Midnight Choir were a Norwegian band that sounded a little like Tinderstick… Read Full Bio ↴Midnight Choir were a Norwegian band that sounded a little like Tindersticks or The Walkabouts. Walkabouts member Chris Eckman actually produced all Midnight Choir albums with exception of the self titled debut record.
Members were Al DeLoner (born Atle Byström), Paal Flaata and Ron Olsen.
Midnight Choir were founded - as Hashbrowns - in 1992.
The band's name stems from the Leonard Cohen song "Bird on the Wire".
The 1998 album "Amsterdam Stranded" won the band a best rock album of the year award in their native Norway.

Besides producing Midnight Choir's albums, Chris Eckman also collaborated with Midnight Choir member Al DeLoner, under the common project name Höst. Höst released one album, "The damage suite", in 2001.

Midnight Choir split in 2004 with the individual band members pursuing solo careers afterwards. 2005 saw the release of a double best of album called "All tomorrow's tears: The best of Midnight Choir".

Into the Dark
Midnight Choir Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

There were stairs they were steep
I was falling falling deep
You were there you were small
There was screaming down the hall

I've been here sleeping all these years

There comes a time we all know

There's a place that we must go
Into the soul into the heart
Into the dark

There was fire there was death
There was lying on your breath
I turned away I would pretend
But the burning never ends

I've been here sleeping all these years

There was a wave over the house
There was fear choked in my mouth

You were there you left your mark
As I stumbled in the dark

Overall Meaning

The opening lines of Midnight Choir's song 'Into the Dark' give the listener a chilling sense of dread as they communicate a feeling of falling and losing control. The imagery of steep stairs and falling deep is unsettling and suggests a descent into a troubled emotional state. The next few lines allude to presence of another person, who is small and there is screaming down the hall. This creates a sense of vulnerability and fear, as if the singer is in danger or witnessing something terrible.

As the song continues, the singer repeats a line - "I've been here sleeping all these years" - which suggests that they have been repressing or ignoring past traumas, and now they are slowly waking up to them. The chorus, "There comes a time we all know / There's a place that we must go / Into the soul into the heart / Into the dark", is a bold statement about the inevitability of confronting one's inner demons. The mention of fire and death, and lying on someone's breath, suggests that the singer has experienced a deep sense of betrayal or loss. The lines "I turned away I would pretend / But the burning never ends" speaks to the feeling of wanting to ignore painful memories, but they continue to haunt and burn inside the singer's mind.

The final lines of the song describe a wave over the house and fear choked in the singer's mouth. The presence of the person described earlier has left a mark on the singer, for better or worse, and they continue to stumble in the dark. Overall, 'Into the Dark' is a haunting and powerful song about confronting the past and the lasting impact of trauma.

Line by Line Meaning

There were stairs they were steep
The stairs I had to climb were very hard to traverse.

I was falling falling deep
As I moved up the stairs, I felt like I was losing my balance and dropping into a deep abyss.

You were there you were small
You were accompanying me, but you didn't have the strength or capability to help me much.

There was screaming down the hall
The sound of someone yelling in the distance echoed throughout the place, filling me up with dread and anxiety.

I've been here sleeping all these years
I've been neglecting to face my problems for a long time, letting my dreams and fantasies distract me from the reality.

There comes a time we all know
There's a point in everyone's life when they realize they can't avoid confronting their issues anymore.

There's a place that we must go
There's a location that one needs to visit in order to come to terms with their innermost emotions.

Into the soul into the heart
Through introspection we can find answers to some of our most personal questions.

Into the dark
The place we need to go is shrouded in mystery and ignorance - we don't know what it holds, and that's part of what makes it so scary.

There was fire there was death
In the place I visited, there existed danger, as well as endings - a sense of loss pervaded the room.

There was lying on your breath
The person I was with lied to me, making it harder for me to trust them or any other individuals.

I turned away I would pretend
Rather than confront the dishonesty in front of me, I tried to act like it didn't exist.

But the burning never ends
The pain and discomfort from my problems never goes away, and simply ignoring it doesn't make it disappear.

There was a wave over the house
A sense of unstoppable force washed over the entire dwelling, signaling that challenges or problems were coming my way that couldn't be ignored.

There was fear choked in my mouth
The emotions in my gut were so overwhelming, that speaking out loud about them felt impossible, as if the fear surrounding them were actually choking me.

You were there you left your mark
The person I was with accompanied me throughout the experience and helped influence the way I approached it, which had a lasting impact on me.

As I stumbled in the dark
I stumbled quite literally in the absence of light, but it also represents my confusion, loneliness and overall tumultuous experience during the journey I was on.

Contributed by Bella K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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