Singled Out: Halo Stereo

It was a colder than usual January and we had been in the studio all of the new year throwing around ideas for a new record. Our bass player Jody played us this Lydian-esc riff he'd written. As soon as I heard it, I loved it and wanted to write a song stemming from that melody. We already had the idea of a businessman lying in a bathtub, wearing a suit, for the cover of the album. So, from that image, we derived the opening lyrics, "Breathe in. Water spills into my lungs�cracked tile makes up my aquarium..."

Lyrically, the song is about the character of album (the aforementioned guy in the bathtub) facing his inner demons head-on. I believe we expressed that turmoil fairly well, there's even a lyric in the second verse that says, "A demon's scratching at my window." The lyrics also have a "stream of consciousness" feel to them, with the character jumping from one setting to another. The chorus opens up musically, and is much brighter and more hopeful sounding. The lyrics go with this feeling too, especially the opening line, "Keep the lights on for me."

The Video Dustin Marcellino directed the video and did a phenomenal job. We never told him our thoughts on the song or any meaning behind the lyrics, he just developed a concept on his own. When he presented it to us, he was so passionate about the storyline and concept for the video that I was immediately sold.

We spent three days at the Cedars of Lebanon State Park in Lebanon, TN shooting the video. It was a lot of hard work but of course, a lot of fun too. We filmed the performance part of the video (where the band is playing) for about 5 hours! We were more worn out after shooting than if we'd played an actual show! There were some other really fun moments, like trying to catch the doves after Sarah (the Princess-esc girl in white) let them go without having the strings on their ankles. They flew up into a tree so we had to let them go. Dustin said something to the effect of "That last take is gonna have to work!" After about a month of post-production, the video was finished. We were all very happy with it.

"Blindfold" is one my favorite songs of ours because it is somewhat of a microcosm of our sound; It starts with electro-drums and ambient vocals, and then goes into full-on rock fury, then into a bright chorus, and so on. This song is what laid the ground work for our album, "The Invisible War." That's probably why we decided to put it as the opening track.