Singled Out: Opensight's Only When

I used to think that our song 'Only When' wasn't as strong as the rest of the material that I was writing for our record 'The Voice of Nothing'. But as soon as we tracked the whole song we realized that it was very strong, actually. During the mixing process, everyone kept humming it unconsciously after listening to it. 'Only When' proved to be a catchy Opensight song thanks to the main riff and the chorus, and we were so happy with it that we ended placing the song first on the record and choosing it as a 'single'.

Some years ago I was listening to the soundtrack of the Dario Argento film 'Deep Red' and wanted to figure out the chords and catch the particular vibe that the band Goblin gave to the music. The main riff for 'Only When' came from it and I stored it for some time until I came back with ideas for the chorus and the proggy midsection. 'Only When' had a particularly smooth writing process which gives the song a simple feel even if some of the arrangements, chords and time signatures are a bit complex.

The Lyrics deal with isolation, disillusion and the feeling of being incompatible with your own environment. Some phrases are inspired by movies. The line 'Colors are real only when I see them on the screen' is inspired by the movie 'A Clockwork Orange' when the main character Alex states that 'It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen'; and the line 'Able to see when I realize that lights fade too soon' is lifted from a conversation that takes place in the movie 'Peeping Tom', about a serial killer called Mark Lewis who likes to film his victims:

"Mark Lewis: It's no good. The lights fade too soon
Mrs. Stephens: They always do.
Mark Lewis: I... I have to try again.
Mrs. Stephens: What do you think you've spoiled?
Mark Lewis: An opportunity. Now I have to find another one."

For the video we hooked up with the guys from Larissa Moon prod. We used mannequins to create the inert atmosphere (we always wanted to have a video with mannequins as the audience), and used suits and old fashioned instruments for the Reservoir Dogs/Jazz band approach. It was done very carefully. We wanted something different, with a bit of drama and a bit of cinematic quality, which are the aspects we try to evoke with our music. 'Only When' along with its video helps to introduce people to OPENSIGHT. It reveals some of our inclinations and is faithful to what the band is really about.