"It was probably my fault. It wasn’t daggers, it was boredom and jealousy..."
"Love in the Asylum" by Melbourne based folk storytellers Four in the Morning is a song that feels like water boiling on the stove, like red eyes itchy from lack of sleep, like feeling the stillness of being alone while you are lying next to someone, like spiraling inside your own head when you should be living outside of it. Voiced by Irish lead singer-songwriter Keven Dolan whose imagining is perfectly distilled by musicians Kiran Srinivasan, Dan Walwyn and Alex Lees. The song plays painfully, beautifully poetic as a story told in chapters, each chapter pushing a story of being a captive in one's own head. The storytelling might give you chills, it drips on your forehead like a leaky faucet ramping up slowly but powerfully.
Informed by a great poem, the song bristles with the inspired bits of longing and madness as press notes reveal "Love in the Asylum" [is a song about the days your brain decides to feel shit for reasons you’re not sure of. It’s about mental health and those terrifying times when you wake up feeling nothing] Dolan shares:
"Poetry is great for when you can’t sleep, and probably the only thing that improves past three am. I was working through a Dylan Thomas anthology one night when I stumbled across this strange and beautiful little poem called 'Love in the Asylum'. Later I started writing this song about mental health and for some reason the phrase latched itself to the rest of the words. It’s about realizing we really are all as mad as hatters here."
As I listen to "Love in the Asylum" I thought, again, that all great art no matter what the medium, tells a story that sticks to our brain, our heart and often times inspires more art, more stories. The lyrics cast imagery in your head and everywhere you look you see more beneath the lines. The masterful musicality is subtle but listen to just the music, the falling piano lines, the plaintive lead guitar work and more and you realize the dark beauty filling in the spaces, supporting the darkness of the words. I also feel a sort of Americana rock thing happening here in the framing of this song. It could be performed by a Springsteen or The Killers and feel right at home. It is that kind of broad darkly romantic kind of storytelling.
"Love in the Asylum" spins on Four in the Morning's new EP "Stress Dreams".
-Robb Donker Curtius
* * *
Informed by a great poem, the song bristles with the inspired bits of longing and madness as press notes reveal "Love in the Asylum" [is a song about the days your brain decides to feel shit for reasons you’re not sure of. It’s about mental health and those terrifying times when you wake up feeling nothing] Dolan shares:
"Poetry is great for when you can’t sleep, and probably the only thing that improves past three am. I was working through a Dylan Thomas anthology one night when I stumbled across this strange and beautiful little poem called 'Love in the Asylum'. Later I started writing this song about mental health and for some reason the phrase latched itself to the rest of the words. It’s about realizing we really are all as mad as hatters here."
As I listen to "Love in the Asylum" I thought, again, that all great art no matter what the medium, tells a story that sticks to our brain, our heart and often times inspires more art, more stories. The lyrics cast imagery in your head and everywhere you look you see more beneath the lines. The masterful musicality is subtle but listen to just the music, the falling piano lines, the plaintive lead guitar work and more and you realize the dark beauty filling in the spaces, supporting the darkness of the words. I also feel a sort of Americana rock thing happening here in the framing of this song. It could be performed by a Springsteen or The Killers and feel right at home. It is that kind of broad darkly romantic kind of storytelling.
"Love in the Asylum" spins on Four in the Morning's new EP "Stress Dreams".
-Robb Donker Curtius
* * *
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.facebook.com/FourAmMusic
https://www.instagram.com/fourinthemorningmusic/
https://bandcamp.com/4ammusic/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7HIriU58yMlnEfwJcdqHBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlMCrQE-XWs
https://www.fourinthemorningmusic.com/
Four in the Morning write sad songs for insomniacs. They write quiet songs to play loudly, stressful songs to sit and drink alone with, songs to walk the dog to, songs that ask you to fall into the speakers, and songs to help you feel a little more human. Or at least they try to.
Led by Irish singer-songwriter Kevin Dolan and surrounded by an eclectic group of genre defying musicians (Kiran Srinivasan, Dan Walwyn and Alex Lees), the band creates a fascinating blend of lyrical storytelling and musical experimentation. Together they provide a unique insight into living abroad, struggling with belief, going quietly insane, and falling in love.
At the beginning of 2020, while on tour with Ainslie Wills and Leif Vollebekk, they met producer Jono Steer (Angie McMahon, Ainslie WIlls, Gretta Ray, Leif Vollebekk). Thanks to a Yarra City grant, they worked with Steer throughout 2020 to create some of their most expressive and fully realised songs to date, set to be released mid 2021.
https://www.facebook.com/FourAmMusic
https://www.instagram.com/fourinthemorningmusic/
https://bandcamp.com/4ammusic/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7HIriU58yMlnEfwJcdqHBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlMCrQE-XWs
https://www.fourinthemorningmusic.com/
Four in the Morning write sad songs for insomniacs. They write quiet songs to play loudly, stressful songs to sit and drink alone with, songs to walk the dog to, songs that ask you to fall into the speakers, and songs to help you feel a little more human. Or at least they try to.
Led by Irish singer-songwriter Kevin Dolan and surrounded by an eclectic group of genre defying musicians (Kiran Srinivasan, Dan Walwyn and Alex Lees), the band creates a fascinating blend of lyrical storytelling and musical experimentation. Together they provide a unique insight into living abroad, struggling with belief, going quietly insane, and falling in love.
At the beginning of 2020, while on tour with Ainslie Wills and Leif Vollebekk, they met producer Jono Steer (Angie McMahon, Ainslie WIlls, Gretta Ray, Leif Vollebekk). Thanks to a Yarra City grant, they worked with Steer throughout 2020 to create some of their most expressive and fully realised songs to date, set to be released mid 2021.
We listen deeply and a one time donation would be so lovely- if you can lend a hand.
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