The EMERALD DIVIDE
TRACK BY TRACK
TL;DR: Here’s what Fiene thinks about The Emerald Divide track by track five years later. We added some a capella clips of her singing a bit of the song, just to make it more exciting, ha!
Enjoy!
IMMERSION
“Immersion” is exactly what it says it is, your road into “The Emerald Divide”. In my mind, it plays like an overture in a theater. You sit in your seat, get cozy, the lights dim and deep in the orchestra pit the music starts playing. The first curtain starts to lift slowly while the music moves from a classical-ish vibe to something more and more involved.
Your narrator appears.
The curtain opens!
Doing an overture on an album is not something you see all that often because the common advice is to start with a banger. Additionally, when you stream the album, there might be a tiny gap between “Immersion” and “Voice Of The Deep” (on the CD you hear it as intended). Also, sometimes, since it is the first track on the album, streaming services like Spotify prioritize it and it goes strangely “viral” on its own...in random playlists.
Despite all this, we decided to keep it…and keep opening our albums with an overture and a narrator…because VIBES!
Voice of the Deep
I have written a lot about “Voice Of The Deep” before, so I will keep this brief: I LOVE this song. I like the sweeping melody that takes me through my whole vocal range, even though I really had to work for my high notes back then.
Story-Wise, “Voice Of The Deep” introduces us to one part of the Emerald Divide, the forgotten underwater kingdom.
While our albums are not pure concept albums in the strictest sense, we like to re-visit the Emerald Divide and many of our songs take place here. The Voice Of The Deep, specifically, has a small cameo appearance on our latest album “Letters To The Other Side” in the bridge of “For Gold Prevents The Grief”:
Almost within reach
When we are caught by the
Voice of the deep…
Straight at Its Face
“Straight At Its Face” was our first single. It is also the song most commonly mistaken to be related to a video game that isn’t actually related to a video game. To me, it has a red riding hood sort of vibe even though Simon wasn’t thinking of any specific story when he wrote it.
The other thing that comes to mind (and that I was thinking about when I recorded it) is the idea that we are all just running away from ourselves until we make it through whatever cave we have driven ourselves into. I guess sometimes you have to go deeper and deeper until things come back around.
Location wise, this is set in “a non-specified forest somewhere, sometime in the Emerald Divide”.
My favourite part is the bridge, the vocals came out SO echoey and haunting and I really like the water effect and the chord change in the quiet part of the last chorus because it really does feel like the morning rises.
Flee
“Flee” is a BIG song. It is the first song we worked on with Hannah (as the loveliest undersea villain of all time). The villain under the ocean is a central character of the Emerald Divide and she comes up several times throughout our other albums. Perhaps, her being set free was what led to the abandonment of the underwater realm we see in “Voice Of The Deep”?
My favorite vocal moment is “no chest of gold for you to steal” because that random “gold” came out so beautifully!
In the chorus right after that we have the first growly backing vocals…we still do this today cause we love a bit of texture!
Also, I get the happy giggles when Hannah comes in and does her thing!
This song is a wild ride start to finish, phew!
The Emerald Divide
After we are still a bit breathless from “Flee”, our piano ballad “Emerald Divide” comes around and gives us a moment to rest.
This is another essential story song for the Emerald Divide. It becomes clear here that what came from the Emerald Divide eventually will feel the call to come back. In this case, the “she knows the queen” gives you a hint as to who our character is.
This was one of the last songs for the recording to be finished for the album, all the way in October, I believe. Vocally, we have our first appearance of “those ethereal layers in the background” that I really, really love…cause once upon a time, Enya was my main jam ^-^.
Ira'Nos
“Ira’Nos” does not live on the same story axis as “Emerald Divide”, “Flee”, and “Voice Of The Deep” but much like “Straight At Its Face”, it takes place in the same fantasy universe. Perhaps, a lot earlier?
“Ira’Nos” is one of those songs that could be a whole Pen and Paper campaign. We have a threat, we have a semi sentient fortress (my favorite “person” across all our albums) and a whole party of adventurers. If you follow the instructions, maybe you could even draw a map of the lands?
“Ira’Nos” is also the first example of “one of those really long songs” - we split it into 4 parts, each with a title. Even though we don’t do that anymore, I still like the concept because I think the individual titles add context to the story that you don’t get otherwise.
My favorite bit of “words” on the song is “the final song of man”...sometimes Simon had VERY poetic ways of saying “the world ends” and I am here for it.
Where the Railroad Ends
“Where The Railroad Ends” stands a little bit apart from most of the songs on the album both structurally and in terms of what time it is in the world.
As opposed to “Ira’Nos”, set in “times of yore”, “Railroad” must be sometime much later when railroads are a thing. The Emerald Divide is a fantasy world, yes, but technological progress happens. Also, not to put too fine a point on it...but the magic of the walls of Ira’Nos could also have been hydraulics and steam engines?
In my mind, the Emerald Divide has technology that, much like in our world, gets re-invented several times so it all kind of makes sense?
Structurally, “Where The Railroad Ends” is a soft ballad with my favorite synth melody ever (right at the beginning…that’s my favorite bit). It remains soft until the last verse…and then has a heavier drop into a musical epilogue.
I am very grateful for the epilogue because by the time I hit the last verse, I am so close to crying that I can barely hold it in anymore and the heavier guitars give me enough room to just quietly bow out and sob.
I only sang the whole song without bursting into tears once, just to "quickly try it out” on my lunch break. Those are the vocals we kept.
What Kind of Man
I remember writing “What Kind Of Man” with Simon because due to flooding in town, I couldn’t use the ferry to get to him and we had to do it remotely. “What Kind Of Man” shares a character with “Rise To The Occasion” and, later, “He Who”. It’s a reluctant hero, but also an unknown hero.
In a sense, the decisions of our character seem implausible from the outside, there is a good deal of conflict and misunderstanding about them but I feel like if someone leaves their bride, their family, their home behind to set out…there must be a good reason?
It’s a really long journey for him and I don’t know that there will ever be a moment of “oh so that’s why he left” or a reunion…maybe on some other album?
“What Kind Of Man” also has one of the most beautiful intros we have, the strings always make me tear up.
Revolution
“Revolution” is an odd song, it started very differently, with a different chorus and became more and more…revolution-y? At the time, I was OBSESSED with the chorus, the “rise and unite” just kinda did it for me (I jumped up off my chair listening to it several times, thank the stars for home office).
As happens sometimes, I struggled with where to take the story and the second verse but thankfully Simon took over and turned my conceptual revolution into an actual campaign of action and fireballs.
Vocally, those high notes were a bit of a challenge but we got theeeeere!
Raise your flag high
Rise and unite.
No wonder we made it our second single, excuse me while I jump up out of my chair and do revolution-y things for a little!
Rise to the Occasion
“Rise To The Occasion” is unassuming in many ways but I love it very, very much. To me, it’s an interesting story because we have a hero who has already done the hero thing but now has to kinda go and do it all over again. I also just really like my vocals on this, especially when I go “kept the prophecy alive”...very good prophecy, that.
Whenever I listen to this song today and sing along, I sing a bunch of harmonies (something we didn’t really do much back then)....so idk…choral version? I’d sure be curious to hear what it sounds like with a little bit of Nicole’s backing vocal magic added.
Our Time
I am not going to write about “Our Time” again because I have cried enough thank you.
Anniversary Vinyl
Go get nice VINYL in fun colors!