Unwritten Song
This song introduces the song cycle and is an outpouring of mid-life grief looking at the end of fertility and the result of systemic sexism on creative women’s careers. I wrote this song with good friend and brilliant Swedish songwriter, Katarina Gunnerholm, some years ago.
For years before this, aside from the Liberty’s Mother project, I had only been professionally writing songs for other people and I had a new idea which I wanted to keep all to myself – the concept of an unwritten song as a metaphor for: the things we wanted to do which we understand that we will never do, as we age. I had tried writing this with a wonderful male writer friend, but the song ideas we had didn’t quite work out .. yet the idea hook and main hook lingered with me wanting to be written.
Unwritten Song, by Sophie and Swedish songwriter Katarina Gunnerholm, introduces the Peaceful Warriorsong cycle and is an outpouring of midlife grief exploring the end of fertility and the result of systemic sexism on women’s careers in the creative industry.
Sophie had the idea of using the concept of an unwritten song as a metaphor for the things we want to do, but understand we will never do, as we age. She felt comfortable writing with her friend Katarina, allowing herself to be vulnerable, and leaned into the metaphor of loss and the reality that she would never raise a female child. Sophie loves her sons fiercely, but ever since she was small, she harboured a desire to raise and mentor females. Sophie and Katarina wrote the song thinking about how this would be similar to never making music again and the pain of surrendering your truest dream.
Unwritten Song is profoundly sad – tragic even. It symbolises the end of the grief period represented in the first Liberty’s Mother EP, and signifies a transition into another grief journey – one where Sophie gained a deeper understanding of parenthood, gender and herself.
Recording Process – Sophie
This song is the start of the Peaceful Warrior song cycle and Love: The Ultimate Weapon is the end. Both were written at the piano and bookend the song cycle journey. I wanted to record the piano and voice together organically and not use a click. Catherine told me this was fine, which is something I’d never been told before.
I found the playing and singing effortless. When I left Catherine’s studio, I couldn’t quite comprehend how easy and enjoyable the process had been. Catherine and I bonded over the song both professionally and emotionally. The first few days recording these piano and vocal pieces set the scene for the whole experience, making it light, enlightening and joyful even though it was intensely personal. Thanks to Catherine, I finally felt free in the recording space.