Transmission
BACKGROUND
Transmission was the first song written for the album. Martin recalls:
“I had these lyrics and everything but there were no guitars, no drums and there just like – fucking white noise, and I swear to God they both looked at me and they’re like, ‘Ok, he’s lost it’.”
Transmission is a richly textured blend of hammering percussion and drums permeated by loops of Lebanese funeral chants, eastern wind instruments and keyboards.
At a meeting with EMI Canada where they wanted to know where the band stands with the new songs, it was tape of the song Transmission which Jeff Martin put in the DAT player and screamed to the basic loops and guitaras (no drums yet), as if there would be no tomorrow.
SPECIAL FACTS:
- At the beginning of the song you hear a voice. Rumour goes, that when dialling “1” for local calls in Montreal, a woman says in French “Ne faits pas le un …” (“Don’t dial one…”) and that this is what you hear at the beginng.
LYRICS
We fear what we see in the distance
We’re shattered by life’s soft deceit
Enslaved to our thoughts by our reason
Refusing to walk with the weak
Betrayed by the past’s desolation
We slept listless nights by the shore
Searching for signs of salvation
Hoping to find something more
Tell me what I have
when it all slips away
Tell me what I see
when the light fades away
Tell me what I hold
in the palm of my hand
Tell me what I feel
because I’m trying to understand
I’m sending Transmission
Confused by the weight of our virtue
We follow the paths of the slain
In silence we walk through these shadows
Embracing the pleasures of pain
Once again
BACKGROUND
Transmission was the first song written for the album. Martin recalls:
“I had these lyrics and everything but there were no guitars, no drums and there just like – fucking white noise, and I swear to God they both looked at me and they’re like, ‘Ok, he’s lost it’.”
Transmission is a richly textured blend of hammering percussion and drums permeated by loops of Lebanese funeral chants, eastern wind instruments and keyboards.
At a meeting with EMI Canada where they wanted to know where the band stands with the new songs, it was tape of the song Transmission which Jeff Martin put in the DAT player and screamed to the basic loops and guitaras (no drums yet), as if there would be no tomorrow.
SPECIAL FACTS:
- At the beginning of the song you hear a voice. Rumour goes, that when dialling “1” for local calls in Montreal, a woman says in French “Ne faits pas le un …” (“Don’t dial one…”) and that this is what you hear at the beginng.
LYRICS
We fear what we see in the distance
We’re shattered by life’s soft deceit
Enslaved to our thoughts by our reason
Refusing to walk with the weak
Betrayed by the past’s desolation
We slept listless nights by the shore
Searching for signs of salvation
Hoping to find something more
Tell me what I have
when it all slips away
Tell me what I see
when the light fades away
Tell me what I hold
in the palm of my hand
Tell me what I feel
because I’m trying to understand
I’m sending Transmission
Confused by the weight of our virtue
We follow the paths of the slain
In silence we walk through these shadows
Embracing the pleasures of pain
Once again
