinated with a chromatically descending bass line. Used in such songs as “Junk” and “Chim Chim Cheree”. This is my take on it. The lyrics were inspired by low self esteem and buyers remorse.


Cherry Tree

I’ve always wanted to write a great three chord song. I was very happy with the verses and the phrase “some day soon”. When I played it to my often producer Chris Pepper he thought the chorus could be simpler. So I ditched the complex chorus I had and continued the three chordedness of the verse. The lyrics reference an elderly activity centre near me. This was me commenting on how many life’s were lost due mistakes made during the pandemic.


Uncanny Valley

A quick write. After Simon sent me the lyric I knocked out the composition. The funky rhythm was based on my attempts of doing 5/4 I thought having that extra beat be intentional rather than by mistake was funny. The melody is Sort of inspired by some of Lennon’s two note melody’s which I’m obsessed with.


I Don’t know anybody like you (in this world)

I had honestly completely forgotten I had written this with Darragh four years prior to him releasing it. I’ve always been fascinated with a quote about Beethoven using ascending bass lines. And tried that for a while. It’s was a great surprise when Darragh recorded it.