Day 11 and beyond…
October 20, 2019
Time went by so fast! It is time to call the musicians for the recording sessions. This meant that I had to prepare lots of parts and scores this weekend. It has been very busy but I’m very excited for this week’s events at Psicofonia Studio .
Days 11 and 12 were all about my song ‘Apology’. It was a complicated song to work with because of its form, meter changes, and style. I think this will be one of the most challenging songs for the musicians to play, but I think once they get a hang of it, they’ll enjoy playing it as much as I do. The song leans toward a rock with strings style, and of course, we now added all the cyberpunk stuff with glitches and industrial beats. It sounds very intense! For a moment I did consider adding electric guitars to this one but, the truth is, if I did, then the strings and piano would be lost in the background of the mix. I trust that we’ll manage to give that rock intensity with the elements that we already have. This song is about a toxic obsession that you have to let go, because that obsession has become you, and now it’s hard to push it away because it’s all you are now.
There’s only two more songs left to look at, but they are the ones that need the least amount of work. I still want to tell you a bit about them so you get to know them anyway :)
The next song on the album will be ‘Your light’, an intimate piano ballad with a very emotional message. It was so hard to write the lyrics to this one because it’s about a very delicate matter: death by suicide. It breaks my heart to know a lot of people that have attempted suicide, and one particular person that did passed away made me open my eyes to my own situation. I’ve never thought about ending my life, but I was in a point with my depression where I began to see very clearly that the steps left to reach those depths were not that far away. It was frightening. So when I wrote ‘Your light’ I wanted to remember this person’s laughter, love, care, and art; that even though darkness took his life, his light will live on. This song changed a lot because through grief your feelings and perspectives change so easily. In the concept of the album, this is my turning point, and this situation brought me determination to make a meaningful change in my life.
And the ‘Spiral’ ends with my song ‘Rain of birds’. The way this song came to be was pretty surreal. I was on a family vacation trip to San Luis Potosí, and we visited ‘El sótano de las golondrinas’ (Cave of Swallows). It has been the most magical place I’ve ever visited, and while taking in all the beauty that surrounded me I had a few epiphanies. You know how they say ‘we see things as we are’, so I began to see myself through the landscape. When we left, I immediately started writing the lyrics for the song. It was hard to add the music later and I really wanted to make it both emotional and epic. I think it’s the perfect way to end the album, and this chapter of my life.
…
November 29th, 2020
This is the last entry of ‘Navigating through Spirals’. The album is ready and the first single came out a week ago (my song ‘Unforgiven’). Thank you so much for reading this journal and do follow me on my social media to not miss out on the release and more ‘behind the scenes’ content:
See you there!! :)
Cheers,
Monica Lyrae