Louise Goffin Didn’t Really Want to Write “Every Love Song,” but She Did it Anyway

Louise Goffin was adamant about not writing love songs for her next album, but by the time she connected with collaborator and songwriter Billy Harvey in Los Angeles, all the break up songs were left by the wayside.

Only a portion of up her upcoming album, Two Different Movies, out June 12, “Every Love Song” is a slow-churned, easy listener. Goffin goes to church with the devotional hymn that’s pinched with gospel grooves, and cruises along its laid-back West Coast aura.

More than 40 years since Goffin debuted with Kid Blue when she was still a teen—playing her first gig as an opening act for Jackson Browne at 17—Two Different Movies is in another time and place, yet still encapsulates the Grammy-nominated artist’s soulful, California, folk-pop roots. The daughter of legendary songwriters Carole King and Gerry Goffin, she constructed the album alongside an all-star team, including Harvey, Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers), Van Dyke Parks (The Beach Boys, Ringo Starr), Greg Leisz (Buddy Miller, Watkins Family Hour) and co-producer Dave Way (Fiona Apple, Ziggy Marley). 

A follow up to 2018’s All These Hellos, Two Different Movies explores love during an historic time of global uncertainty, but lyrically offers some solace and a message that love can prevail and help us get through life’s afflictions.

Now friends, Harvey and Goffin met after she asked her friend David Baerwald to recommend a songwriter and musician who could be a special guest for a residency she was doing at Hotel Cafe. Eventually, the two starting writing together for Two Different Movies.

Goffin remembers her awkward, first meeting with Harvey, which is a pure reflection of the duo’s songwriting bond. “The first time we met, we were going to teach one another our songs,” she tells American Songwriter. “I had an address for his place, and it was Halloween. I was planning to go trick-or-treating later with my kids, so I came over wearing a red wig and showed up with a ukulele and a guitar and probably a backpack. But I couldn’t find the right front door while carrying my instruments, and ended up walking around the block in circles.” 

When Louise finally found his door, she remembers she walked in and there was this fun and playful feeling, complemented by a sunny day in Silverlake.

“We played each other our tunes, and we both realized most of our songs were depressing break-up songs,” says Goffin. ”We decided that we should try to write together, and I proclaimed ‘I’m not writing any more break-up songs, only love songs.’ We wrote maybe 12 or 13 songs together over a year or so, and I can’t think of any song we’ve written together that wasn’t a love song.”