Skeletons

Salt Cure

Heavy Fusion

Long Gone

Scenes from the wall

I wrote the beginning (which is now the middle) of this song 6000 miles from home on a strange piano in a strange place in the middle of a breakdown. It's taken me a year and a half to bring myself to finish it and release it to the outside world. The story itself began long before that, and shall continue long after I sit here drinking my coffee and writing these words telling the story of those words.

Sleepless nights, laboring over instrumentation and word choice and vocal styles and every detail, writing it sometimes as a prayer, sometimes as a plea, a negotiation with god and the universe and the fates and furies of old. There were moments when I truly thought this one might kill me, or that perhaps I would have preferred if it did. It taught me a lot - about texture and energy, breathing, mixing, mastering, and about myself. And yet here it shines now, utterly imperfect. Some wavering pitch here, some clumsy fingering there... All as true as it was ever going to be.

And so I offer it to you, to find you if it finds you and let it tell you whatever story it is you'd like to hear.

Midnight: Los Angeles

Held up by the Sun

The serpent goddess NuWa has been busy preparing for war against the invading army. Her generals and sorcerers are advising her on a battle plan, when suddenly the sky splits open and a great flood comes. The waters rage and rage, sweeping away many of the beloved people of her kingdom and threatening to destroy the very world itself. 

In a panic, she flees up the mountain to ask Ao, the giant and wise tortoise, what she should do. Ao is as ancient as the universe - she used to play with him and ask him questions when she was a small child and he would tell her stories about the universe, which is part of the reason she became so wise and powerful herself, Their relationship is deep and she loves him as if he were her own grandfather. 

When NuWa tells Ao of the great flood, he tells her that the only way to stop it is to prop up the sky to seal the crack, and the only things large and strong enough for this task are his own legs. He tells her that she must cut his legs off and use them to stop the flood and save the people. She is shocked, and begs him to give her another choice, to tell her some other way, but he cannot. This is the only way, and she should not be sad or afraid - this is his fate and he freely offers his life for her. She sees that he is right, and after working up the courage she takes up her sword and chops off the legs of the ancient tortoise god Ao even while tears streamed down her face. 

After committing this great and terrible act, she marches solemnly down the mountain with Ao's legs on a carriage behind her and uses them to prop up the sky and stop the flood. In this moment, as the waters subside and she is left with the knowledge of slaying her dear friend for the sake of all the others, she looks out at her kingdom and understands that her life as a goddess and ruler will always be a path of difficult choices and sacrifice.

Chaim Rochester

Popular tracks