Hello again! It is raining outside and it is absolutely wonderful.
Before I bring my teapot filled with freshly brewed Japanese cherry tea out on the soaked lawn, I thought it was time for another Q&A. This time on “The Asylum”
For your amusement, and ours.

What is the story of the song?
Matt: This is a story of a house or rather an Asylum. It’s about a person who spent time there, either going insane or was insane before he or she got there.

Jade: Visually, I imagine an old house a couple of centuries ago where the staff treated ill people who really needed help, like subjects, using very unconventional and cruel methods.

There are a lot of growl vocals in the song, how is that?
Matt: The tension that growl gives is just awesome, and that’s from the growler. But to be serious, I think that growl is a really mean way of singing and the means it’s used to express your feeling from inside makes it all bubbly and guttural on the way out.

Jade: I feel that this is a bit off topic now, but when you have both growl and female vocals, the possibilities are endless. And we don’t want to get stuck with me coming off as… well… gentle, kind and angelic while Matt always comes off as the evil monster in the shadows just because of how we sing. We are more than the voices that first rip or caress your earlobes, haha.

What is the best part focused on lyrics and vocals in “The Asylum”?
Jade: My favourite part is right before the solo when I sing about how afraid and mistreated this person is. It comes very natural to come across as scared and weary when singing high notes that way.

Matt: The content of the song itself, otherwise it wouldn’t be a story like song. I like the part when everyone goes HEY! And the parts after that, through Jades favourite part until the chorus come back on.

If you would describe “The Asylum” based on emotions, which emotions would you then describe it with?
Jade: The basic emotion for this song is loneliness and the fear and melancholy that come with it.
Matt: Jade nailed it, but I’d like to add insanity to the mixture.

Jade: Oh yes. Can’t have an asylum without a little insanity, now can we?

This is serious business?
Jade: Well… We don’t take ourselves very seriously. You need some humor even if the topic is grim. The basic emotion is very serious no doubt, but we like to dress things up with humor or overly dramatic pretentiousness so that it comes off humorous anyway.

The lyrics for:

The Asylum

First you see the iron gates,
rusted hinges wail.
Underneath a gloomy sky,
thus begins the tale.

Open doors
open your mind
open up your eyes

Enter gates,
enter the house,
enter wards of pain

Peering into darkness,
and the darkness stares back
wherever you are, whatever you see

Whisper into shadows,
and it will shout back
wherever you are, whatever you see

Even in the airing courts,
birds don’t ever sing.
Underneath a gloomy sky,
all with broken wings.

Close the doors
closing the soul
closing up the grave

Shut your eyes
shut your mind
shut your way of life

Hey!

Mad, mad, madness

So pale and weak
from loss of blood
from icy baths
from therapy

I'm bruised and scarred
alone and scared
so long confined
within my mind

So then, what are we up to at the moment?
You will know next time. It's crazy!

-Jade