Celebrating Fire of Hope
This year during Imbolc, the celebration of the returning Sun Goddess, we are celebrating the release of our fourth album, Fire of Hope. This project reflects our journey as a band over the past several years, beginning with our pandemic-era hibernation phase. During that time, our band went through a death process as Kathleen relocated to the east coast. We thought that meant our days of making music together were over, but the Divine Mother had other plans for us. Over the past year we’ve been rebirthed as a “bicoastal band,” creating and recording music long distance.
Creating this album was a process of learning and adjusting. In pre-pandemic times, we met weekly to collaborate on song development and rehearse our music. By the time we hit the recording studio, we had played our songs together dozens, if not hundreds, of times. That's why we always recorded live together, rather than each person recording their parts one at a time, the way the professionals do. It would have been too costly to do it that way and we didn't really want to record separately. Singing and playing together was what it was all about!
We've learned to do it differently in this new era, with only a laptop and a single microphone at our disposal and thousands of miles between us. We've adapted and are very thankful to be able to co-create Goddess songs together in whatever form that takes. Those rare times when we are all together in person are all the more precious to us now.
The album story begins in the deep past. The voices of our Indigenous European ancestors rise from the ashes of the witch burnings through the haunting, unaccompanied piece “We Are.” From the deep past, we move into the energy of “Deep Winter,” a drum and voice invocation. We hear the sounds of wind, ancestors, and other-worldly beings calling out from the coldest, darkest moment of midwinter. Next, we summon Celtic Fire Goddess Brigid who begins rebirthing us into spring with "Brigid Be My Flame."
By the forth track our energy is growing as we dance and drum to shed layers of patriarchal conditioning. Playfully, yet determinedly, we begin to “Conjure” and reconnect to our inner magic. The fifth track is our title piece, in which we re-light our “Fire of Hope,” stepping out of the winter of oppression and into spring.
During the second phase of the album, we are both integrating loss and celebrating creative rebirthing. “Muse'' tells the story of disconnection from the creative fire and learning how to enter that void and allow the past to die in order for the muse to be reborn. “Beloved” is both a lullaby to the inner child and an anthem proclaiming the power of music to engender freedom and healing. “She Believes” brings the voice of the Goddess directly to survivors of sexual and other forms of violence who have experienced silencing and outright denial of their experiences. This song is very gentle, invoking the natural elements to bring comfort and allyship to survivors. In “Walk this Path Anew,” we hear a prayer for inner peace, consolidating an understanding of the presence of the Divine Mother to comfort and guide us in our healing.
The end of the album celebrates the all-pervasive nature of the sacred and of the power of Her love moving through us all. “The One,” holds the energy of completion and feels like a finale. It is followed by an instrumental piece, “Melody of the Road,” that reminds us the journey is ongoing.
We included a live version of our title song, “Fire of Hope,” at the very end of the album. The instruments were paired down to accommodate everyone singing and playing into one microphone and it is a softer piece than the rest of the album. It was important to us to include one track that was recorded live, with all of us in the same room singing and playing together at the same time. This song carries the energy and sweetness of being in person together with our songs, a place we return to again and again to rekindle our creative fires.
Fire of Hope is available for free on Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, Apple Music and other electronic platforms. While the album is very personal to us, we believe the themes will resonate with everyone. Death and Rebirth cycles weave through all of our lives and through our collective experience. The Fire of Hope is a flame we all continue to tend as we work in our myriad realms to bring Her consciousness to our suffering world. We hope these songs will comfort, nourish and sustain you through this long patriarchal winter as we pray together for Her rebirth in spring.
