So Far Away

Album: Heart on My Sleeve (2014)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Lambert penned this with songwriter Marie McDonald plus Heart On My Sleeve producers Benny Cassette, and Eric Rosse. The Seattle songstress told American Songwriter magazine that it was the track she had the most difficult time writing. "Eric came up with the chord structure and piano part. Benny put on modern feeling drums. He comes from the hip hop world. And they presented me with that track and I didn't like it.," she explained. "I didn't want to write to it. And Eric said, 'Just try.'"

    "I came up with a hook I was happy with," Lambert continued. "There were multiple times I wanted to throw in the towel, and I was crying, and said, 'Let's just give it to Miley Cyrus! Let's give it to somebody else. I don't want to sing it.'"

    "There were a lot of lines that we had originally that weren't me," she added. "We went through so many different lines. We spent days on that tag alone. It was so painstaking. And I was yelling, 'I hate this song!' Because the line everyone liked was not grammatically correct, and that was driving me nuts."

    "It didn't feel like me," Lambert concluded. "It was quite a departure from my music. Going from my first EP to 'So Far Way' is a big leap. And I was already so stressed out of my comfort zone. So I had to keep coming back to myself to see how I was gonna be comfortable singing these songs live, and really believing in them. So to do that, I went through a different process, and I was more insular, and let myself write by myself, and come back and present. And then we'd all work together. But it was definitely hard."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Timothy B. Schmit

Timothy B. SchmitSongwriter Interviews

The longtime Eagle talks about soaring back to his solo career, and what he learned about songwriting in the group.

80s Video Director Jay Dubin

80s Video Director Jay DubinSong Writing

Billy Joel and Hall & Oates hated making videos, so they chose a director with similar contempt for the medium. That was Jay Dubin, and he has a lot to say on the subject.

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in Songs

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in SongsSong Writing

Elvis, Little Richard and Cheryl Cole have all sung about Teddy Bears, but there is also a terrifying Teddy song from 1932 and a touching trucker Teddy tune from 1976.

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien Songs

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien SongsSong Writing

The trail runs from flying saucer songs in the '50s, through Bowie, blink-182 and Katy Perry.

Church Lyrics

Church LyricsMusic Quiz

Here is the church, here is the steeple - see if you can identify these lyrics that reference church.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.