In this week’s episode of BackStory, songstress Charlene Kaye tells us the story behind her song “Mad Tom of Bedlam.” Mad Tom of Bedlam is the name of an anonymous English poem that was written in the 1600s about people who feigned mental illness as a guise to beg for money, such as Shakespeare’s King
In this bonus edition of BackStory, Ryan of Long Island’s Wild International tells us the story behind their song “Mayoridad.” Without getting into too much detail, this song is really about coming to terms with your mistakes and realizing you can only grow from them and hope for the best in the end. Before I
photo by Jose Mandojana In this special bonus episode of BackStory, Pete from Ivan & Alyosha (our Artists in Residence for February 2011!) tells us the story behind their song “Fathers Be Kind.” “Fathers Be Kind” took about a year to take full shape. I had the verse and melody in my head for a
In this edition of BackStory, The Joy Formidable shares the lyrics to their song “Austere,” along with the story behind it… A melting pot of different references and ideas line this song marking the beginning of Ritzy and Rhydian’s writing relationship. It’s tonally at odds, sometimes playful and tenacious but also contemplative and melancholic. Thinking
In this special bonus episode of BackStory, briefly Fujiya & Miyagi tell us the story behind their song “Yoyo.” Yoyo… This is about people being unable to make their minds up without outside influences. It could also be about mood swings or it could just be about a yoyo.
In this week’s episode, Andrew Belle tells us the story behind his song “Static Waves.” Static Waves was really an accident that happened while we were in the middle of making ‘The Ladder’ two years ago. We had just begun production on an up-tempo version of a song from the record called ‘Oh My Stars’
Our readers selected Via Audio’s “Babies” as the number one song of 2010, which peaked our curiosity. We wanted to know more about the song, and we figured you might, too, so here’s Tom Deis from Via Audio’s story behind this song… The demo for Babies was born in the summer of 2007 after I
In this special BONUS episode of BackStory, Brooklyn’s Black Taxi tells us the story behind their song “Shoeshine.” Here’s a note from their team: Black Taxi is one of the best new bands to come out of The Big Apple. Their music was recently featured on NBC’s The Chase and they finished their first national tour in fall 2010.
In this week’s episiode of BackStory, The White Buffalo tells us the story behind his song “Oh Datlin’, What Have I Done?” “Oh Darlin’” is a character driven, twisted tale of unrequited love. Based on an imagined, very confused man, whom has recently lost his lover. He becomes more distanced and reclusive. Within his disillusionment,
In this episode of BackStory, Clare of The Horn The Hunt shares the story behind their song “Old Town Cow” and then offers you a FREE download of their single “Raptor.” I try to get a mix of storytelling and abstraction in our songs- it’s more exciting for me to let go and catch random