After Christmas Party
While on vacation, I'll take the opportunity to tell you guys all about the video shoot, part one, and also what's going on in the band and life in general.
But first things first: We have released our fifth single Good People on December 13th. At last. And I didn't even warn you here, even though I tried to give several warnings on social media. No reviews on that yet, but it took some time with It's All Right as well, so I'm hopeful. Either way, it's a relieve to have gotten it out.
In our media release I described the song as follows:
"Good People, HC:s fifth single is about everyday hypocrisy, describing the lengths we all go to explain to ourselves that we are actually good people, but fail to see the brokenness of our dark hearts. Enjoy the gloom!"
In a way, Good People is a really uncomfortable song. Everybody tells themselves the story that they are good people, and that it's the others who do the bad stuff. Or at least that they're not as bad as that next guy, whose mistakes have taken them down the rabbit hole. In almost biblical terms, there is none that can say that they're truly good people, because we have all made mistakes. We are all somehow broken, either from something done to us or something we have done to others, and ourselves.
But seeing the wounds is difficult. Really seeing the wounds that haven't healed and those that we keep slashing open all over again by repeating our mistakes and harmful patterns. Looking yourself in the mirror and seeing the reality of that warped and cracked image is very hard. And that is the only way to change. Like with addiction: you can't change unless you admit you have a problem.
In Good People I tried to express how we as human beings collectively live in a state of denial. Admitting our mistakes and challenging the way we think and believe is one of the hardest things for us. We all do this, we all think we are good people. And yet, no one can claim they are perfect. In the lyrics is also hidden the fear, that if we as a collective human race don't change our ways, things will go down hill. Which is obvious by now, if you're not in denial of what the researchers are saying about the state of the planet.
The song is old, the lyrics written about four years ago. I recognize now that the worldview I had then was a little more black and white than it is now. Hopefully. At least now I can say that I believe that there is also none that is completely without hope, that there is a spark of light inside the darkest hearts, a memory of something good. And I believe there's hope for us collectively too. There are also good news around the world. Achievements are made in every field. We have all the tools we need to change, for the better. It all comes down to choice, which is a whole another debate in itself. But let's just say that this song, Good People, comes from a bit darker place than where I am now, and maybe I'll write something lighter in the future. Or maybe my lot in life is to mourn for the world. Deal with it.
So, that's quite a lot about the lyrics. What about music?
Well, the working title was "Goth-queen song" but I don't know where that came from. Maybe it's because first there was a bass line, which reminded me of Queen, but could just as well be inspired by Jackson's Billie Jean. Moving, rolling, on top of that very basic guitars and plain song. That's the verse. Then comes something that I would call a "Siouxsie-moment" due to it's heavy influence by none other than Siouxsie and the Banshees. Which is basically O-O-Oooo singing and some kling-klang-kling-instrument, which then expands to chorus, more heavy, more distortion in guitars. But I won't let you rest here. After this comes more O-O-Oooo and acoustic guitars. We actually had some debate within the band about which part is actually the chorus and which is the bridge. I guess it's for the listener to decide, but hopefully we achieved a satisfactory compromise with that...
At the very end of the song, when you think it's all over, in comes the choir. It's a piece of it's own but has been there from the start. The text is basic Kyrie Eleison, which is a basic part of a Mass. Due to the classic background it felt quite natural to put it there. And also suitable was to record it in a church, which I wrote about in the last piece. We also recorded some clips of my singing in there, which kind of formed a bridge, soundwise, between the last bit of the song and the choir piece. As I wrote before, Aino-kuoro from Turku recorded it very professionally.
While mixing and re-recording some guitars our guitarist/producer came up with some great guitar lines for the chorus. In my opinion, the final touch, really gave the song a more goth air to it. The mastering was in the end done by Waudio Mastering, a very experienced and popular sound engineer in Finland. We decided to give some new direction a try, and yes, the result was indeed very good. Oh yes! So good that we actually decided to release it as a single.
So I had to start thinking about the cover. That was a thinking process in itself. There was so much I wanted to say with the cover, let alone the song. It felt impossible to grasp the message within a single image. But then I remembered the photographing experiments I did in Spain the previous summer, when I accidentally broke a wine glass. i took the one with the best light and just slightly adjusted some color balance and contrast. I didn't even have to do much, the picture summarizes the message.
Now, Good People is in the air, on Bandcamp and Spotify, and all major platforms. Go and have a listen. And be good to each other.
https://hatefulchains.bandcamp.com/track/good-people
Next time, I'll write about the video shoot, promise.
Love, Flora
