Writing Songs That Haunt: Finding Beauty in the Shadows

Photo Credit: Vasyl Dolmatov (iStock)

Some songs shimmer with light, while others live in the shadows.

Writing haunting songs isn’t about darkness for its own sake — it’s about capturing emotion that lingers, the kind that stays with the listener long after the final chord fades. Those moments often come from honesty, restraint, and contrast rather than from being heavy or bleak.

Here are a few ways to write songs that haunt, songs that move people quietly but deeply.

Explore minor keys and modal colour

Minor keys naturally carry emotional weight, but there’s more to writing haunting songs than sticking to a familiar scale. A straightforward progression can quickly feel predictable, so experiment with subtle harmonic shifts.

Try moving between the relative major and minor, or borrow a chord from the parallel key for a flicker of light that deepens the shadows. You can also draw on modal colour, especially the Dorian mode, which raises the sixth note of the natural minor scale. That small change brightens the mood just enough to make sadness feel alive.

Beyond modal shifts, you can also explore mediant relationships — chords built a third above or below the tonic. These progressions create emotional ambiguity and a sense of unexpected movement, adding depth without breaking the mood.

Listen to the Gary Jules cover of “Mad World” (a remake of the Tears for Fears classic written by Roland Orzabal). Its blend of minor melancholy and modal lift gives the song a strange, suspended feeling between sadness and acceptance.

“River Man” by Nick Drake takes that idea further — its shifting harmony and 5/4 meter make the song feel fluid and dreamlike, as though it’s always moving but never quite resolving. Both show how haunting songs often come from subtle movement rather than dramatic contrast.

Shape the mood through texture and tone

Production choices can make or break a song’s atmosphere. Sparse arrangements often create intimacy; reverb, layered vocals, or imperfect tones can feel ghostlike, giving a song its haunting edge.

“The Night We Met” by Lord Huron captures this perfectly — the vocal is fragile, the tempo unhurried, and the reverb-laced guitars hang like mist in the air.

In “Roslyn” by Bon Iver & St. Vincent (written by Justin Vernon and Annie Clark), soft harmonies and restrained movement create a mood that feels weightless yet full of ache. Both remind us that space and subtlety often speak louder than sound.

Let restraint do the talking

Haunting songs rarely shout. A suspended chord, a line that leaves something unsaid, or a vocal that hovers just above silence can hold more power than any dramatic crescendo.

You can hear that kind of restraint in the Gretchen Peters song “Arguing with Ghosts” (written by Gretchen Peters, Ben Glover, and Matraca Berg) — the lyric sketches scenes with quiet detail and lets the listener feel what isn’t said.

Likewise, “Famous Blue Raincoat” by Leonard Cohen unfolds like a letter never quite finished, intimate and unresolved. Both show how understatement and silence can draw the listener closer.

Final thoughts on writing haunting songs

In the end, haunting songs stay with us because they hold a kind of truth that can’t be neatly explained. Whether through harmony, tone, or silence, they remind us that beauty often lives in the in-between — in the shadows between joy and sorrow, sound and stillness.

💬 Over to you!

Have you ever written a song that stayed with you — one that felt haunting in its honesty or simplicity?

Tell us in the comments — we’d love to hear how you create songs that linger long after the final note.

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