Singled Out: Goldfeather's Spilled Milk

Brooklyn-based indie-folk band Goldfeather recently released a new single called "Spilled Milk" and to celebrate we asked Sarah Goldfeather to tell us the story behind the track. Here is the story:

Spilled Milk was inspired by the dramatic end of a friendship that happened a long time ago. For years after, I would dream about this friend - sometimes we would makeup (hence the line "In most of my dreams, when you take my hand/you haven't aged a day/laughing over spilled milk/we walked side by side"), but I would always wake up with the sinking reminder that nothing was resolved ("Til I woke up remembering/I was betrayed"). It was like an obsession. When I saw this friend in real life I got so spooked that I literally ran away ("I spied you at the museum after all these years/and all that I could do was run away"). Writing the song helped me process these feelings and more or less put them to rest.

The song itself is a modified palindromic form - I really wanted to cross an expansive range of musical ideas, beginning with 4-part a capella harmonies at the beginning, a dreamy verse, and then a sort of nightmarish dissonant middle section. I have a background in contemporary classical music (as a violinist), so I had a lot of fun writing out thorny parts in this section.

All in all, this song is a lovely catharsis for me - most of the music I write is my therapy to work through my relationships with others, and this is a prime example.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself right here!

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