For My Father is described by Aaron Smith as a “love letter to those people I care most about in my life”. The prodigiously talented Scottish singer-songwriter would rather keep details of his relationships with those people—particularly his father—private, and instead allows his spine-tingling ballads to provide explanations. “I don’t get upset over any of it now,” he says, “It’s good as a songwriter to be able to put these emotions into songs, rather than just go down the pub and have a rant.” He laughs. “I mean, I do spend plenty of time at the pub doing that, too.” The four songs here mark a significant progression for Smith. His exquisite sound remains informed by melancholy, but there’s a richness and steely resolve here, too. Allow Smith to personally guide you through all four. Brother “I wanted to write this song from my dad’s perspective. I tried to think about things from his side. The start of the song goes, ‘If I could, I would, I’d start again/But here I am again at 3 am.’ Maybe that’s how he portrays his life as having gone. I felt supported to push myself by working with [UK producer and songwriter] Ed Tullett. I fell in love with Ed’s music, and within a few hours of working together, I was just like, ‘I fucking love you.’ To work with someone I look up to so much and write together was such a powerful thing.” Unconditional “I had heard Holly Humberstone at Barn on the Farm [festival in Gloucester, UK], but never actually met her until her mum picked up my guitar at the festival thinking it was Holly’s. So we set up a session from there, and she contributed vocals to this one. She’s so sound. She’s a proper lad, actually: one of the boys. Back when I wrote it with Joe [Rubel, UK songwriter and producer], it was more of a love song, but then the more I’ve thought about it since, the song now feels like it’s about being away from loved ones during these times. About how that love you have for someone: It won’t change.” Doubts “This is a really old song, written after a breakup with a girl I’d been with for five years. It ended quite badly and I took it pretty poorly. I ended it, but was almost immediately like: ‘What the fuck am I doing?’ One of those. I was drinking most nights and disappeared to Newcastle, where I wrote this song.” Your Turn Now “A real vent. A lay-everything-on-the-table song. It’s my favourite on the EP. Some people have told me it sounds like a real breakup song, but it’s actually not. I like that people can take their own stories from these songs, though.”