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No one was more excited to hear Only One for Me thanDavid Berman.
He was just really intrigued with what we were doing, Auerbach says.
He was genuinely excited when I would take lyrics from him and work them into songs.
Years later, though, it remained in the vault.
Tragically, a month later, Bermandied too.
Its crazy what a couple years can do to a song, says Auerbach.
But Berman still had his hang-ups about how his writing would fit with a more mainstream collaborator.
So he asked Gate Pratt, one of his friends and writing partners since college, for help.
He said, Gate, youre good, because your songs are like a house, Pratt remembers.
The walls are solid, and the roof doesnt leak.
The comparison was apt: Pratt had become an architect after school.
All the good stuff!
Past their music, Auerbach and Berman bonded while talking about heavy emotional topics.
To Berman, that went hand in hand with being Jewish.
We talked about intergenerational trauma and sadness and the Holocaust.
This sort of trial-and-error writing was their usual process, Pratt says.
Not every song comes out like that.
(Swift had played drums on the track.)
It fell right into place, Auerbach says.
The Arcs toured through 2016, with Only One for Me on the set list among other unreleased songs.
Afterward, the members turned their focus back to their solo work.
He died the next month at age 41 a death his family attributed to his lifelong alcoholism.
By then, Berman had returned to Only One for Me with new intentions.
Back when they were originally working on the lyrics, Pratt noticed Berman pulled in two directions.
In one email, Berman sent Pratt something close to the Arcs version.
Pratt replied, I see a lot of cool and interesting ideas lurking below.
I get where you want to go.
Save this [as] a version and re-write the new different, darker, more despondent version.
It took him years, but Berman did exactly that.
When Auerbach heard the new take, he wasnt surprised.
He was constantly tinkering with songs like they were hot rods or something, he says.
They emailed about the new version of the song but wouldnt talk again.
Finally, hearing old music hed worked on with Swift didnt feel mournful.
I was just like,God, this shit is so fucking fun to listen to, he says.
Like a relationship, a band can be temporary.
It was almost like this insane manic creative energy that was unsustainable, Michels says.
Thats why we recorded so much music.
We were trying to basically capture this feeling that cant sustain itself.
