When You're Wrong

Album: In These Silent Days (2021)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In this emotional track from Brandi Carlile's In These Silent Days album, the Americana singer addresses a loved one who's made some bad choices and hopes they can find "someone strong enough to love you when you're wrong." Although it was written by her collaborators Phil and Tim Hanseroth, Carlile connects with the song's theme on a personal level.

    "I didn't pen this one, but I mean it. I think it's absolutely for me when I sing it. It's about balancing intense pain and anger, which I feel like are packaged as one emotion in this song, with acceptance and empathy, which is really hard to do," she told Stereogum in 2021.

    "When I sing this song, I am angry and really hurt by this person's choices and their existence. And then, on the other hand, I'm accepting their decision and empathizing with the things that led them to making that decision. And that's, I think, really important because that's the only way to put one foot in front of the other. That's kind of a classic… This is Al-Anon language for me, which I basically grew up marinating in. I feel really raw when I sing this song because I can understand it and fathom what's been written in a really big way."
  • Carlile's life is intertwined with the Hanseroth twins, her longtime band members and songwriting partners. Phil Hanseroth, her bass player, is also her brother-in-law: He married her younger sister Tiffany. All of their families, along with some of their friends, live on the same sprawling property in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains outside of Seattle, where they quarantined and wrote the album during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Carlile told Stereogum that the close proximity also influenced this track. "This is one of those situations, without being too abstract, where I share a life with several families," she said.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles

Timothy B. Schmit of the EaglesSongwriter Interviews

Did this Eagle come up with the term "Parrothead"? And what is it like playing "Hotel California" for the gazillionth time?

Jon Oliva of Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Jon Oliva of Trans-Siberian OrchestraSongwriter Interviews

Writing great prog metal isn't easy, especially when it's for 60 musicians.

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater RevivalFact or Fiction

Is "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" about Vietnam? Was John Fogerty really born on a Bayou? It's the CCR edition of Fact or Fiction.

What Musicians Are Related to Other Musicians?

What Musicians Are Related to Other Musicians?Song Writing

A big list of musical marriages and family relations ranging from the simple to the truly dysfunctional.

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")Songwriter Interviews

Phil was a songwriter, producer and voice behind many Philadelphia soul classics. When disco hit, he got an interesting project: The Village People.

Richard Marx

Richard MarxSongwriter Interviews

Richard explains how Joe Walsh kickstarted his career, and why he chose Hazard, Nebraska for a hit.