A Quick Chat with DL Gade

Wish You Well' was inspired by a long flight home after the end of a relationship. What was it about that journey that sparked the song?

The flight gave me something I hadn't really had up until that point - time. When you're in the middle of a relationship ending, there's usually a lot happening around you and you don't always get the chance to properly process it. Sitting on a plane for more than 20 hours with nothing but my thoughts forced me to confront everything I was feeling. Throughout the journey I found myself going through different stages of grief - sadness, anger, confusion, reflection and eventually acceptance. I started writing down thoughts, lyrics and ideas as they came to me, and by the time I landed, the foundation of Wish You Well was already there. The song is really a snapshot of that journey and the emotions I experienced along the way.

The track captures a range of emotions, from anger and confusion through to acceptance. Which part of that emotional journey was the hardest to write about?

To be honest, none of it felt particularly hard to write about because I was living those emotions in real time. The song came together pretty naturally as a reflection of what I was experiencing at that exact moment. I wasn't sitting down trying to force lyrics or tell a story after the fact, I was simply putting my thoughts and feelings onto paper as they happened. If anything, the challenge came later when I listened back to it and realised just how raw and honest some of those emotions were. But from a songwriting perspective, it all flowed naturally because it was genuine.

The title Wish You Well feels surprisingly positive for a breakup song. Why was it important for you to end the story from that perspective?

I think when a relationship ends, it's easy to get caught up in the hurt, anger and disappointment, especially in the early stages. Those emotions are definitely part of the song, but I didn't want the story to stay there. As time passed, I realised that despite everything that had happened, I still genuinely wanted the best for that person. The title Wish You Well reflects that moment of acceptance where you stop focusing on what you've lost and start appreciating what you had. Not every relationship is meant to last forever, but that doesn't mean it wasn't meaningful. Ending the song from that perspective felt honest to me because it showed growth and closure rather than resentment.

You've released tracks like Low Key, Love Like Yours and Brokey Balboa. How does Wish You Well show a different side of you as an artist?

A lot of my previous releases have had a bit of humour, confidence or light-hearted energy to them, even when they're touching on personal topics. Wish You Well is probably the most vulnerable I've ever been in a song. There's nowhere to hide in it. Rather than trying to be clever or entertaining, I focused on being honest and capturing exactly what I was feeling at that time. It leans more into the emotional and reflective side of my songwriting and shows a side of me that listeners may not have heard before. I think people often associate hip hop with confidence and bravado, but I've always believed some of the most powerful music comes from being genuine, and Wish You Well is a good example of that.

Was there a particular lyric or moment in the song that you feel best represents what you were going through at the time?

I'd probably say the second rap verse. That verse was written when I was really processing everything that had happened and trying to make sense of it all. It captures a lot of the confusion, self-reflection and unanswered questions that come with the end of a relationship. Looking back, it's probably the most honest part of the song because I wasn't trying to tie everything together neatly or offer a solution - I was simply documenting what I was feeling at that moment. The song as a whole tells the story, but the second verse is probably the closest snapshot of where my head was at during that period.

What do you hope listeners take away from Wish You Well when they hear it for the first time?

I hope people can see a bit of their own story in it. Most of us have experienced heartbreak, loss or a situation where things didn't work out the way we hoped. While the song is based on my own experience, the emotions are pretty universal. More than anything, I hope listeners come away knowing that it's okay to feel those emotions and work through them in your own time. The song doesn't pretend that healing is easy, but it does show that you can get to a point where you look back with gratitude instead of resentment. If someone hears Wish You Well and feels understood, or it helps them through a difficult period in their own life, then I've achieved what I set out to do with the song.