Singled Out: Siren Songs' Goodnight Sun, Hello Moon

Keavin Wiggins | 05-29-2020

Siren Songs released their self-titled album this week and to celebrate we asked Jenn Grinels to tell us about the song "Goodnight Sun, Hello Moon". Here is the story:

I was recently commissioned to write a musical which tells the true story of a 19-year-old woman named Sarah Rosetta Wakeman who posed as a man and fought and died during the Civil War. During this time, she wrote letters home to her parents about the experience. The musical is based on these letters and her search for identity. For the musical, I aimed to write songs that could exist outside of a musical theatre context, with elements of folk and Americana. I also wanted them to sound like they could have been written today or possibly a hundred years ago. "Goodnight Sun, Hello Moon," which is from the musical, is a lullaby. The lyric is about a little bird that flies South for the winter and returns home in the spring. In terms of the songwriting process, this is one of those songs that I struggled with for a month, just beating my head against a wall. I had some melodies kind of going through my head and some lyric ideas, and then... after 30 days of "eh," I just woke up one morning and I was like, Oh my god! Birds! Migration! Metaphor! And then it all came at once. It was one of those songs that came like a gift from the universe. As if I didn't even write it, it just came through me. I LOVE when that happens. Merideth and I decided to feature it on the album because it is very in-line with the sound and style of Siren Songs. It's not supposed to be a typical musical theatre-sounding song that's going to push the plot forward or talk about the characters more. It's really supposed to be this stand-alone lullaby. Very much like "Edelweiss" from the Sound of Music, where people thought that was an actual Austrian folk song as opposed to a song that Rodgers & Hammerstein wrote. We kept the recording and the production very simple. We didn't add any production. It's just two voices and a guitar.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the album here