'Prosperpina' Is Out Now
Sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
My dear people,
I have a new song out called ‘Proserpina.’ It is the second single from my upcoming album ‘Glorious Light.’
You can stream the song here:
A little on the song:
I wrote this one a while back, during lockdown I think, it’s all a blur. But I was deep into Roman and Greek mythology and I came across the haunting story of Proserpina (in the Greek Persephone).
The story roughly goes that Proserpina is promised to Pluto, the king of the underworld, against the wishes of her mother. One day in a field, Pluto sweeps in and drags her too the depths and makes her his queen. Proserpina’s mother is furious and makes the earth barren, she wilts the crops and makes the fruit rot on the trees, much to the horror of the humans. Eventually the king of the gods, Jupiter (or Zeus in the Greek) brings her back from Pluto.
However Proserpina ended up eating a few pomegranate seeds, and because she ate the fruit in the underworld she was forced to return for a few months of the year, so every year the world turned bleak again. This was a story used to explain the seasons.
Lyrically I drew heavily from this story, It’s also likely at the time I felt a similar strain in my own relationship at the time. I remember writing the line:
In a thrice ploughed field of thrice sown grain
You pour out the mice and you pour them out again
you’ve tied her to a tree in the ash and the rain
Specifically at the time, my ex and I had mice in the apartment and we struggled to find solutions for it and I remember having fights about it haha. Anyway the reference to the thrice sown field is straight from the Homeric hymn telling the story of Demeter and Persephone aka. Ceres & Proserpina.
Another final tid bit, the last line of the song,
If the moon was made of gold would you burn for it or drag it down to the depths of hell?
was drawn from a line straight out of Dante’s inferno:
For all the gold that is beneath the moon, Or ever has been, of these weary souls Could never make a single one repose.
And he writes this fabulous image of these souls in hell pushing up bags of money up the hill, but never reaching the top. It’s great haha.
Image by Gustav Dore
The Music
Anyway I wanna talk a little about the songwriting process.
I don’t remember much where I wrote the initial chords, probably midwinter / mid covid in my cold rehearsal room out in industrial Hamburg or just in my apartment on the side of my bed as I usually do.
The chords came simply, an Am on capo 2 (so a Bm) and then a C chord. I just strum back and forth. It ended up too high for my voice so I just play it without a capo now. I also remember doing the bass face when I found the lovely move to a G in the outro.
In the studio, it’s just me and Eric playing everything. Eric played the drum line I had in mind, and then he played all the wafting guitar sounds and I layered up a hell bunch of synth. Alot of those sounds came from the demo we did before going into Luke’s studio. We ended up with this really lush tone against the rhythm of the guitar and drums. Eric also played the bass line, he did it on an electric guitar through an octaver pedal and it turned out good.
Lucas made sure we kept everything lush but still balanced when we added the final touches later.
At some point I wanted to add a female vocal at the end, I even asked my mate Giorgia (Who I did a few busking vlogs with in Italy this year). But we didn’t quite find the right vibe. In the end it’s just me on falsetto.
To finish, either me or Luke added a spacey piano at the end and everything was cream.
Then it was mixed and mastered. Thanks to Luke and to Joe in Adelaide who did that.
And now you can listen to it! I hope you enjoyed that little essay haha and I hope you can help me spread the word and share the song with the world.
Big love Musky.
X
PROSERPINA
(Lyrics)
Well you’re pullin’ up the chains from the bottom of her lungs
A three headed dog and its three burnt tongues
Pluto linin’ up with the earth and the sun
Drink it up now!
Drink it all up
Hear the moans and the howls of the bodies in the deep
As they kick and they tear each other in their sleep
You’ve got one hand in the river, but for them she will weep!
Drink it up now!
Drink it all up
What more do you want love?
What more do you want?
In a thrice plowed field of thrice sown grain
You pour out the mice, you pour them out again
You’ve tied her to a tree in the ash and the rain
Drink it up now!
Drink it all up
What more do you want love?
What more do you want?
And if the moon was made of gold
Would you burn for it
Or drag it to the depths of hell?
What more do you want?