«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)
Lift Me
Madrugada Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And don't ever put me down, oh no
And don't pick a fight with me
Just flip a coin my love, you've won
Oh Love, slips her hand inside my hand
Oh Love, slips her hand inside my hand
I don't care if you don't want me
Our years, are years well spent
We may never find out where they went, oh no
And I don't mean to fight with you
Now all our troubles and all our struggles they are through
Oh Love, slips her hand inside my hand
Oh Love, slips her hand inside my hand
I don't care if you don't want me
I'm yours, I'm yours right now
The wolf and the fox
They're sleeping soundly with the elk and the ox
There's a starry field around
This lowlit kingdom
Where all our defences are down
Oh Love, slips her hand inside my hand
Oh Love, slips her hand inside my hand
I don't care if you don't want me
I'm yours, I'm yours right now
Wrecked, poor, naked and blind
I'm yours, I'm yours, right now
The song "Lift Me" by Madrugada feat. Ane Brun is a testament to love and devotion. The song is about the strength and power of love, and how it can lift a person up from their lowest point. The lyrics in the chorus, "Lift me, lift me from the ground, and don't ever put me down," express the desire to be lifted up by love and never let go.
The song talks about the bond between two people, where even though they may have their differences and disagreements, they still remain devoted to each other. The line "I don't care if you don't want me, I'm yours, I'm yours right now" is an expression of the depth of love and commitment between the two individuals.
The metaphor of the wolf and the fox sleeping soundly with the elk and the ox in a starry field around a lowlit kingdom, where all defences are down, represents the sense of security and safety that comes with being in love.
Overall, "Lift Me" is a beautifully written and emotionally resonant song that speaks to the power of love and the strength it can provide. It is an inspiring song that encourages listeners to embrace love and all of the benefits it can bring.
Line by Line Meaning
Lift me, lift me from the ground
Please raise me up and free me from the chaos and turmoil surrounding me.
And don't ever put me down, oh no
Please do not abandon me and leave me in my time of need.
And don't pick a fight with me
Please don't argue or engage in conflict with me, let us be at peace.
Just flip a coin my love, you've won
After all that has happened, I am still devoted to you, no matter the outcome.
Oh Love, slips her hand inside my hand
The powerful force of love pervades our lives and gives us support and strength.
I don't care if you don't want me
Even if you do not reciprocate my love, I am still loyal and dedicated to you.
I'm yours, I'm yours right now
As of this moment, my heart and soul belong to you and no one else.
Our years, are years well spent
We have invested time and energy into our relationship and it has been worthwhile.
We may never find out where they went, oh no
Our time together has flown by so quickly, we may never truly understand it all.
And I don't mean to fight with you
I genuinely wish to avoid all conflict and disagreements with you.
Now all our troubles and all our struggles they are through
All of the hardships we have faced together are now behind us, and we can move forward into the future.
The wolf and the fox
Even the fiercest and most cunning creatures can find peace and rest when the time comes.
They're sleeping soundly with the elk and the ox
Everyone, both predator and prey, sleeps in harmony in this peaceful realm.
There's a starry field around
As if in a dream, stars and beauty envelop us and bring us true tranquility.
This lowlit kingdom
Our own little corner of the world, safe and protected from the outside world.
Where all our defences are down
We are completely vulnerable and exposed to each other, with no need for defensiveness.
Wrecked, poor, naked and blind
No matter what state I am in, no matter how vulnerable or weakened, I am still wholly committed to you.
Contributed by Carter G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@fabulouscatpapers5552
Lift me, lift me from the ground
And don't ever put me down, oh no
And don't pick a fight with me
Just flip a coin my love, you've won
Oh Love, slips her hand inside my hand
Oh Love, slips her hand inside my hand
I don't care if you don't want me
I'm yours, I'm yours right now
Our years, are years well spent
We may never find out where they went, oh no
And I don't mean to fight with you
Now all our troubles and all our struggles they are through
Oh Love, slips her hand inside my hand
Oh Love, slips her hand inside my hand
I don't care if you don't want me
I'm yours, I'm yours right now
The wolf and the fox
They're sleeping soundly with the elk and the ox
There's a starry field around
This lowlit kingdom
Where all our defences are down
Oh Love, slips her hand inside my hand
Oh Love, slips her hand inside my hand
I don't care if you don't want me
I'm yours, I'm yours right now
Wrecked, poor, naked and blind
I'm yours, I'm yours, right now
I'm yours, I'm yours, right now
@stuartodupreez6776
Never ever heard this song till my uncle played it? We from South Africa and when I met my wife we both fell in love with this song. So this was our wedding song and everybody at the wedding loved it!!! Great song and it gives u a happy feeling. 👍👍👍👍
@afrivietmoskitych1300
Best wishes to you and all!!!❤
@Gabriel.Bonfim
Madrugada are one of the best musicians I've ever discovered since 2020
@user-ef6kv8yn6i
It is always a pleasure to introduce new people to the magic of Madrugada! I am Norwegian myself and when I play it for my friends from other countries they all go "why the hell haven't I heard this before???" I saw them live this summer (for the first time, because I have lived a long time in Altea, Spain) and it was truly amazing. Sivert's voice is like no one elses and the band can really rock -both on record and live!
@Gabriel.Bonfim
@@user-ef6kv8yn6i I thoroughly agree with you bro, especially concerning his powerful vocal skills. Sivert rocks like no other!
@santanutheboss
One of the finest duet you will ever listen to.
@betsyb2256
Just beautiful. I thought it was a young dolly parton. I never would have guessed they are norwegian. One of my new favorite songs.
(Thanks Martin Deehan for sharing this wonderful song.)👍🤗
@ppsiruffo
She sings like a sheep.
@leneo1731
Just to make ut clear - we Norwegians have some absolutely amazing artists!!
In so many different genres, too!
Listen to Aurora if you like real quirky pop with some folk and a lot more.
She's truly one of a kind and writes the deepest lyrics you've ever h
@tillitsdone
Yes. She does sound A LOT like Dolly Parton. I knew it, but couldn't place it, thanks!