This was the third co-write of the album, and when we wrote it we weren’t sure if it really worked with the other songs or not. It is so high energy and light hearted compared to the rest! Did I just write a happy song? How? How did this happen?!?!?! A couple of my favorite tracks were kind of like that--I wasn’t sure how I felt about them in the mix of everything else and once we dug into the production, I became obsessed, and I think this song and Dirty Frame give the whole album a little lift in energy that makes a huge difference in the flow of the record. It was late again, like when we wrote The Way Down, after a long session, midwinter in Bryan’s studio in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. We grabbed guitars and started improvising--I think we’d been working on “How Lonely” and were not ready for an end to the work day, but we needed a mood change. After a few minutes we had the chords worked out and Bryan held down the guitar while I scatted til we found the melody. It started with a hook “You could beat my heart, if you wanted to” and then Bryan added “ do you want me, too?” and we had the chorus. I was wearing my locket, my coat was crumpled on the floor, I was thinking of Jack. We’d just had a hard conversation and I was missing him and simpler times. We met when we were basically children, in high school. We’ve both been lots of different people since then. This song was me choosing to find a hopeful vulnerable moment, to turn the insecurity into a loving request--I’m basically asking him to go out with me, the new me, again. Neither of us felt better when we got off the phone and I was feeling a little naked (not in the good way). We both felt uncertain about where things were going for us. But I love him and he loves me. I looked down at my coat I’d thrown off before our recording session had started and I remembered the first time we went to New York together. It was our “babymoon” to celebrate our first child I’d carry to term (we’d lost the first one to miscarriage). We were there in the dead of winter. Our first airbnb was a total fail. I was very pregnant, we’d booked a private room and bathroom and when we got there it was basically a hostel and I said, “nope.” So we wandered Prospect Park in the snow, calling around to find places. The spot we ended up staying was in on the edge of Park Slope, right under the Subway rails. I loved it. You could hear the train running all night. I started singing over some chords Bryan was playing around with. The hook came out really easily, that cheeky but vulnerable “you could beat my heart, if you wanted to. Do you want me, too?” and then the story tumbled out in the verses. My ridiculous dream that I hope comes true is to play this song with a full band in NYC on SNL. Wouldn’t that be so fun? It might not happen, but that doesn’t take the fun of dreaming and working toward it way for me. Sonically it leans kind of 80s Blondie but with an earthy twist due to my vocal. I love the mix of brokenness and jagged little edges against the sweetness of the story. It says more than either thing would say alone. We’re complicated. We’re always new.