Gothic Folk Metal band URN recently released a video for their latest single "Silently, I'm Still Screaming" and to celebrate we asked singer/guitarist Dominic St. Charles to tell us about the track. Here is the story:
This song is one of the more pinnacle tracks off of our "Epiphany" release, as the album as a whole, deals with when people take an honest inventory and come to realizations about themselves and the world around them.
When I wrote this song, there were major frustrations that I was experiencing at that time in terms of how I viewed myself and the way I communicate with people. Through most of my life, I have often felt criticized for the way that I talk and was left with an impression that it annoys people. Despite the insecurities, I worked very hard on brevity, as my mind would have so much information that it was overly challenging to filter what to say and even more importantly, how to say it.
Feelings are neither right or wrong, it's how you choose to act, or react, to them.
So for a period of time, in a depression-fueled frustration, I chose to just to say nothing and detach as best I could from human interaction. I was making incorrect assumptions that people in general weren't interested in what I had to say, or were too wrought up in their own chatter inside their heads that they weren't effectively listening anyway.
This course of action lead to isolation and it affected my perception of the world. I began starting to put thoughts in people's heads and words in their mouths that weren't really there. The frustration transitioned into anger and hatred started to consume me. I was screaming like a madman on the inside as I wanted to tell people what I really thought, but I was living in such fear or my anger that if I did lose control, it would irrevocably damage many friendships and relationships. The sad reality was that it was beginning to happen regardless as people were feeling pushed away, They were feeling confused and hurt and wanted to know what it was that caused me to withdraw.
My epiphany was that I was allowing only a couple of toxic people in my life to rule my perception. I had to remove them from my life and once I did that, it allowed me to gain clarity. I was able to begin a healing process of forgiving and accepting myself and was able to get back to being the good person I knew that I was. I then was humbled to later learn that most people actually enjoy my company and the "entertaining" way that I communicate.
When it came to record this song, we wanted to really feature Christopher [Migdalski] on doing an extended range guitar solo. He's been battling Parkinson's disease for about twelve years now and we've all felt inspired by him as he continues to still strive for his dreams in spite of it. At this time, at least with medical technology as it is today, we all know the inevitable outcome of what disease will eventually do to him. So, we wanted to have something that would act as a "time capsule" or a testament this to man's courage and the amazing talent that he has that is being robbed by this disease.
We once again teamed up with Dan Precision (Rise Against, Naked Raygun) to record and help produce the album. So Chris and Dan spent the better part of the day getting the solo so that it came across with the sonorous power that we all were so delighted that it did. This is also the main reason we elected to do the video, so that in decades to come his children and generations that will follow, can reflect back on the achievements this man made overcoming obstacles that many of us in day-to-day life take for granted.
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!
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