Well, it turns out that they were feeling equally pained by a business relationship. They were coming off a project working with Trevor Horn, whom they’d long admired, and found that the producer’s chop-and-mix approach made them feel utterly diminished. I don’t think the project ever saw the light of way. So “Girl Bros.” was also about the loss of artistic control, and W&L’s aggressive move to reclaim it, working with a more sympathetic producer (Tchad Blake). The fact of Jonathan’s death was relevant, but not as central as I’d imagined.

There’s always another story, right?