“Ulalume” and "Tiny Flashes" by Instant Empire – Song Features

 

     Instant Empire is best characterized by its intelligent lyrics and instrumental virtuosity, although the vocals and other contributions to their work should not be overlooked. The band recently released its second single from the upcoming album “Standing Eight Count,” which is scheduled for release on March 31, 2023. The first single was “Ulalume,” a song with artistic piano and lyrics about a woman whose nickname arrived because of her early obsession with Edgar Allan Poe. The second is “Tiny Flashes,” which includes powerfully layered guitars just beyond the two-minute mark and lyrics about the thought processing of a person suspended being life and death.   
 
     Instant Empire is based in Denver, Colorado, and formed of Scotty Saunders (vocals, lyrics), Sean Connaughty (guitar, keys), Lou Kucera (guitar), Aaron Stone (bass), and Matt Grizzell (drums). “Standing Eight Count” will be the band’s fourth LP. Over the past few years Instant Empire has been hit with a seemingly endless number of personal issues: the death of parents and friends, health issues, long days and nights in and out of hospitals, lost jobs, lost paths, and an incalculable sense of isolation. In talking about “Standing Eight Count,” Saunders said:
  “It felt like the canvas we were working on had been broadened. An undercurrent of deep personal struggle permeates these songs. Broken and battered characters, on the ropes, but still standing, still fighting the good fight ... this theme is woven in and out of the 11 songs that make up the album.”
 
     “Ulalume” begins with a piano-driven solo. During the body of the song, the piano continues to be the primary instrument in establishing the intended mood, particularly within the almost minute-long instrumental bridge that starts at 4:28. But the guitar and drums play important roles. Lyrically, “Ulalume” ends with a slightly modified portion of the Edgar Allan Poe poem from which the song borrows its name. The band explains:
  “The song is a character-driven epic that revolves around a woman introduced early on as June... but to friends and family, she's better known as Ulalume, a reference to her childhood obsession with Edgar Allan Poe and a nickname that has stuck with her throughout the first 40-odd years of her life. By the time we meet her, she’s freewheeling through a particularly difficult phase in her life. That might sound like a bummer, but tapping into her dad’s old mantra grounds her. It gives her strength. A ray of hope. The song feels damn near buoyant for a fleeting but rapturous moment.”
 
     “Ulalume” by Instant Empire

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Website: http://www.instantempireband.com
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Lyrics of “Ulalume” by by Instant Empire
At an early age I went through a Poe phase
Friends & family still call me Ulalume, but you can call me June
These days I'm a bit of a nervous wreck
I got a tongue for biting & hands for writing some bad, bad checks
 
​Pop some pills; chase the sun; run, run, run
Until the whole web has been spun, spun, spun
Steady weaved my way through an endless run of days
Spent most of my childhood chasing the best ways to receive praise
 
​I could use a place to crash, but I'd settle for some cash
Burned so many bridges I erased the past
 
​Spent a decade or two floating through Albuquerque, Sacramento, Lake Havasu
Men coming & going, gravitating & flowing
Like cattle to the Karasu
 
Still baby-faced but these grays betray a somber senescence
Aging isn't the waiving of a white flag, it's an acquiescence
 
My late Pa, rest his soul,
Where he lies I'll never know
He had a simple mantra
An American take on that 'ol Buddhist tantra:
“Here for a good time, not a long time
The sun is yours. The moon is mine”
[Repeated 3x]
 
“Here for a good time, not a long time
The sun is yours, but the moon is mine”
[Repeated 2x]
 
Hear the angels sing…
 
*The skies they were ashen and sober
The leaves they were crisped and seared
It was night in the lonesome October
Of my most immemorial year*
 
*Adapted from the poem, Ulalume, by Edgar Allan Poe

     The minute that begins at the 2:05 mark of “Tiny Flashes” stands out, even when compared to the other appealing slices of the song. The power of the vocals is magnified via layering and the guitars are explosive. The band provided some interesting insights:
  “Musically, this song really underwent a metamorphosis. It started out as a really sparse piano based tune when Sean first started writing the music. As we started building out the song, and particularly once Matt came up with the drum parts, it started to sound really muscular. The last element added to this song was Lou’s guitar work, and the bridge solo he lays down here really gave this song so much attitude and vibe. We had no idea this song was going to sound like this when we began. ‘Tiny Flashes’ serves as a really powerful moment in the larger context of the album, and the music ultimately provided the perfect foundation of urgency for the lyrics.”
 
     As previously noted, the lyrics of “Tiny Flashes” are about the immediate afterlife. The first verse reflects the thinking in some Buddhist traditions that the liminal state between one incarnation and the next can last as many as 49 days (Yes, we had to do some homework). Scotty Saunders’ explanation of the song brings the meaning behind the lyrics into the light:
  “My father died a few months before we started writing songs for this album. Around the one-year anniversary of his death, Sean sent me a demo for what would become ‘Tiny Flashes.’ At the time, I’d been reading a fair amount about the idea of liminality, specifically the Buddhist beliefs in transference from life-to-heaven. As you'd expect, my dad was on my mind a lot at this time ... and I ended up writing this song from my dad’s perspective during the time he was in transition from life to the afterlife. What would it feel like stuck in transition, holding on to the past? This was my attempt to interpret what that might feel like … I imagined you’d almost feel weightless and not rooted to anything.”
  “The song plays around a bit on being suspended between life and death, and in the second verse gets really granular as I imagined what it might feel like for my dad to be suspended with only his thoughts and his memories just cycling on an infinite repeat. I tried to just list out memories he might have and might be cycling through. You have to let go to move on … but I imagined the process of actually letting go here would be awful. Almost unachievable. I imagine there would be more questions than answers as a soul passes through a liminal state --- so that came out in the lyrics.”
 
     “Tiny Flashes” by Instant Empire

Lyrics of “Tiny Flashes” by Instant Empire
How’d I end up in this liminal state?
It’s a heavy, a hollow, weightless place
49 days and then what?
49 days and then what?
 
If Hesperus is Phosphorus
What does that mean for the rest of us?
Whoa, I’m sick of channel-surfing through these memories
I need to let it be
 
The sun’s either rising or falling
Morning into evening, always repeating
It’s all just a matter of timing
Living is dying. Son don’t you know?
 
Am I standing at the threshold but can’t let go?
See the past in tiny flashes:
- The cedar elms at dawn
- Her still-in-bed sleepy yawn
- A child in my arms
 
Venus, can you ground me?
I feel untethered
Weightless as weather, like January snow
I’m having trouble letting go
 
The sun’s either rising or falling
Morning into evening, always repeating
It’s all just a matter of timing
Living is dying. Son don’t you know?
 
I’m holding on, on, on, on
[Repeating]