Singled Out: Prototype

Although this is the second track from our 3rd full length CD release entitled Catalyst, a concept album, it's just the first song with lyrics. Musically speaking it was worked on for a good while, with bits and pieces put together over a few months at least. This song is a calling card for the whole album in that it's titled the same and it introduces the listener to the album's concept.

We incorporated a fast paced beginning but then contrasted a heavier verse and even more melodic chorus. We like to mix elements in a way to create smooth contrasts that eventually form the shape of a whole song that guides you through the feeling of the story.

Lyrically, I imagined the beginning of the story, which predates the existence of life on Earth, but also explains its origins. The "Catalyst" is what stimulated the basic elements in the primordial "soup" to become evolving life. Without this, life would have never existed on Earth. the Catalysts take form in large crystal stems hundreds of feet long, built by an alien race, that embed themselves into the Earth. These stems are a technological marvel and are made to analyze the composition of planets to find out if they contain the type of energy that this race needs in order to survive, and hopefully find a permanent home. The aliens are called "Unfamiliars" and are space drifters due to the destruction of their system of origin. They live on a separate "plane" from humans, invisible yet able to directly influence and affect the physical world around them.

The result here is that these probes end up enabling the beginning of life on Earth. This is a random occurrence, but it starts the path that would eventually unite humans and Unfamiliars in an epic journey.

The concept/story as a whole is a result of my fascination with science fiction, movies and science in general. I'm offering an entertaining way of imagining at how we came to be on our planet and what happens to us because of it in the future.