You're listening to Song Exploder,
where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
I'm Rishikesh Hirway.
This episode contains explicit language.
Monica Martin is a singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles.
Before that, she was based in Madison, Wisconsin, where she was part of the indie rock band Fox.
She's been a featured guest vocalist on songs by James Blake and Wolfpack.
In this episode, Monica breaks down her song, Go Easy Kid, along with the track's producer, Cushy.
She talks about making a song that's in part about how hard it can be to make a song,
and more generally, how hard it can be to let go of the things we get hung up on.
My name is Monica Martin.
I started writing songs for an indie band that I was in,
and I wrote probably 20 songs at a fairly glacial pace.
But I think it's because I know once I'm in that space,
I'm going to have to interact with some deep feelings, and I try to avoid that at all costs.
That band ran its course, and over the last five years since,
I started trying to get to know myself.
outside of the context of being in a band.
I was talking with a good friend of mine, Theo Katzmann.
He writes a lot of songs.