«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)
Step Into This Room And Dance For Me
Madrugada Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Closer now than
Than ever before
I doubt it that you can survive
So far from your trenches and your friends
This is where competition starts and
And all that ends
Loose, loose
Pull out your arsenal
Dance
Step into this room and dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, lady, dance for me
Come on, come on, dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
By now we should know the music and the steps
Oh, me, I never asked, I never set you up
A little something for me?
A little something thrown back at me?
This is the floor, these are the rules
These are the moves
This is the room in which we dance
Close the door, say you will dance
Step into this room and dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, lady, dance for me
Come on, come on, dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, come on, dance for me
Come on, come on, dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, lady, dance for me
Come on, come on, dance
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, come on, dance
Step into this room and dance for me
The lyrics of Madrugada's song Step Into This Room And Dance For Me suggest a scenario in which the male protagonist is inviting a female to dance with him in a room. He asks her to move closer, indicating that he wants to be intimate with her. However, he acknowledges that this closeness may be dangerous for her as she is far from her friends and her trenches. He also mentions that this is where the competition starts and ends, implying that there may be some kind of contest going on between them.
The singer senses tension and asks the female to loosen up and pull out her arsenal. He then repeats his invitation to her to dance for him, urging her to step into the room and dance. He reminds her of the rules and moves and encourages her to close the door and dance with him.
The lyrics suggest that the song is about a power dynamic in a relationship in which the male protagonist is in control and the female is at his mercy. He wants her to dance for him, asserting his dominance over her. The song may also be interpreted as a metaphor for life in general, with the dance representing the challenges and obstacles we face, and the need to take risks and move forward in order to succeed.
Line by Line Meaning
Closer, move in closer
Come closer to me, both physically and emotionally.
Closer now than
We are closer now than we have ever been before.
Than ever before
We have never been this close to each other before.
I doubt it that you can survive
I doubt that you can handle the intensity of this experience.
So far from your trenches and your friends
You are far away from familiar surroundings and support.
This is where competition starts and
This is where the competition begins.
And all that ends
This is where everything else ends.
I sense a lot of tension
I can feel the tension between us.
Loose, loose
Relax and loosen up.
Pull out your arsenal
Use your best moves and techniques.
Dance
Express yourself through movement and rhythm.
Step into this room and dance for me
Enter this space and show me your best dance moves.
Come on, lady, dance for me
Encouraging a woman to dance.
By now we should know the music and the steps
We should be familiar with the rhythm and movements by now.
Oh, me, I never asked, I never set you up
I didn't intend to manipulate or deceive you in any way.
A little something for me?
Can you dance in a way that pleases me?
A little something thrown back at me?
Can I see something unique from you in response?
These are the moves
These are the required dance steps.
This is the room in which we dance
This is the specific location where we are expected to dance.
Close the door, say you will dance
Shut out the outside world and commit to dancing here with me.
Step into this room and dance for me
Enter this space and show me your best dance moves.
Come on, come on, dance for me
Urging someone to dance for me.
Contributed by Hannah O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Marine Hovhannisyan
Closer, move in closer
Closer now than
Than ever before
I doubt it that you can survive
So far from your trenches and your friends
This is where competition starts and
And all that ends
I sense a lot of tension
Loose, loose
Pull out your arsenal
Dance
Step into this room and dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, lady, dance for me
Come on, come on, dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
By now we should know the music and the steps
Oh, me, I never asked, I never set you up
A little something for me?
A little something thrown back at me?
This is the floor, these are the rules
These are the moves
This is the room in which we dance
Close the door, say you will dance
Step into this room and dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, lady, dance for me
Come on, come on, dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, come on, dance for me
Come on, come on, dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, lady, dance for me
Come on, come on, dance
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, come on, dance
Step into this room and dance for me
Constantine T
Support the Artist. Buy their records.
"Nightly Disease" Album : https://amzn.to/2VojeUJ
The Best Of Madrugada : https://amzn.to/2VmVvV1
You can find this particular version of the song in both albums.
All links provided are from Amazon
sasablink
Finally someone reuploaded this amazing version.♥️
Marine Hovhannisyan
Closer, move in closer
Closer now than
Than ever before
I doubt it that you can survive
So far from your trenches and your friends
This is where competition starts and
And all that ends
I sense a lot of tension
Loose, loose
Pull out your arsenal
Dance
Step into this room and dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, lady, dance for me
Come on, come on, dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
By now we should know the music and the steps
Oh, me, I never asked, I never set you up
A little something for me?
A little something thrown back at me?
This is the floor, these are the rules
These are the moves
This is the room in which we dance
Close the door, say you will dance
Step into this room and dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, lady, dance for me
Come on, come on, dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, come on, dance for me
Come on, come on, dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, lady, dance for me
Come on, come on, dance
Step into this room and dance for me
Come on, come on, dance
Step into this room and dance for me
Cafatka
Thank you very much, this version is one of the very songs of my life, I started weeping as soon as I heard the first accords again after a long time. <3
TheMadcap Laughs
Thank you so much!! I have been looking for this album version for years.
24Jackmusic
Wer ist hier vom Münsteraner Tatort? Boerne hat nen guten Geschmack!
Heiko Dreimann
Absolut, gerade gesehen, Mediathek, Hammer Musik der gute Karl Friedrich.
Liljarosario
Ja, ich! :-D
Freak Nerd
Ich war sofort vom Lied gepackt und fasziniert. Ein sensationell schönes und mördergeiles Lied! Die Stimme zieht einen in den Bann....
Würde mich interessieren, ob Herr Liefers bei der Musikauswahl mitentscheiden durfte oder ob es die Filmcrew ausgesucht hat.
Hut ab bei für das schöne Lied!
Wieder Unterwegs
Hab ich auch gesehen ... großartig 😊
Frank Hafner
Ja - Klasse! Braucht es aber Rotwein dazu ;-)