‘His Daughter’ by Molly Kate Kestner

Singer/songwriter Molly Kate Kestner has an unusual and quite remarkable back story to her music. An 18 year old high school senior hailing from Austin, Minnesota, one day she decided to write a song about a girl healing from a childhood of abuse and called it His Daughter. She had merely recorded it on a cracked iPhone, playing her grandmother’s out of tune piano, but when she uploaded it to YouTube a year later it went viral. It has now been seen by 6 million people in 178 countries.

While since she has recorded the song in a proper recording studio with a producer, the recording she made on her Iphone has an emotional resonance and that intangible quality of spontaneous inspiration that comes from capturing a first take. The vulnerability and fragility of Kestner’s vocal perfectly suits the song’s delicate subject matter and contributes to why people in their millions have been so moved by it.

Though far from a polished recording, the obvious quality of her voice shines through, standing strong with just a simple backing of a piano. The descending chord progession is haunting in combination with the well crafted vocal melody and the lyrics are deeply poignant. About a girl growing up after bring abused by her father, lines like ‘She looked for love in other men ….broken hearts and scars in places only she could see‘ are genuinely affecting and heart rending.

Overall, this is a beautiful song that showcases Kestner’s strong abilities as both a singer and songwriter. There is also a lesson to be learned in that, in an era of lavishly expensive recording studios and autotuned vocals, someone can come along and move millions with just a song recorded onto a phone. It reminds us that music is fundamentally about what moves us as human beings, not how perfect it sounds.

By Alex Faulkner