Nova is the granddaughter of an epiphone-playing traveling evangelist; her father was a National Accordion Champion and her mother a classical organist. Having a family of wanderers who migrated across the U.S. every few years, the landscape and the musical influences were constantly changing: Spanish tangos, Sunday morning gospel, classical and jazz were the accompaniment to her home life. Her first song was recorded when she was three years old, and by the age of eight she was studying piano and performing in community musical productions.
As a teenager in Michigan, Shara honed her musical prowess singing along to Whitney Houston music videos and Mariah Carey albums. When pop music wasn't enough, she enrolled in the music program at the University of North Texas, immersing herself in the songs of Henry Purcell and Claude Debussy. After college, she moved to New York City and fell in love with its cold winters and busy streets. She continued to study opera on the Upper West Side during the day, but at night she frequented downtown clubs such as Tonic, Knitting Factory, and The Living Room, catching performances by Antony and the Johnsons, Nina Nastasia, and Rebecca Moore. She began to spend less time sight-reading Mozart and more time de-tuning her Gibson electric guitar to play her own newly-written songs. Coaxed out of recital halls and onto the small stages of bars and clubs, Shara assembled a coterie of musicians to accompany her with bass and drums, music boxes, wine glasses, and wind chimes. She released two full albums in 2001 (AwRY and Quiet B Sides) as well as a remix album with her band entitled AwRY.
In performance she showed unusual versatility, channeling the vocal theatrics of Kate Bush, the soulful seductiveness of Nina Simone and the gothic pop of Portishead. Her infatuation with theater and costumes inspired her to wear superhero capes, ball gowns, or Tudor corsets on stage, depending on her mood. Her deeply personal songs transcended the histrionics of opera; Shara was at last singing about what was closest to her heart. She began to see her own music as the most precious gift she could give to the world - as reflected in her namesake, "My Brightest Diamond".
Of course, opera never really left her, and Shara's performance blurred the lines between rock show and recital, setting baroque love songs alongside French carols and Prince covers. Her vocal lines reached for Puccini, but her guitar was pure PJ Harvey. The center of gravity here was the workmanship of a woman whose imagination had no limits. To sharpen her skills, Shara studied composition with Australian composer Padma Newsome (of Clogs) and began to incorporate a string quartet in her live show. The influences of Nat King Cole and Henry Mancini rounded out the edges. A few years later, she met Sufjan Stevens at The Medicine Show, a variety show hosted by New York City's incendiary poet, Sage, at Arlene's Grocery. This, in turn, led to a yearlong sabbatical from her work, doing splits and round-offs (not to mention the human pyramid) as one of the notorious Illinoisemakers. Shara was quickly promoted as cheerleading captain.
All of this led to an impressive resume, but My Brightest Diamond still had no album to show for it. So in 2004, she began work on two records: one featuring songs accompanied by a string quartet titled "A Thousand Shark's Teeth", and a more standard rock album featuring a full band (featuring Earl Harvin on drums, Chris Bruce on bass, and, on one song, her father Keith on accordion) titled "Bring Me The Workhorse", released to critical acclaim in August 2006 on Asthmatic Kitty Records.
Her songs distil stories to their most distressing points of contact: a phone call, an injured horse, a dragonfly caught in a spider's web. She doesn't share all the information - just the stuff that matters. The effect is a sensational compression of time, in which an entire event is summarized in a single note. This, of course, is the essence of opera. But My Brightest Diamond is much more than that. There is also the humor one might find in an old TV episode of Wonder Woman or Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Shara's songs reconcile all the complex emotions found in each of us: she can grieve as comfortably as she can laugh, sometimes in the same breath.
Sites: BandCamp
From the Top of the World
My Brightest Diamond Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
There waits my wind to carry me
Through storms we will sail
Just to gaze at the top of the world
From the bottom of the world
We looked up and saw the moon
And gazing at it then we fell
So we made up our minds
To arrive smiling
Yet we made up our minds
To touch the height of life
And find out what we felt for it
How we felt for it, oh, how we felt for it
From the top of the world
We looked up and saw the sun
And gazing at it then we fell
In love, in love
The song "From the Top of the World" by My Brightest Diamond tells the story of a journey to the top of the world. The lyrics are about sailing through storms to reach the top of the world and gazing at the moon and the sun from the bottom and top of the world respectively. The singer and their companion fell in love when they saw the moon and the sun. The chorus expresses their desire to touch the height of life and find out how they felt about it.
The song can be interpreted as a journey to achieve one's dreams or to find true love. The singer's determination to reach the top of the world, despite the storms and difficulties, can be seen as a metaphor for overcoming obstacles in life to achieve one's goals. The falling in love with the moon and sun can be seen as the discovery of something new and beautiful that makes the journey worthwhile.
The repetition of the phrase "we made up our minds" in the pre-chorus highlights the singer's determination to reach their destination and reinforces the message of the song. The chorus is uplifting and hopeful, inspiring the listener to pursue their own dreams and find love and joy in life.
Line by Line Meaning
At the end of the sea
At the farthest point of the ocean
There waits my wind to carry me
The wind that will lead me towards my destination
Through storms we will sail
We will navigate through harsh conditions
Just to gaze at the top of the world
To reach the highest point possible and admire the view
From the bottom of the world
At the lowest point on Earth
We looked up and saw the moon
Observing the allure and beauty of the moon from below
And gazing at it then we fell
Captivated by its charm, we fell in love with the moon
In love, in love
Deeply infatuated with the moon
So we made up our minds
We decided for ourselves
To arrive smiling
To be enthusiastic and joyful when we reach our goal
Yet we made up our minds
Despite any challenges that may arise, we remained determined
To touch the height of life
To experience all that life has to offer
And find out what we felt for it
To discover our emotional response towards life
How we felt for it, oh, how we felt for it
How passionately we felt about life
From the top of the world
At the highest point of the Earth's surface
We looked up and saw the sun
Admiring the magnificence and beauty of the sun from above
And gazing at it then we fell
Falling in love with the sun's radiant glow and warmth
In love, in love
Deeply infatuated with the sun
Lyrics © DOMINO PUBLISHING COMPANY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@avataraera
The hair and clothes are stunning, the puppets beautifully crafted, and the song a masterpiece. I love it.
@mugrhythm
Could this be My Brightest Diamond's best tune? I submit that it is!
@SuperFreak721
This is so cool! It reminds me so much of the French/English film "The Science of Sleep"!!! I love it. If you don't know that movie then you should watch it and then watch this music video, you will appreciate it so much more!
@cam214
So very splendid, Shara! You guys should come to Austin sometime!
@GlassMana
One of my favorite songs after many years. From the lack of subscribers and attention the channel seems to have gotten, I expected MBD to have stopped putting music here a long time ago, but nope. New music to the channel only a few months ago. So many lesser-known talented artists in the world.
@thommy23051990
Wonderful song! Hope you guys come to Amsterdam any time soon!
@TheCharmedQuark
Scintillatingly beautiful.
@Rapunzel98
Shara is very watchable. And this video is fantastic!
@SomethingNewWithYou
this is beautiful, the song the video everything!, the life size puppet towards the end was a little creepy though lol. i woulda freaked out if tht was cradling me 0_0.
@BDoomX
Perfeito é pouco...