Bedouine was afraid she was losing her memories. So she wrote one down before it could slip away: a perfect day at the pool as a kid — protected, uninhibited, wrapped in a towel and carried home.

Azniv Korkejian — Bedouine — sits down with Kieron Banerji to open up the title track of her album Neon Summer Skin: the fear of a past slipping out of reach, the "ordinary extraordinary" of childhood safety, playing nearly every instrument on the track herself (including the trumpet she played as a kid), and how watching her own daughter step out of the bath lit that feeling up all over again. Then she performs the song, stripped back, live in the studio.

00:00 "My past was really slipping away"
01:03 The heart of the record
01:46 Trumpet, horns & playing it all herself
03:04 The perfect day at the pool
05:11 Writing to capture what's missing
06:48 Safety, womanhood & hyper-awareness
07:58 Motherhood: her childhood, relived
10:29 Packing nostalgia away like winter clothes
12:46 The lyric on the t-shirt
14:40 Live Session: Neon Summer Skin

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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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"When you're at a low point, there's nowhere to go but up — and when you're down there, you might as well hit record."

On this episode of The Hardest Part with Kieron Banerji, Naya Yeira opens up "hit record" — a song written at rock bottom, about refusing to be embarrassed in pursuit of something, with sad lyrics deliberately hidden inside an upbeat beat.

It's a conversation about an artist building herself in real time: creating in a vacuum while searching for her sound and her message; writing from a beat up with producer Sean Hamilton, and why uncovering a song with someone feels safer than bringing one in; the Doja Cat-inspired vocal versatility (talking lows, singing highs) and the stacks and stacks of harmonies to listen for; Ed Sheeran's "clearing the tap" and writing through the ideas that don't stick; and a genuinely distinctive vision beyond the music — projector installations, 2am park shoots bathed in red light, fabric and fans on stage — because she wants you to enter a world, not just hear a song. Plus the line of the episode: "If I sing about boys until I'm 40, have I lived?"

Then Naya Yeira performs "hit record" live in the studio.

00:00 "You might as well hit record"
00:54 Rock bottom, pointing up
01:48 In the room: a beat, a melody, a vacuum
03:48 Hiding behind upbeat beats
05:16 Doja Cat & vocal versatility
06:33 Clearing the tap: ideas that don't stick
07:51 The multidisciplinary vision
10:09 The nuance: the delicate pre & stacked harmonies
11:21 Projectors, red parks & entering a world
13:21 Live Session: hit record

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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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#NayaYeira #songwriting#musicpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 EP
01:57 The saltwater metaphor
02:51 Journaling a breakup into songs
04:30 First collaborations & learning to say no
08:12 Trust: the thing every artist names
09:45 Ocean towns, London & how place shapes sound
13:50 Writing straight to the person
16:45 The intro: a song for the beach
17:44 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.

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#TroyJavelona #Saltwater #musicpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.