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 cold
03:42 The salt lamp & the Manchester flat
05:06 Diminished chords & learning from friends
07:43 Songwriting as the only way to process
11:33 Pinegrove, Laura Marling & peers who push you
14:09 Open D, Chris Smither & Adrianne Lenker
14:42 The song that outgrew him
16:24 Live Session: Biding

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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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#LukeHart #Biding #MusicPodcast #TheHardestPart #NewMusic #Songwriting #LiveSession

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 moment
01:14 Introducing "Meryl"
01:57 Coming out through a song (by accident)
02:55 Writing literally — & the eyelash story
05:00 Writing like throwing up
05:45 Editing on gut instinct
07:39 Griffin, Summer & turning the car around
10:21 Does Meryl know?
11:40 "I've never done a thing that I'm told"
12:20 Live Session: Meryl

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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.

🎧 Follow the Podcast: https://linktr.ee/thehardestpart

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#MaddieZahm #Meryl #MusicPodcast #TheHardestPart #Pride #QueerMusic #Songwriting #LiveSession

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Bestiary
01:57 Tears in the rehearsal space
03:39 Everyone hated a different part
04:39 Scrap it, keep the lyrics
06:03 "Creepies and crawlies"
09:21 The 10-foot rat puppet
14:09 Being a woman in metal
15:15 The heart-to-heart & Franco's blindside
19:27 Serpent: Full Track

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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.

🎧 Follow the Podcast: https://linktr.ee/thehardestpart

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#CastleRat #Serpent #TheBestiary #TheHardestPart

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.