Lyrics: When I'm said I think of it as music A song that has an end A spoon that you can bend
When I'm sad I think of it as music A song that has an end A bike that you can mend
Don't worry love You will get by
Don't worry love You will get by
Background: Do you remember Uri Geller, the spoon bender from the eighties? I tried to bend so many spoons when I was a kid. No luck, there, unfortunately. No fortune there, unluckily.
Sometimes I think about changing the band name into The Uri Geller After Experience. The after experience is something that happens after (duh) you've met Mr Geller. According to himself, his bending powers are so strong, they tend to affect you hours after your rendez vous. I want to cause after effects too. It doesn't necessarily have to be huge, just a little tickling in your left foot, or a funny hairstyle.
I think the song came out as a mix between these thoughts and the fact the everyone in my surrounding were so sad that I ran out of comforting words. Thus, I wrote a song that goes on forever, forever and forever, that rocks the cradle into oblivion.
Lyrics: Translucent sun Our drilling long stares We slowly evolve what we would name flares
Her hips, her bones The noise keeps her sane Obliterates 'til nothing remains
I told you so a year ago
Prismatic lense it sprinkles you in tens We share a year Then nothing makes sense
I told you so a year ago
Background: This song was recorded the day before a huge exam, explaining the slightly desperate voice in it. The lyrics, however, consist of a mish-mash of thoughts, pieces of African poems and dictionary knowledge.
On stage The Vault becomes a fast running horse, a hungry eagle and a waterfall spreading in every room and corners. Then as a sudden change of weather, it disappears, leaving nothing behind but a question mark.
Lyrics: I was waiting for the bus when suddenly surrounded by a bubble I saw lobsters crawling by, a coral forest and brittle stars above all
I asked a lady at my side how she could manage staying under water all her life But she just smiled and shook her head and then she said
If we bide our time we will find the shore All you do is float all you do, is float
(I was just waiting for the bus)
Background: One day, I came across the story about a bubble boy. He was born with a rare disorder called SCID, Severe Combined Immunodeficiency. To avoid life-threatening infections, he was placed in a germ-free plastic bubble, where he remained until he died, only twelve years old.
If I was a bubble boy, my bubble would be surrounded by water, covered in sea shells, illuminated by bioluminescent dinoflagellates. I would take long walks on the ocean floor and hang upside down in the coral trees, watching the manta rays hover towards the surface. Then fall into a weightless sleep, dreaming of dry sand between my toes and wind in my ears. And maybe a hug.
Lyrics: There comes a time when you've been capable and competent for it to last at least a hundred thousand years
You still pretend that this how you like it - you ain't got no time for longing, cheesy feelings, hopes and fears
It happens that you wake up as a beetle stuck upon a pin with listlessness all over, leaving smears
Is it all that matters?
Together though thick and thin the trees screen the garden for the wind And I don't remember the smell of yours or anybody else's skin
This heart is a precious souvenir and I'll be leaving it here And then I'll wait, and then I'll wait I'm in my prime, don't you see?
But is it all that matters?
Background: This song just turns in to a slobby mess if I try to explain its meaning. I hope the lyric says it all. The middle part is my favourite, being itchy and slightly dissonant. It took hours to learn how to play those few tunes on the violin. And this is what came out, haha.
Lyrics: Where we'll go There won't be nothing but snow (not correct English, I know, but you know, l'art pour l'art)
If you could build the igloo Maybe I could climb the icebergs And then bring our walrus neighbours Back for tea
We won't stay here forever But as long as we're together And the snow and ice is all that we could see
Where we'll go There won't be nothing but snow
Background: This is the first song I made for the album. It's somehow stained by the music I used to do in band in box version 1.0 (together with Elin); innocent lyrics and tender melodies. I had just bought the (probably stolen) clarinet (the first of my monthly instruments) and these were the first tunes I could record without the neighbours screaming and the houseplants melting down in agony. I hadn't yet begun working with the vocals the way I did with the rest of the album tracks, I kept it plain. Although this is the song that initially attracted attention to the new band in box (version 2.0), it's not my favourite tune. On the other hand, it belongs in the collection, acting as an interlude or a short Antarctic break.
Lyrics: You'll find a place Where you could rest Take your clothes off, cut your hair Make it to a nest
Place your thoughts under a log Let the birds out of your chest Watch them fly towards the East Then call them back from the West
Come home, come home
Cars could hit you You'd better look out I'll be your eyes If you'll be my mouth
The sky could eat you You'd better look out I'll be your eyes If you'll be my mouth
Background: This fiction, this forest. Moss lining cheek, lichen nest. Sleep like a log, in a log, wooden tent. Clarinet tounge, nutmeg sound with prickles, pickles. Birds in chest, bird in nest, birds far west. Needle hair, smell of pines, parallel lines in bark. Swampy ground, pangolin breath. Bog asphodel, ant-hill, wind.
Then sky, the usual clouds, sun behind branch. Wing tip, wing flap, hiss. Needle hair, nutmeg sound, then sleep.
Lyrics: I am bent and bald and blind Please, just take me to the shrine Before you'll cover me in turd Listen to my last wise words
I was born as one of five My bread was buttered on both sides I made the world into my own Then fell off my golden throne
They wanted me to become a queen But I had seen that life on TV Fancy men and fancy dresses I said no, couldn't stand the pressure
Then they threw me into irons Locked the door, turned out the lights Said 'This is how you'll live your life, Unless you change your mind'
I let my hair out of the window Sat down, waited for the prince to show (When I'd waited a whole year I finally got out of there)
I ran a thousand miles an hour Then got caught in another tower I had done it all in vain But I would do it again
Background: Like Princess Rapunzel I once was caught in a tower. I did try to let my hair out of the window, but it didn't really reach down to the ground, plus there was no prince waiting for it to happen, so it didn't matter. Anyway, I decided to take things into my own hands and gave the guards some herbs which made them fall asleep for a hundred years until the frog prince could kiss them awake, or if it was the opposite, don't really remember. I got out and started running in a pair of cat boots that I found outside. It really went quick, I remember each step being a couple of hundred yards. The scenery was magnificient, but I was a bit stirred by the fact that I could be caught again, so I didn't raise my head enough, which was quite stupid, since I suddenly bumped in to a new tower and was stuck in it. However, I'd had a great time running and the new tower was filled with all sorts of great instruments. I probably stay there for the rest of my life. But I don't regret it, I don't.
