The Hardest Part

Palm Tree Island
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Music Commentary
  • Biweekly

Hosted by Kieron Banerji, The Hardest Part dives deep into the most challenging songs ever written. Every two weeks, an artist joins Kieron in the studio to break down the struggles, breakthroughs, and raw emotions behind their toughest songwriting experiences. From overcoming creative blocks to tapping into painful memories, these conversations reveal the delicate balance between self-expression and self-protection. Each episode wraps with an exclusive live performance of the song—raw, real, and sometimes heard this way for the first time. Follow the Hardest Part wherever you get your podcasts, and watch footage from the show on our YouTube and socials.

  1. 4d ago

    Troy Javelona on Writing "SALTWATER"

    Saltwater stings a wound... and heals it. On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, Troy Javelona opens up "SALTWATER" from his two-sided EP No Healing Without Heartbreak: one side written inside a relationship that treated him badly, the other written on the way out, and this song, from the healing side, about the new love that stings with the past even as it mends it. 00:00 "The saltwater that heals me"01:00 Introducing "SALTWATER" & the two-sided EP01:57 The saltwater metaphor02:51 Journaling a breakup into songs04:30 First collaborations & learning to say no08:12 Trust: the thing every artist names09:45 Ocean towns, London & how place shapes sound13:50 Writing straight to the person16:45 The intro: a song for the beach17:44 Full Track 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. -#TroyJavelona #Saltwater #musicpodcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  2. Oct 20

    Dan Croll Breaks Down the Process of Writing ‘Hail Mary.’

    Dan Croll spent seven years on "Hail Mary," a song about last chances, time running out, and coming to terms with a career that didn't keep the shape it started with. On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, he opens it up with rare honesty: the early success he feels he squandered, the full-time job he works outside music now, and why everything, ideas, songs, deals, and touring, feels like one more throw of the ball. And why he's still here, still giving it a go. They talk about craft as persistence: the archivist's method of reopening a session every few months for years; a full notebook per song and "murder-map" lyric walls; the voice-notes ritual that makes sure no good idea slips the net; collaborating for the first time in his career; and the influences behind the album Winning Streak — a rekindled Burt Bacharach obsession ("Budget Bacharach": real vibraphone, coffin-sized studio), Frank Sinatra endings, Glen Campbell, and country's unapologetic honesty. Then the nuance that changes the song: the bridge line that surprised him as he wrote it — "and I'm praying you won't forget me." His biggest fear, out loud. Then Dan performs "Hail Mary" live in the studio. 00:00 "Everything's a bit of a Hail Mary"01:04 Seven years, one song02:22 Last chance saloon03:51 Chords first, chorus first07:46 Voice notes & keeping ideas alive11:00 Collaborating for the first time12:38 Budget Bacharach & Sinatra endings17:12 Country, Cohen & honest simplicity20:36 "Praying you won't forget me"22:54 🎸 Live: Hail Mary - 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. 🎧 Follow the Podcast: https://linktr.ee/thehardestpart -#DanCroll #HailMary #MusicPodcast #TheHardestPart #Songwriting #LiveSession See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  3. Oct 16

    Luke Hart on the Songwriting and Production Process of "Biding"

    Luke Hart wrote "Biding" about seeing someone, an infatuation that felt amazing and awful at once. Then he posted it online, people found it, and strangers started messaging him that the song holds their grief, their old cities, their goodbyes.  On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, he opens up the song that's done more than he ever intended. Kieron and Luke talk about the song written on the couch of his old Manchester flat under a salt lamp, the diminished chords he learned from listening to his friends, the inspiration of Adrianne Lenker, and why songwriting is the only way he knows to process anything. Luke also performs an exclusive stripped back version of the track for us live in our studio. 00:00 "It's done so much more than I intended"01:20 Introducing "Biding"01:48 An infatuation, in the cold03:42 The salt lamp & the Manchester flat05:06 Diminished chords & learning from friends07:43 Songwriting as the only way to process11:33 Pinegrove, Laura Marling & peers who push you14:09 Open D, Chris Smither & Adrianne Lenker14:42 The song that outgrew him16:24 Live Session: Biding - 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. -#LukeHart #Biding #MusicPodcast #TheHardestPart #NewMusic #Songwriting #LiveSession See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  4. Oct 13

    Maddie Zahm on the Writing Process of "Meryl"

    Maddie Zahm was watching Meryl Streep deliver "that is all" in The Devil Wears Prada when she had a realisation: "that's gay."  On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, she opens up "Meryl," a flirty, joyful, proudly queer song about loving older women. It's a conversation about honesty as a superpower: how she came out through a song she accidentally sent to her mom, why she writes hyper-specifically, as though no one will ever hear it, and why the songs that scare her most always resonate most. At the end of the interview, Maddie performs an exclusive stripped back version of the track.  00:00 "That's gay": the Meryl Streep moment01:14 Introducing "Meryl"01:57 Coming out through a song (by accident)02:55 Writing literally — & the eyelash story05:00 Writing like throwing up05:45 Editing on gut instinct07:39 Griffin, Summer & turning the car around10:21 Does Meryl know?11:40 "I've never done a thing that I'm told"12:20 Live Session: Meryl - 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. 🎧 Follow the Podcast: https://linktr.ee/thehardestpart -#MaddieZahm #Meryl #MusicPodcast #TheHardestPart #Pride #QueerMusic #Songwriting #LiveSession See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  5. Sep 30

    Castle Rat on Why Collaboration Made This Record Work

    On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, the band's songwriter and frontwoman opens up "Serpent," the song that fought her hardest on The Bestiary: the one where every band member hated a different part, and the only fix was to scrap everything but the lyrics and start again. It's a conversation about ego and letting go, the first genuinely collaborative Castle Rat album, tears in the rehearsal space, the heart-to-heart that revealed her bandmates wanted to write too, and the fear that sharing even 10% of a song would void her contribution, sharpened by years of being a woman in metal whose riffs get credited to "the boys." Plus: the "creepies and crawlies" joke that killed the old chorus, a Dio-style rebuild, a 10-foot rat puppet with the wrong wings, and the "Riley filter" through which everything still passes. 00:00 "That's my riff"01:32 The hardest song on The Bestiary01:57 Tears in the rehearsal space03:39 Everyone hated a different part04:39 Scrap it, keep the lyrics06:03 "Creepies and crawlies"09:21 The 10-foot rat puppet14:09 Being a woman in metal15:15 The heart-to-heart & Franco's blindside19:27 Serpent: Full Track - 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. 🎧 Follow the Podcast: https://linktr.ee/thehardestpart -#CastleRat #Serpent #TheBestiary #TheHardestPart See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  6. Sep 24

    Gently Tender on the song that took 3 years to write.

    One of these songs took Gently Tender three years. The other took two minutes. On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, Gently Tender's Sam Fryer and Francesca Brierley opens up "Staring at Fields" and "The City of the Beast," both from their upcoming album ,This Was Once Fields. It's a conversation about a lifelong Londoner mourning the city's lost magic, think the Astoria and Madame Jojo's, and about why he keeps escaping it on foot: the hyperacusis that makes city noise painful, the walks that became meditation, the "I'm staring at fields" mantra sung alone in a dark London studio.  They talk about craft: the song he nearly binned and fought the whole band over, sneaking it onto the album after delivery, why the band always finds his real chorus, and the two-minute drum-machine stream of consciousness that produced one of his favourite lyrics he's ever written. Gently Tender perform also play both songs live and stripped back exclusively for The Hardest Part. 00:00 Two songs, one walk00:14 "City of the Beast": London's lost magic00:57 "Staring at Fields" & the walk01:43 Why the city hurts his ears03:51 Three years, many versions, nearly binned07:36 Best idea wins: how the band edits Sam10:42 "I don't understand my own songs"13:55 The Mountain Goats & concept albums15:27 Writer's block: bail the water out17:33 Mussel shoals & stream of consciousness22:52: Staring at Fields28:10: The City of the Beast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  7. Sep 15

    HP #54: Little Dog Star on Leaving Acting for Music

    Izzy Steele had a full-time job acting on a TV soap, and left it to chase music before she knew if it would work, one of the hardest decisions she ever had to make. On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, Izzy opens up "Something Infinite," the title track of her EP: a song about the frustration that comes with ambition, that awkward middle part between leaving something safe and arriving anywhere at all. Izzy talks about how honesty is a job description: years of bottling emotions and saving them for the camera, then suddenly writing songs where the character is you; teaching herself guitar because her new London flat had no piano; writing the bones of the song in half an hour and finishing the second verse on the bus home; and the chorus lyric, "you want something infinite and need it in an instant," that came out before she understood what she was saying. Plus her cure for creative block: too much writing, not enough living. 00:00 "Why am I like this?"01:29 Introducing "Something Infinite"02:44 New to guitar, needing real sound07:19 Leaving the soap for honesty11:30 Half an hour in the studio, finished on the bus13:09 The lyric she didn't understand yet14:58 Too much writing, not enough living17:27 What acting taught her about being watched20:21 Editing: addicted to the demo26:54 Full Track: Something Infinite #LittleDogStar #SomethingInfinite #MusicPodcast #TheHardestPart #NewMusic #Songwriting #LiveSession #IzzySteele See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  8. Sep 8

    HP #53: Pixie McCann on "Rotting": The Drunk Notes App That Became a Song

    Pixie McCann convinced herself in a toilet that everyone hated her, and filled her Notes app with the evidence: "literally everyone here is rotten."  Then she woke up, read it back, and decided... this is good content.  On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, she opens up "Rotting," the song that came out of that night, and the debut EP it belongs to. It's a conversation about the pocket between beautiful and horrible things: her first year making music professionally while her personal life fell apart, the pre-chorus that turned into an apology to her best friend ("I'm not that strong, I'm really sorry, take me back home"), working with her producer Joel, part wizard, part therapist, and the easter egg buried in the track: the word "rotting," sung in reverse, embedded into its veins. Then Pixie performs "Rotting" live in the studio, and tells you exactly how to listen to it: back against the door, outside the party, cigarette lit, calming down. Guest: Pixie McCannHost and Executive Producer: Kieron BanerjiPhotography and Creative: Callum BakerAudio Engineers: Max Walker and Liam JacksonRecorded at Palm Tree Island Studios, London. - 00:00 "Everyone here is rotten"01:32 Why "Rotting" is the hardest part02:27 The toilet, the Notes app & the spiral03:58 The morning after: "this is good content"04:39 "Take me back home" — an apology to her best friend05:42 The pocket between beautiful & horrible06:45 Joel the wizard: producer as therapist10:03 Drum illiteracy, Logic Loops & Espresso12:09 The reversed-word easter egg & how to listen13:24 🎸 Live Session: Rotting - 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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hosted by Kieron Banerji, The Hardest Part dives deep into the most challenging songs ever written. Every two weeks, an artist joins Kieron in the studio to break down the struggles, breakthroughs, and raw emotions behind their toughest songwriting experiences. From overcoming creative blocks to tapping into painful memories, these conversations reveal the delicate balance between self-expression and self-protection. Each episode wraps with an exclusive live performance of the song—raw, real, and sometimes heard this way for the first time. Follow the Hardest Part wherever you get your podcasts, and watch footage from the show on our YouTube and socials.

Information

  • Creator
    Palm Tree Island
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    61
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Palm Tree Island
  • Show Website
    The Hardest Part