This song started forming the day we got back from the hospital after losing our 11 month old son, Valor (9/23/2021). With overwhelming pain and shock, I couldn’t really function properly and had no desire to talk to anyone that had come to our house to support us during this time. Immediately upon walking through the front door, I shut myself in our room and the guitar line just came out right away. A few minutes later the bass line and high guitar part followed. It stayed this way for months. One day I played the guitar line again and Mikayla (vocals and my wife) started singing to it the current lyrics. We felt it was absolutely beautiful and worthy of a sort of tribute piece for our son - and worked tirelessly to get it to where it is now. Back and forth with multiple changes in the song structure, sound choice and eventually the mixing and mastering. We finally released it on 9/23/2022 which was the spiritual anniversary of Valor. Like a Monarch talks about the physical and emotional pain Mikayla’s body went through from not being able to breastfeed, how loss changed and metamorphosized her, and how much his life left a mark on anyone who had the honor of being a part of it.more