More prevalent throughout Whispers than social commentary, though, is a focus on coming of age and growing older, a likely side effect of spending so much time in the spotlight. “I think after ‘Let Her Go’ I wanted to show people that I don’t just write really sad love songs about my ex-girlfriend, that there’s another side to Passenger, as well, that’s a bit more up-tempo and more inclined to social commentary,” he says. Lead single “Scare Away the Dark,” a satirical take on the dangers of over-Ĭonnectedness in the digital age, is a marked departure from the lovelorn “Let Her Go,” a shift in tone Rosenberg says was intentional. His recently released album Whispers reinforces his assertion, showing a songwriter who has grown in the spotlight without letting it outshine who he is as an artist. Don’t get me wrong, that would be an amazing thing for it all to happen again, but yeah, I think I still write songs in the same way I always have.” “I don’t feel that I need to write another one, you know,” he says.

Where some artists would go to great lengths to recreate that kind of success, Rosenberg says that “Let Her Go” hasn’t changed his approach to songwriting. The track went on to sell more than six million downloads worldwide, catapulting Rosenberg from relatively unknown singer-songwriter to international household name over the course of just a few months. But not in my wildest dreams did I think it would ever do what it ended up doing.”

I wrote it and I thought it was a good song, a catchy song, you know, it had something.

Rosenberg knew he had a catchy song but didn’t think twice about it, sometimes incorporating “Let Her Go” into his sets for small solo shows as well as his opening slot on tour with Ed Sheeran.“It would be insane, at the time, to have thought that I could ever have a hit single, let alone one that got in a Super Bowl advertisement and did all this crazy stuff,” he says.

Passenger let her go album cover