«Chimes at Midnight»
When Madrugada regrouped to celebr… Read Full Bio ↴Madrugada
«Chimes at Midnight»
When Madrugada regrouped to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of their classic debut album «Industrial Silence» in 2019, they quickly realised that interest in the band had not waned in their absence. It had, in fact, increased, not least on the European continent.
What’s more, they realised that they loved being back together. Being in Madrugada had never been quite this much fun.
Says vocalist and guitarist Sivert Høyem: «It was if as the last piece of the puzzle had snapped into place. I’d never felt so self-assured on stage before. It was no stress at all, whereas in the past it had always been very stressful to me».
The tour was a triumph, with the band selling out shows in the their native Norway, plenty of festival dates and a host of concerts throughout Europe, where the band now sold out halls that were twice the size of the places they used to play back in the day.
10 years on from when the band called it a day after guitarist Robert Burås passed, the three remaining original members – Høyem, Frode Jacobsen (bass) and Jon Lauvland Pettersen (drums) – felt rejuvenated and ready for more.
They wanted to play more shows. In order to do so, new music had to be made. The trip they were on couldn’t be strictly nostalgic. And so it was that Madrugada, a band that usually takes its sweet time to agree on just about anything, ran straight off the stage and back into the rehearsal room in December 2019.
Jacobsen: «We were on a tight schedule. We booked time at Sunset Sound Studio in Los Angeles at the end of February, and had about a month and a half to come up with the material and whip it into shape. It went rather swimmingly. We were still high from touring, raring to go».
Høyem: «Everyone brought something – melodies, ideas – to the table. And then we’d all be let loose on it. We had the «Industrial Silence» album in our bloodstreams after playing it live on the tour, and I felt there was a direct line back to our formative years. Everything came out sounding like Madrugada».
The band worked in their own rehearsal space/studio in Oslo, in another studio, Velvet Recordings, 45 minutes outside the city, and spent a further week woodshedding in Berlin. 70% of the material they came up with, is spanking new. But they also rescued a couple of older songs from oblivion. «The World Could Be Falling Down» hails from the time of their first album. «Slowly Turns The Wheel» first reared its head somewhere between the third and the fourth.
Lauvland Pettersen: «The process was very different from when I recorded my last album with the band [«The Nightly Disease», 2011]. That was a case of ‘second album syndrome’. We didn’t have much going in, and had to come up with the goods on the clock. This time the material was not only written, but thoroughly arranged too».
The band arrived in Los Angeles in late February, happy to be recording in a legendary studio where classic albums by Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, The Doors and the Rolling Stones had been conceived.
Lauvland Pettersen: «It was a boyhood dream come true, for sure. A terrific gift: I’m here, I’m with my dear friends and we’re having the time of our lives».
Producer Kevin Ratterman (Ray LaMontagne, My Morning Jacket, The Flaming Lips) was waiting for them, and the plan was once again to get in the flow and work fast.
The band had given themselves two weeks to put the music, recorded live in the studio, to analogue tape. They met their deadline, and a good thing too. No sooner was the last song on the album, «Ecstasy», in the can, before the world as we knew it shut down. It was March 2020, and the plan had been for Madrugada to go home, rest up for a week and return to do overdubs and mix the album in a studio in Silver Lake. Instead, they had to go home, and stay home.
Høyem: «It was a ‘last flight out of Saigon’ kind of scene. And the tickets weren’t cheap».
Up until this point, the making of «Chimes at Midnight» had been a whirlwind affair. When it became obvious that the world would remain in a state of emergency for quite some time, it was important not to lose momentum. The album would have to be finished by unorthodox means:
Namely by Zoom and via big screen-TVs, with Ratterman and the American team on one end in Los Angeles, and Madrugada on the other, in Oslo, Norway. Frustrating? Oh yes. But the esprit de corps remained strong.
Jacobsen: «The technology enabled us to do overdubs in real time, with Kevin producing us from the other side of the Atlantic. Unusual, to say the least, and quite interesting. But the process became a lot slower».
It goes without saying that Høyem, Jacobsen and Lauvland Pettersen are painfully aware that one of Madrugada’s founding members, Robert Burås, very sadly isn’t around to work his magic anymore. But what other developments have the nigh-on 14 years since their fifth and hitherto last album, «Madrugada» (2008), and «Chimes at Midnight», begot?
Høyem: «The songs are a reflection of who we are in the present time. We’re older. We’re all fathers. I believe I have a more nuanced view of life than I had 20 years ago, a greater ability to feel several things at once. Madrugada’s aesthetic was very New York City and Berlin, we were a punk band that played the blues. All those elements remain. But this time around it felt appealing to explore the more dreamy aspects of what we do. The city we recorded in encouraged us to do so».
Jacobsen: «Chimes at Midnight» is not a conceptual album, it doesn’t point in one particular direction. That makes it somewhat different, in my mind. But it’s made to played live, just like the other albums».
Lauvland Pettersen: «It’s got maybe more of a singer/songwriter vibe to it, I think. If I want to write a ballad and give it the full orchestral treatment, I’m welcome to do it. It’s been therapeutic too. The shows were pure pleasure, and the album’s given me a feeling of closure».
Høyem: «‘Chimes at Midnight’ was born of an atmosphere of true joy and goodwill. To me, it’s a passionate album».
The members’ respect for their shared history is at the top of their minds at all times.
Jacobsen: «I’ve always had romantic ideas about bands in general, and our band in particular. I never wanted to make music outside of Madrugada. I wanted to make it with the people I started out with».
Madrugada are
Sivert Høyem
Frode Jacobsen
Jon Lauvland Pettersen
with
Cato Thommassen and Christer Knutsen
Album discography:
«Industrial Silence» (1999)
«The Nightly Disease» (2001)
«Grit» (2002)
«The Deep End» (2005)
«Madrugada» (2008)
«Chimes at Midnight» (2022)
Biography from their site: https://madrugada.no/#biography
Theres's another band from the 70's that use the same name:
2) Madrugada was a band from Bergamo, Italy, formed around 1970, and had a long life that lasted until 1978. The group derived from some 60's beat bands like I Condor, that included bass player Alessandro Zanelli and keyboardist Franco Orlandini (from Mat 65 and who later worked with Equipe 84 and Claudio Rocchi), and later changed name to Le Lunghe Storie, and along them from Le Bugie and Gruppo 3. But the basic nucleus came from Terza Classe, which also gave birth to Perdio.
Though not properly a progressive rock album, their first one, only released in 1974 by Philips, contains some interesting parts.
It contains seven tracks, some of which were arranged and signed by Roberto Vecchioni (a singer-songwriter that's still very popular nowadays), while three songs were composed by Mauro Paoluzzi.
The first side shows some influences by a West Coast styled sound, with multivocal parts very well executed but not particularly original. Second side contains the long Mandrax, led by Gianfranco Pinto's keyboards, that's probably the best album track.
Except for a limited use of acoustic guitar on Uomo blu the band didn't use guitars and their sound was strongly based on keyboards and richly arranged vocal parts.
Second album came three years later, this time the trio was helped by some guest musicians like Lucio Fabbri on violin (Piazza delle Erbe and later PFM), the jazz saxophonist Gianluigi Trovesi, and Luciano Ninzatti (from Eugenio Finardi's band Crisalide) on guitar.
With a much better production and sound, this can be considered the best of their two albums, with long tracks like the opening Romanzen or Aragon showing a very good composition quality. Another nice song was È triste il vento, that had previously been played by another group from Bergamo that had a close connection with Madrugada, Perdio.
Like in the first album there are some odd different-styled tracks, like the folky Noter de Berghem and the silly Katmandu (that was also released on single with È triste il vento, but with no success), but Incastro can be surely appreciated by progressive music fans. Unfortunately it didn't have a good promotion by the record company.
In concert, Madrugada played on tour with Area, Claudio Rocchi and Biglietto per l'Inferno, and in Lugano (Switzerland) with Kevin Ayers. Moreover they played in many concerts for political movements like Avanguardia Operaia and the Radical Party and the Re Nudo magazine. The band split at the end of the 1970s.
Pinto and Zanelli collaborated with Mauro Paoluzzi in his shortlived Pangea project, which produced only a promotional album in 1976.
Keyboardist Pinto has collaborated with many Italian and international artists (Patty Pravo, Roberto Vecchioni, Adriano Pappalardo, Riccardo Fogli, Gianna Nannini, Brian Auger), and in the late 90's with the reformed progressive group Perdio.
He works in a music school in the Parma area and still plays now in studio, with live bands and in the piano bar circuit.
Bass player Billy Zanelli formed the semi-punk group Judas, with an album on Spaghetti label in 1978, and later played with Roberto Vecchioni.
Discography
LPs
Madrugada (Philips, 1974)
Incastro (Philips, 1977)
CDs
Madrugada (AMS/BTF, 2006 / Universal, 2010)
Incastro (AMS/BTF, 2006 / Universal, 2010)
Singles
Katmandu / È triste il vento (Philips, 1977)
Higher
Madrugada Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
There's no need to come down
Arising through the other ground
These people
These people don't mean a thing
But don't you think it's funny
That now they get to have a say
Alright
We'll try this
We'll try this and see if it works
I want you just like that
Just like I
Always had you
Well, if it doesn't work
Then what we need is another drug
When I'm like this
It strikes me:
I'm the only one who knows you
So long
Draw a line
Into these spinning heads
Oh, higher
There's no need to come down
Arising through the other ground
This song
This song is the same as always
Anyway
Go on and shape it
Such a diamond, such a holiday
So long
Draw a line
Into these spinning heads
Go honey, be a holiday
Go honey, be a holiday
Go honey, be a holiday
Go honey, be a holiday
The lyrics to Madrugada's song "Higher" are somewhat dream-like and abstract, but there appears to be an underlying theme of seeking escape from the troubles of everyday life. The opening lines suggest a desire to avoid "coming down" from a state of bliss or euphoria, and the refrain of "higher" reinforces this theme. The singer seems to view the people around him or her as unimportant distractions, and asserts the desire to "try this" and see if it "works" - presumably referring to sustaining the current state of being.
The lines "if it doesn't work / then what we need is another drug" suggest a willingness to continue looking for ways to escape reality, perhaps indicating a struggle with addiction or a general feeling of dissatisfaction with life. The repetition of the phrase "so long" throughout the song may suggest a desire to leave behind the mundane and explore new experiences.
The final section of the song ("go honey, be a holiday") further reinforces this idea of seeking escape, with the singer encouraging their partner or themselves to take a break from the daily grind and inhabit a space of pleasure and excitement. Overall, while the lyrics to "Higher" are somewhat cryptic, they seem to be exploring themes of escapism and the desire for something more.
Line by Line Meaning
There's no need to come down
Stay elevated, don't let anyone or anything bring you down.
Arising through the other ground
Rise up from the depths and emerge strong and victorious.
These people
Referring to the haters or naysayers, individuals whose opinions and attitudes towards you are irrelevant.
These people don't mean a thing
Their opinions are insignificant in comparison to your self-worth and aspirations.
But don't you think it's funny
It's quite ironic and amusing how those same individuals who belittle you and doubt you, now feel entitled to speak their minds.
That now they get to have a say
It's interesting how people who did not support or understand your vision suddenly want to be part of your success.
Alright
Agreeing to proceed with the next step.
We'll try this
Exploring a new opportunity or idea.
We'll try this and see if it works
Experimenting with a possibility and testing its effectiveness.
I want you just like that
Desiring something in its purest, unadulterated form.
Just like I
Similarly to how I desire.
Always had you
Consistently wanting and needing what this thing represents.
Well, if it doesn't work
If this experiment fails.
Then what we need is another drug
What we require is an alternative solution or approach.
When I'm like this
When I am in this certain state of mind or emotion.
It strikes me:
It dawns on me.
I'm the only one who knows you
I am the sole individual who truly understands you.
So long
Farewell, goodbye.
Draw a line
Separate yourself from the confusion or chaos that surrounds you.
Into these spinning heads
Amidst the crowds of people whose minds are constantly in motion.
Oh, higher
Elevate yourself more, aim for greater achievements and aspirations.
This song
Referring to an ongoing event or situation.
This song is the same as always
The situation has not changed or evolved in any manner.
Anyway
Regardless, despite all odds.
Go on and shape it
Take control of the situation and mold it in your fashion.
Such a diamond, such a holiday
Emphasizing that whatever has been accomplished or attained is something to be proud of and celebrated.
Go honey, be a holiday
Encouraging someone to take a break and relax, to celebrate their achievements and successes.
Go honey, be a holiday
Encouraging someone to take a break and relax, to celebrate their achievements and successes.
Go honey, be a holiday
Encouraging someone to take a break and relax, to celebrate their achievements and successes.
Go honey, be a holiday
Encouraging someone to take a break and relax, to celebrate their achievements and successes.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Edouard Maunick
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Corey19850
Higher
There's no need to calm down
A rising through the other ground
These people
These people don't mean a thing
But don't you think it's funny
That now they get to hear me sing
Alright
Well try this
Well try this and see if it works
I want you just like that
Just like I always had you
Well if it doesn't work
Then what we need is another try
When I'm like this it strikes me
I'm the only one who knowes you
So long
Well when his hands are free
Draw a line
Into these spinning heads, shoot
Oh higher
There's no need to calm down
A rising through the other ground
This song
This song is the same as always anyway
I wanna shape it
Such a diamond such a holiday
So long
Well when his hands are free
Draw a line
Into these spinning heads, shoot
Go honey be a holiday
Go honey be a holiday
Go honey be a holiday
Go honey be a holiday
petho1000
awesome song from the greatest norwegian rock'n roll band of all times.
Corey19850
Higher
There's no need to calm down
A rising through the other ground
These people
These people don't mean a thing
But don't you think it's funny
That now they get to hear me sing
Alright
Well try this
Well try this and see if it works
I want you just like that
Just like I always had you
Well if it doesn't work
Then what we need is another try
When I'm like this it strikes me
I'm the only one who knowes you
So long
Well when his hands are free
Draw a line
Into these spinning heads, shoot
Oh higher
There's no need to calm down
A rising through the other ground
This song
This song is the same as always anyway
I wanna shape it
Such a diamond such a holiday
So long
Well when his hands are free
Draw a line
Into these spinning heads, shoot
Go honey be a holiday
Go honey be a holiday
Go honey be a holiday
Go honey be a holiday
Corey19850
@Elisa Vieira You welcome :)
Elisa Vieira
Beautiful thanks
DestroyerOf Luck
Then what we need is another Drug"* or so i think i heared
Richy Dagger
Just discovered this song. Wow. Who. Where. How. Are these dudes? I’m obsessed with this song
Márcia Monteiro
Amo demais essa banda. Tudo de bom!
marcos cesar feitosa grabowski
Não conhecia, muito boa mesmo.
Khael Storm
Marcia Monteiro salve irmã que alegria encontrar mais gente de língua portuguesa que curte essa que pra mim é a melhor banda que já existiu junto com Manonas Assassinas
LeonidBreshnevOnIce
Iconic song, iconic band