Well, obviously it’s not Ascension Day in the actual meaning of the words today, but we are thrilled to put out another song from the upcoming release. So, in many ways, it is indeed a day to celebrate! The title was in fact a “Eureka! moment” that happened on Ascension Day this year when we had crafted the lyrics for this song for a few months. Things and ideas had already started falling into place, but the crystallization of the particular feeling that Kie was after was still missing. With this, almost biblical title, the puzzle came together.
Kie tells, “This one was composed on a small island in Eastern Finland, right next to the Russian border on a crisp April morning. On the islets around the island, there was a huge cormorant colony and you could see many sea eagles soaring above the island in search of prey.
The work-in-progress title for the song was ‘Bruce’ as the whole song is pretty much based on an uplifting riff, a simple melody and a chord progression which somehow reminded me of the Springsteen song ‘Born in the USA’. It has a strong mood, out of which came the idea for lyrics that pay, among other things, tribute to a Finnish translation schlager or evergreen ‘Kolmatta Linjaa’. The storyteller has finally come out of the darkest place and is fulfilled with unrestrained compassion, love and gratitude for everything around him. Just being able to walk down the street on an average Monday makes him feel on top of the world as that’s been something unthinkable up until the very moment described in the song.”
We played this song a few times on our summer gigs. So, for some of you the groove is already familiar. Like with many of the songs on this album, we did question ourselves a little bit before picking it as a song that we wanted to have on the record. The upbeat poppiness is always a territory that is both intriguing and scary. Many a time we find a way to go around the poppiest ideas by “camouflaging” the pop in our prog but with this song that was not the way to go. The only way was to go all in: Sold Out Stadium style (S.O.S.). And so we did. We hope you like it!
We made a single-shot music video for it too with which we wanted to pay homage to the 1965 masterpiece by Bob Dylan, namely the video for Subterranian Homesick Blues. It took a few days to draw those cardboards but the actual shooting was done within two hours. It was hard not to smile too much (or lose it completely) while filming…