October 23, 2020
MAREN MORRIS: Commentary on “Better Than We Found It” (Audio)
MAREN MORRIS: Commentary on “Better Than We Found It” (Audio)
Yeah, I was feeling really down after the Democratic & Republican conventions. I try to stay as plugged in as I possibly can, but it’s just, whatever side of the aisle you’re coming from, it’s just been such a divisive, heavy time for our country. And I was booked for a write that Friday after all the conventions had ended, and I was with Jessie Jo (Dillon) and Laura (Veltz) and Jimmy Robbins, and I just did not feel like writing that morning, but I obviously wanted to see them. And so I think we all were in the same headspace, we’re like how do we write some sort of like fun weekend party song right now when our country is, you know, torn down the middle? And I was like, well, I guess we don’t. I guess we just write what we’re thinking right now. And I was like, I’m not going to write this song unless we, you know, state which side of the line we’re on. Because whether you’re, whatever party you’re voting for, I do believe that there is a right and a wrong with human issues, and so those aren’t political or partisan to me. So I said if we’re going to write this song, I’m not going to do the kind of beating around the bush, not stating where you stand part of it, like where everyone can just listen to it and move on with their day. I want to be real here. And those were the three to write it with if I was going to do that. And I also- I think being a new mother, it’s given me this perspective of protection and also fear of, you know, him growing up in this world. And so that added almost like a hopeful layer to it because it was like, oh my gosh, I hope that I leave this world for you better than I found it, and that gave it a layer of hopefulness and not feeling hopeless. And we finished the song in like an hour, the entire thing, and I recorded my vocals for the final version of it that day on my porch. My producer Greg Kurstin was like, were you outside when you did this vocal because I can hear birds and bugs and all this stuff in the background. I was like, yeah I was outside but I really don’t want to redo the vocal because I don’t think I could get in the same headspace as I was that day, and it already sounded the way I wanted it to. And then I just realized, like oh my goodness, how amazing and timely would it be to try to get this song out before the election, just as a reminder to our country that we still have time to get on the right side of history and to leave something better for our kids, for the next generation.
And then it just sort of snowballed from there, we found some amazing creatives here in town that hadn’t necessarily had a ton of music video experience but had incredible eyes for, you know, photography and videography. So Gabrielle Woodland is a young black 20-something director/producer here in town. She came up with the treatment and found all of the stories that we displayed in the beginning of the video, and it was also her idea for me to write the letter to my son at the very end. She just came in with so many creative, beautiful ideas, so yeah we shot that over a week ago. We were able to edit it together, I think she worked like two night straight, didn’t sleep, and got the final edit of it done. But she did such an incredible job with, you know, it being this visual companion piece to the song.
I don’t know if I would’ve been able to write this song if I hadn’t been a mother. And that’s not to say that you couldn’t, cause you know Jessie Jo (Dillon) doesn’t have children, but she is so willing to go there with you. I think being a mother has made me a lot less selfish, and so to write a song from this point of view, it took that for me to be able to write something like that.
I think it was going to take a few of those sentiments to make the song hit people, because we’re not trying to hold their hand through it. I definitely don’t need my hand held through anything, especially not now. I think that we want it to be like a wakeup call but also not, you know, punishing or preaching at people. So yeah, lines like that (“we’re over a barrel and at the end of one too”) and, you know, “we’re better than this,” those were integral to the song coming out because, again I wasn’t going to put something out that was, you know, we’re all ring around a rosie here. We’re not there right now as a country, I wanted it to reflect the times.
It’s crazy, it’s only been out a couple days and the response has been so overwhelmingly good and positive because, you know- If you’re going to garner praise you’re also going to garner criticism, and with a song like that, it could either incense people or it can inspire, and I think the resounding response has been inspire. And you know, this isn’t like, it’s not political to me, it’s not anti this or anti America. I think some of the most powerful movement-changing things have been songs like, you know, Bob Dylan and Nina Simone, that’s embedded in our history as well. And so I think that it is the most American thing to do is to protest what you see is wrong, whether for you or for others.
