By Andrew Ellis, Editor in Chief

Sarah Morris wasn’t working on an album when she started writing the the title track, “Hearts In Need Of Repair.” But she had an epiphany once her pen finished writing the last letter of the song’s lyrics. For her, it was the song that would hold everything else together.

“It felt like this perfect umbrella for all the songs I had been writing – songs about the big and small ways our heart can break,” she says. “Saying that your heart is in need of repair is a little like the ‘glass-half-full’ version of a broken heart.”

As with any song she’s ever written her main goal was to be as honest as possible. And while some songwriters may feel its hard to write honest songs, it’s Morris’ comfort zone.

“I write at my best when it’s feeling easy,” she says. “So those are usually the songs that end up sticking around. Anything super hard to write doesn’t usually make it to the final cut.”

There were, however, songs that were challenging to arrange. One of those was “Empty Seat.” Morris wrote it in the fall of 2015, but the original arrangement didn’t feel right once she and her band got into the studio.

“The arrangement was heavy, and the lyrics are already heavy,” she says. “So it was just too much.”

They went to listen to the original demo that had a very basic chord structure in a major key, and even put the lyrics in a new light. Everyone loved it, but Morris says it was “really hard” to unlearn they’d already spent so much time on.

Then there’s the five minute-plus “Confetti.” She says she was very sick when she wrote it and felt at first that it was too “heavy handed.” Then she put out the video of the demo and the Internet took notice.

“There were some listeners who really responded to that song,” she says. “And suddenly I was totally on board!”

As she prepares to put her new album out into the world on November 10th, she hopes people connect to her songs like she connects with her favorites.

“What I love about a songs as a listener is when music makes me feel known – like ‘Hey! I feel that way too!’ – so I’d love it if people felt that way when they listened,” she says. “But if they listen and think, ‘Hey those are some pretty songs!’ well, that’s wonderful, too!”