Singled Out: Sweetlove's Did You Even Know

Americana star Sweetlove just released her new single "Did You Even Know," from her forthcoming EP "Goodnight, Lover" (out March 26th) and to celebrate we have asked her to tell us about the song. Here is the story:

In 2018 I started writing my new record, but I didn't know I was writing a record yet. I wanted to be a better writer and I was realizing how much I loved crafting a song holed up in a writing room with another artist, and I was fortunate enough to be able to sit down with some wonderful writers in LA and New York and learn about how they approached their sessions. And then in November of 2018, I lost one of my oldest friends and a longtime love of mine to suicide. He was one of my favorite people, and his death and the violence of his passing completely unraveled me. I was so sad I couldn't breathe, and the only thing that helped was sitting in rooms and studios talking and writing with these brilliant and kind songwriters. I threw myself into as many sessions as I could get in all of my free time, and eventually, it became clear that I was writing a record, a record with a very specific theme - how to say goodbye to love (the record is called Goodnight, Loverand it comes out next month).

A few months after we lost David, I went into the studio to write with the brilliant songwriter, Garen Gueyikian, and I told him what I was wrestling through, about all of the regret that I felt about David's passing. I had brought some whiskey with me, one of my favorite songwriting companions, and G and I talked for a long time - I told him about how suicide in particular leaves that person's loved ones with such anguish - could you have said or done something along the way to save them? - you think about all of the things that were unsaid, things that you were too proud to say, or too afraid to say, or things you didn't know needed to be said until it was too late. It's a particularly complicated kind of grief, and a particular kind of shattering of the hearts of those that are left behind. So at some point, Garen picked up his guitar and started playing it and just asked me to riff on melodies and I sang something and he said 'I like that'. And that melody became the opening line of the chorus "In the night ... in the night as you were leaving ... begged you not to go." And it felt like from there the song came together very naturally, and I love the story it tells - it's about the last time I saw David, how much I wish I could have even one more day with him, and how much I wish he could have felt the love all around him when he was alive. So that's the heart of the song, it's asking him "Did You Even Know I loved you?".

And I like that even though I wrote it about a very specific heartbreak, and the images in the song are all real, I think it's written universally enough that anyone who loved someone who couldn't feel it will relate to this. I think it's a common thing for a lot of people - loving someone who can't receive it in the way you want them to. So it's a very special song to me, and as people are starting to listen to it, I'm hearing from people that it's meaningful to them, and it's moving them and I don't think you can ask for anything more. I think David would have loved it.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself here and learn more about the EP right here!

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