Sweetlove + The Heart Of Release New Single 'Before the Devil Knows You're Dead'

A tribute to the sweetness of a simpler time, as well as a heartfelt sendoff of a beloved soul, Sweetlove's latest single, "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead" (featuring The Heart Of) has premiered exclusively with American Songwriter. The song will appear on Sweetlove's upcoming EP, Goodnight, Lover, to be released on March 26th, 2021. LISTEN HERE.

Born out of a tsunami of grief and pain, Goodnight, Lover is a portrait of an artist coming into her own. In late 2017, Sweetlove was beginning to work on new original material when she was faced with three devastating losses - her oldest friend, Matt, her long-time love, David, and her cousin, Teddy, all passed away within one year of each other. She funneled her grief into collaborations with writers such as Jay Stolar (Selena Gomez, Trevor Daniel, Aloe Blacc, G-Eazy, Demi Lovato), Evangelina, Zach Berkman/The Heart Of (Ron Pope), Garen Gueyikian, and Adam Tressler, resulting in a collection of songs about "grappling with loss, coming to terms with it, missing someone, wishing you had known you weren't going to have more time, and how to find joy again."

"Before The Devil Knows You're Dead" was written "to send my dear friend Matt Linder into that sweet hereafter with a wind of love at his back," Sweetlove says. "For the first 18 years of my life, until I went away to college, I spent just about every day with him - he was my first friend, my first crush, my first kiss. He was the most beautiful boy I ever saw, and I loved him dearly. Later in his life, he had trouble with mental illness, and getting proper treatment, and he passed away from not having good medical care. I felt really unraveled, like a piece of me had died too." Co-written and featuring The Heart Of, the song is "a bittersweet and wistful thank you and goodbye to those that leave a permanent mark on our lives."

The daughter of a preacher and a teacher, Sweetlove grew up in California's Simi Valley. Raised in a Pentecostal church, she was surrounded by live music - singing and dancing to worship songs and hymns, finding joy in the communal melodies. As she got older and moved away from organized religion, the music itself became her church. She eventually moved to LA and immersed herself in the local music scene, even singing back-up for Grammy and Tony award winners such as Shane McAnally and Levi Kreis, as well as #1 Billboard artist Debby Holiday, among others, before finding refuge in her own songwriting.

The Heart Of (Zach Berkman) is a songwriter, performer, record producer, audio engineer, and multi-instrumentalist. Working extensively with the artist Ron Pope, Berkman helped shape several albums and a myriad of songs as producer and writer, including the song, "A Drop in the Ocean," which has sold over a million copies. He has produced albums for artists including Corey Balsamo, Mike Clifford, and Alexis Babini and collaborates with numerous writers. The Heart Of's five-song EP was released on Brooklyn Basement Records on August 24, 2018.

Listen to "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead" below, and pre-save Goodnight, Lover HERE.

Photo Credit: Anna Azarov

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