High-bias cassette tape in sonic blue with 5-panel insert
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about
I wrote "Circle Circle" one delirious evening while I was sick with a fever - experiencing cyclical thoughts, rumination, and anxiety during the strange waking hours illness brings. The song, the consistent melody, and rhythm, felt like a lifeline of certainty through existential dread and fever dreams.
Writing the song, I gleaned a new understanding of the transmuting power music carries. It’s difficult to describe, but if you’ve ever felt at sea in the midst of a disorienting transformation, and can imagine that through torrents of emotion, you find a pillar of stability to cling to, to climb and gain your bearings, to witness the whole stormy sea thrashing about without being swept up in its current - that’s a bit how music began to feel to me while writing this song.
The lyrics illustrate a search for meaning in a lifetime of disparate moments that can feel both monumental and insignificant, and maintaining curiosity in what can be simultaneously a mundane, cruel, chaotic, lonely, and beautiful world.
Musically, I wanted to create a song that would evoke the sensation of climbing a gently sloped but deceptively long hill on an old road bike during a spring day, plodding ever upward over false peaks: the slow start, the frenetic frustration, the eventual surrender into the groove, the sensation of never quite reaching the destination, but finding purpose + strength in little joys along the way.
Michael Cormier O'Leary helped me arrange the song, drawing inspiration from the music of Virginia Astley. He played many of the parts, providing a playfully off-kilter synth backdrop and a curious, meandering solo to the persistent if idiosyncratic rhythm.
The music video begins with three tarot cards that set the tone for the song’s meaning. It continues using match-cutting to tie seemingly random circular objects to key lyrics, related memories, and each other. This technique was championed by the editor, Santi Slade, who punctuated the music's rhythmic movements in his edits. I gathered the footage and we worked together to find a balance of humor and candor in pairings."
lyrics
♪
Circle circle circle circle
Circle circle circle circle
Circle circle lopsided circle
Two eyes in a circle circle circle
Shallow river, slow sigh
Snake down from the sunrise
If you cut up the earth
And paste it back down
Could you make something better
Than what you found?
♪
Circle circle, drips like blood
All over the clean birchwood
And rocky hillside, melting tar
In the heat of the hot summer
And that was not me
It was born of me
And I love it dearly
As it moves from me
But circle the kite caught up in the tree
Will it ever come back down to you and me?
♪
The clouds are above the clear sky below
The cold's everywhere but there's no sign of snow
And circle circle, spin in my head
Would you lay me down dizzy, daunted in bed
I will watch from my window
People come and go
And we all move so slow
Bet we don't even know
But circle circle circle us all
We're all needed somewhere, though we're all so small
♪
credits
from Strawberry Runners,
track released May 31, 2023
Keys/Midi Instruments: Michael Cormier-O'Leary
Electronic Drums: Michael Cormier-O'Leary
Drums: Michael Cormier-O'Leary
Piano: Erika Nininger
Guitars: Stephen Becker
Synthesizers, Sampler: Benedict Kupstas
Vocals: Emi Night
Writer: Emi Night
Arranger: Michael Cormier O'Leary and Emi Night
Producer: Emi Night & Michael Cormier O'Leary
Engineer: Michael Cormier O'Leary, Bradford Krieger, Emi Night
Mixed and Mastered by Bradford Krieger
Michael is a uniquely masterful storyteller and musical arranger. You'll love his candid and intimate portraits and odes to everyday moments. Strawberry Runners
i've kept coming back to this album since seeing gladie live last year. i can confidently say these songs are captivating both in the studio and on the stage. loomis99
Dirtbag Transformation: "What is this?" was my first reaction. But what an amazing song. It reminds me a bit of the Pixies in how it pulls together dissonance and then resolves. malfunction54
Danielle Durack's emotional music is both gentle and steely, moving from intimate bedroom pop to powerful rock in the blink of an eye. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 17, 2020
