Courtesy of  Wikipedia

Thank you to Kathleen for baring her soul to me and sharing so much. Two songs that make a person cry in totally different ways make me so grateful that I get to ask these questions, and people answer. This interview is exactly why I wanted to write this series. I can only hope that these interviews continue. It‰’s beautiful to see the power that songs, even if they‰’re shitty songs, have to take us back to our lowest and highest moments.

Listen to Whistle for the Choir here

Listen to Hang Loose here

What song makes you cry?

Whistle for the Choir by the Fratellis

Hang Loose by Alabama Shakes

When did you first hear this song?

1) I first heard that song – oh god, this takes me back – the Fratellis were my first favorite band that I found for myself. I found that song probably freshman year of high school. I was like way into that brit-pop scene and they really did it for me. They really are my forever favorite band, and they‰’re not even that good.

2) It came out in 2012, so I think I heard it sophomore year of high school. I was going to see Jack White in concert and Alabama Shakes were the opener, so my brother Mike, friend Kevin, and I bought the album before the concert so we could study up. We played it in the car for a month leading up to the concert.

Why do you think this song makes you cry?

1) Because I found it during my freshman year which is when I realized that I had depression. It‰’s a weird relationship I had with the song, where it was like someone singing the song to me and also an expression of my longing for human connection. It definitely represented the screwed up relationship I had with myself at the time and I was trying to find solace in the song but I was also trying to hide in the song. This was also just a lonely time in my life so it kept me company.

My friend and I walked home from school together but there was a point where we’d have to part. I hated walking the last stretch home alone, so I would hum or sing the song as I walked home alone. I felt like I was in the music video for this song where the lead singer’s just walking alone around a city where everything was blue. For a few years that’s really how I felt- so alone and as if the whole world were blue.

At night I had a line up of songs I’d listen to, all by the Fratellis: Old Black & Blue Eyes, Baby Doll, and then this song. Listening to it was just me wallowing in my sadness. But at that point in discovering who I was and where I was in my life, I needed to be wallowing. And the subtle lines in the song really connected with me.

2) Sophomore year was the beginning of me getting into my depression more. I was coming more to terms with, yes, this is what I am and this is what I‰’m going through. What I really associate this song with, though, is driving. I love driving, I get so much joy from driving. I live kinda on the border of a nice-ish swamp and there are a lot of beautiful roads and estates you can drive through and I go there whenever I’m feeling down.

So, at this point in my life, both my mom and I were both very unhappy for our own reasons but we weren‰’t ready to talk about why, we just understood that we both were. We would go on these really long drives in the backroads of the swamp and I’d always put on Alabama Shakes.

To me, this song is a lot of bottled up emotions in one place. Hearing this song is like having someone tell me that everything‰’s gonna be okay, but I don‰’t believe them. But I‰’m gonna put on the act that I’m “hanging loose” anyway. Courtney Howard – I love her voice- puts so much into this song. Even though it‰’s a very positive upbeat song, there’s so much yearning. I wanted the lyrics to ring true in my own life.

Which lyric means the most to you/makes you cry the hardest?

1) Is it out of line if I were simply bold to say “would you be mine‰Û?

I think it‰’s because, when this song was the most important to me, I was trying to tether myself to reality through a human connection and looking for someone to do that with. But that felt “out of line.” It would be putting so much on someone else to ask for that from them.

2) Roll with the tide and I‰’mma take care of you

It‰’s not the words so much but it‰’s where the music picks up and, during that moment of the song, right before the music picks up, that part is just- I just want everything else to stop and allow myself to be vulnerable and let the music have at me during that part.