Song & Story: THE WELL

THE WELL

by Sarah Aili, Shelly Riff & Eric Erdman

"Are you gonna hide out, are you gonna break or are you gonna bend? Are you gonna climb out, are you gonna stay there standing helpless again?”

THE WELL

Sometimes I feel what someone else is going through so strongly it's like I'm walking through their journey myself. Perhaps I'm able to feel it like that because there's something from my own experience that I can relate to, up close or at a distance. When this song came about, it was simply that.

Once we had written THE WELL and I had been singing it for a while, I realized too that I had written it for myself, feeling somewhat stuck in limbo between two chapters in my own life. Since that point, the song has grown and taken on different roles. It became the theme song to an independent film based out of San Francisco, CA called GENERATIONS. One of my co-writers on the song, Eric Erdman, recorded THE WELL for his album, THE POND. We also received a message from a fan that she had a line from the song tattooed on her ankle! When it came time to choose which songs were going to be recorded for this EP, THE WELL was at the top of my list.

It's hard sometimes watching loved ones go through personal challenges from an exterior lens, wanting so much to help and knowing that you can't. This song is an expression of my desire to wrap them up in my love, my empathy and my heart.

When Shelly Riff, Eric Erdman and I sat around a kitchen table one morning to write this song, I was overwhelmed with the friendship that the three of us had created over the years through making music together, so much so that we could dive into the depths of the emotions that this song came from and come out with something so beautiful.

I am honored that THE WELL has already touched so many lives, as well as our own, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

BONUS VIDEO

Backstage at my Album Release Show @ City Winery Nashville 10/9/2019