Singled Out: Vicky von Vicky's Be Still My Heart

Toronto indie rockers Vicky von Vicky just released their new "Broken Chairs" EP and to celebrate we asked Michael Wynn to tell us about the single "Be Still My Heart". Here is the story:

I started writing "Be Still My Heart" back in May of 2020. It was shortly after I had been laid off from my full time job. I know I am not unique in that, many people lost their jobs at the start of the pandemic, but it still left me stunned and off kilter. It came out of nowhere and I was really surprised that it had happened to me. I spent the rest of that day feeling anxious and a bit down.

That night I was restless, but I remember waking up because I had a melody (along with words) and a chord structure in my head. I quickly recorded what I could on my phone. Over the next 2 or 3 days I became inspired and wrote at least 3 more songs, they came relatively easy to me for some reason. Three of which ("Jealousy", "Goodbye My Love" and "Be Still My Heart") are on our new EP "Broken Chairs".

This song to me is musically a mix between classic rock and indie/alternative, It has elements of Interpol and the Pixies as well as other groups in it. I am a huge fan of the Pixies and they tend to do a lot of things in threes. For this song I decided early on to do a switch from 3/4 time to 4/4 time in the song, which you can hear right from the intro into the verse. As a listener I have always enjoyed that kind of thing.

I have also always loved the "anti-pop" song. And what I mean by that is sometimes I like songs that don't have a proper chorus or follow a general "pop" structure. Out of the 5 songs on this EP, this is the only one that seems to do that. The repetition of the verse kind of makes it like a chorus, and tends to simplify things.

The words came to me straight away for this song, I wasn't really conscious of what I was writing at the time, I just liked the way they flowed. At the beginning I felt like it was more of an ode to my own heart. I like to use "heart" imagery in our songs and artwork. On reflection though, this song feels to be more about someone telling their heart to calm down and to be true to themselves. But I am a firm believer of letting the listener decide what the words mean to them. So overall I would say this is about whatever you think it is.

Recording this and the other songs was a lot of fun. I really do enjoy that process and the problem solving that goes into it. In December of 2022 I spent a weekend in Orillia, ON at Nixon Boyd & Taylor Knox's new studio Simcoe Mechanical. It was really inspiring to see Nick and Taylor work out the various parts - especially the drums in this song where Taylor did an off beat kick drum thing, which works nicely for the song. I was lucky to have both of them contribute to this.

For the end part, we were trying to come up with some sort of solo to accentuate what was going on, it's really a full blast rock 'n roll ending that just falls apart - which I like. Nick just said, "do it like Tokyo would do it" meaning Tokyo Police Club and we made it more of an effect than the actual notes I was playing. So I very rapidly strummed high chords on my guitar, not trying to be in time, I am very happy with the result.

BTW originally these songs were going to be a solo project for myself, but after hearing the final product I felt they were more of a Vicky von Vicky release. Luckily the other "Vickies" felt the same way. Thanks for listening!

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here

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