The Hardest Part

Jamie Webster joins Kieron Banerji on The Hardest Part to break down the writing, meaning and performance of his song “Small Town Life.”

Jamie explains how years spent touring through towns across the UK inspired him to write a song celebrating the people, characters and communities that exist beyond the country’s biggest cities, places that might look imperfect from the outside, but mean everything to the people who call them home.

Jamie takes us inside his songwriting process, from keeping fragments and ideas in his phone to beginning “Small Town Life” with a musical manifesto: make it anthemic, make the chorus immediate and write something people can sing together.

Jamie also discusses how growing up in Liverpool shaped him as both a person and songwriter, the passion and defiance he associates with his hometown, his working-class identity, and why speaking from the heart remains central to his music.

This episode also features an intimate live performance of “Small Town Life.”

Subscribe for more conversations and exclusive live sessions from The Hardest Part.

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00:00 Jamie Webster on Working-Class Life
01:16 The Story Behind ‘Small Town Life’
05:20 Turning Where You’re From Into a Strength
08:50 Jamie Webster’s Songwriting Process
09:36 Building the Perfect Chorus
11:12 Finding the Idea for ‘Small Town Life’
12:37 Don’t Play the Game, Change It
14:38 The Characters That Make a Town
15:12 A Wild Small-Town Pub Story
18:18 Liverpool, Football and Finding an Audience
21:15 How Liverpool Shaped Jamie’s Songwriting
24:30 Paddy Pimblett and the Scouse Mentality
25:27 Writing About Working-Class Life
28:18 The Hardest Part of ‘Small Town Life’
33:21 Why Jamie Won’t Comp His Vocals
34:06 ‘Small Town Life’ – Full Performance

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The Hardest Part dives deep into the most emotionally complex songs ever written. Every two weeks, host Kieron Banerji sits down with artists to unpack the creative process behind their hardest songs—exploring songwriting breakdowns, emotional storytelling, cultural influences, and moments of personal growth. Each episode ends with an intimate, stripped-back performance—raw, real, and sometimes heard this way for the first time.

Produced by Palm Tree Island, a London-based creative studio known for standout music documentaries and original voices.

Kieron Banerji is a seasoned producer and engineer based in London with extensive experience in music, media, and entertainment. He’s worked with Grammy and Academy Award winners, and has recorded sessions with Portugal. The Man, Jason Isbell, Katie Melua, Rae Morris, Jason Mraz, BROODS, Baio (Vampire Weekend), and more.

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Le Ren almost threw this song away. On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, she opens up "Die Inside" from her album Don't Be Funny Without Me, a song that was easy to write but hard to sing, about a crush that was never going to be reciprocated, and the strange courage it takes to perform the plain, un-metaphored truth.

It's a conversation about honesty in songwriting: why singing it live once made her "feel like a loser," how Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" gave her permission to be vulnerable, why she tests every song live before recording.

Guest: Le Ren
Host: Kieron Banerji
Song: Die Inside
Creative: Callum Baker
Audio: Max Walker

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00:00 "Easy to write, hard to sing"
01:51 Writing the truth, not the revenge song
03:21 Bonnie Raitt & choosing to be vulnerable
04:55 The hard part: making it public
05:42 Why she tests every song live first
08:09 "Long hair's better": brutal honesty
10:05 How she actually writes
12:51 Her heroes: Prine and Dolly
18:20 Inside "Die Inside": the story arc
20:03 Live Session: Die Inside
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The Hardest Part dives deep into the most emotionally complex songs ever written. Every two weeks, host Kieron Banerji sits down with artists to unpack the creative process behind their hardest songs—exploring songwriting breakdowns, emotional storytelling, cultural influences, and moments of personal growth. Each episode ends with an intimate, stripped-back performance—raw, real, and sometimes heard this way for the first time.

Produced by Palm Tree Island, a London-based creative studio.

Kieron Banerji is a seasoned producer and engineer based in London with extensive experience in music, media, and entertainment. He’s worked with Grammy and Academy Award winners, and has recorded sessions with Portugal. The Man, Jason Isbell, Katie Melua, Rae Morris, Jason Mraz, BROODS, Baio (Vampire Weekend), and more.

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Rosa Walton spent over 18 months getting one song right.

On this episode of The Hardest Part, Rosa opens up "Halfway Around the World" from her album Tell Me It's a Dream, her first attempt at a "straight-down-the-line" love song, and the hardest lyrics she's ever had to write.

It's a conversation about craft: why literal songwriting scares her more than abstract imagery, how she knows the moment a lyric is finally right, why she refuses to explain what her songs are about ("it takes away the magic"), and the new ending she wrote just the day before this stripped-back session.

Rosa performs "Halfway Around the World" live and stripped back for the show at the end of the episode.

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Guest: Rosa Walton
Host: Kieron Banerji
Song: Halfway Around The World
Album: Tell Me It's a Dream
Creative: Callum Baker

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00:00 Intro
01:43 Why "Halfway Around the World" was the hardest
02:22 18 months to get the lyrics right
03:33 Her first "straight-down-the-line" love song
04:48 A song that works on one instrument
06:06 What the song is really about
09:48 How she knows when a lyric is right
13:00 Why she won't explain her lyrics
16:51 The new ending she wrote for this session
18:09 A song as something that lasts forever

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The Hardest Part is a podcast and live-session series where artists open up the one song that cost them the most, the story behind it, and a stripped-back performance. Hosted by Kieron Banerji.

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Tenderness didn't find "Playing Country Roads" hard to write, she found it almost impossible to hold. On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, she opens up the closing song from her album: written on her late father Ivor's guitar, built on a voice memo she couldn't bring herself to re-record, and carrying two griefs at once.

It's a conversation about turning loss into art without letting the performance swallow the feeling — the "healthy middle place" every songwriter has to find. Along the way: the hidden thread of John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (via the Mountain Man version), the ELO "Mr Blue Sky" memory from just before her dad's funeral, and why she refuses to change the line "it's been three months since the funeral," even six years on.

Tenderness performs "Playing Country Roads" live and stripped back in full at the end of the episode.

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In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Julia Cumming to discuss “Please Let Me Remember This,” one of the most personal songs from her debut solo album Julia. 

What began as an attempt to write about the smallest possible moment gradually became something much bigger. Julia describes songwriting as visiting her subconscious, placing a cup into a flowing river, and seeing what comes back. But while writing this song, she found herself confronting thoughts she wasn’t ready to face. 

As the writing process intensified, so did the pressure. Weeks of obsessive thinking, creative paralysis, and mounting anxiety eventually culminated in a moment that changed everything. The experience led Julia to seek help, receive an OCD diagnosis, and better understand what had been happening beneath the surface for years. 

Rather than abandoning the song, she returned to it months later with a new perspective. The result became not only one of the defining songs on the record, but a reminder that sometimes the hardest songs reveal something we weren’t ready to know about ourselves. 

Guest: Julia Cumming

Host: Kieron Banerji

Creative Team: Callum Baker

With thanks to Emily Connick at Toast Press and Crista Simiriglia

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In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Ava Joe to break down the making of “Am I a Dreamer”, a song inspired by one of the most complicated emotions she experiences: nostalgia.  

Unlike most of her songwriting, which begins with a specific experience and the feelings that follow, this song started with an emotion. Ava set out to write about nostalgia itself, drawing together memories, places, films, relationships, and moments that all carried the same emotional weight.  

This episode explores why nostalgia can feel more painful than comforting, the strange experience of feeling nostalgic while living through a moment, and the fear of time passing too quickly. From watching the sea in Greece to reflecting on her teenage years, Ava explains how “Am I a Dreamer? became a meditation on memory, growing up, and the moments we know we’ll miss before they’ve even ended.  

Kieron and Ava also talk about songwriting, collaboration, creative blocks, and why some of the best artistic breakthroughs happen when you stop forcing them.

Guest: Ava Joe
Host: Kieron Banerji

Mix Engineer: Max Walker
Recording Engineer: Giovani Alimonte
Creative: Callum Baker

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00:00 Intro
00:55 Why nostalgia is so difficult to write about
02:00 Starting with a feeling, not a memory
02:45 Why nostalgia feels painful
03:40 Feeling nostalgic in the present moment
05:25 The memories behind the song
07:10 Why time is her biggest fear
08:40 Building a song from emotion
10:15 Writing with producer Eddie George
11:00 Finding the right collaborators
12:30 The writers who ask the right questions
14:00 Why she chose the nylon-string guitar
15:00 Creative blocks and losing her voice
16:20 Learning to stop forcing creativity
18:20 How listeners hear the song differently
19:50 Full session

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In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Metric to break down the making of “Victim of Luck”, the opening track from their latest album and the song that took longer to finish than any other. The challenge wasn’t writing it. The challenge was knowing when it was right.

Emily and Jimmy Shaw tell Kieron how the song was intended to introduce the entire record, setting the tone for everything that followed. But as the album evolved, so did the song. Lyrics changed, arrangements changed, production choices came and went, and even the title itself didn’t arrive until the rest of the album was complete.

At the center of the track is a deeply personal realization. What began as a fictional story about a band’s rise gradually became something much more direct: a reflection on success, anxiety, self-criticism, and the strange feeling of becoming a “victim of luck.” 

This episode also features an exclusive stripped back acoustic version of the track recorded for the show. 

Guests: Metric

Song: Victim of Luck

Host: Kieron Banerji

Creative: Callum Baker and Giovanni Alimonte

Produced by: Palm Tree Island

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In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Will White to break down the making of “6:30 AM”, a song that became the catalyst for everything that followed.

Unlike most of his work, the song stayed with him for years. That alone was unusual. Will describes a songwriting process where songs either arrive fully formed or disappear entirely. He rarely revisits unfinished ideas, yet somehow “6:30 AM” refused to go away. 

Kieron and Will explore discomfort as a creative tool, the mystery of songwriting, and why some songs seem to know more about your future than you do. Will also talks about how the meaning of “6:30 AM” has evolved over time, from imagining someone still awake after a long night to experiencing the same hour as a parent waking up to a completely different life. 

Guests: Will White

Song: 6:30 AM

Host: Kieron Banerji

Creative: Callum Baker and Giovanni Alimonte

Produced by: Palm Tree Island

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In this episode of The Hardest Part, Witch Fever break down the songwriting process and music production process behind “The Garden,” a song shaped by religious trauma, feminist rebellion, and the emotional tension of leaving the church behind. We talk about how the band nearly abandoned the song after feeling the chorus sounded “too Jesus-y,” triggering memories of Christian worship music and charismatic church environments.

The band explains how growing up in a strict religious setting influenced the lyrics, which reinterpret the story of Eve as something empowering rather than shameful. We also chat about collaborative songwriting, instinctive vocal melody writing, and how producer Chris Ryan helped the band hear the full potential of the track during the recording process. LIsten to the full episode and hear the song at the end.

Guests: Witch Fever

Song: The Garden

Host: Kieron Banerji

Creative: Callum Baker and Dylan Roberts

Produced by: Palm Tree Island

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In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Lily Moore to break down the making of “Grown Up Girl Regrets” and why it became one of the most important songs she has ever written. Written during her first studio session after lockdown, the song emerged from a period of uncertainty, isolation, and emotional exhaustion. Walking back into a writing room for the first time in months, Lily found herself confronting feelings she had spent years avoiding in her songwriting.

Kieron and Lily explore the difference between songs that slowly evolve over years and songs that appear almost fully formed, arriving exactly when they are needed most. For Lily, “Grown Up Girl Regrets” was the latter: chaotic, immediate, and deeply personal.

 

Artist: Lily Moore

Guitar: Frankie South

Song: Grown Up Girl Regrets

Host & Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji

Mix Engineer: Max Walker

Creative: Callum Baker

Recording Engineer: Giovani Almonte

Lily Moore Team: Natalie Nichols

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