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
Goodbye Forever
My Brightest Diamond Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
By fire, by flame
This old feeling
Insignificance
Insignificance
Then I can hear you
Brighter than the stars
I can see you shining through the sun
You're so mysterious
Lose the hold
As I throw this
With a goodbye forever
Fear of exposure
Fear of exposure
Then I can hear you
Brighter than the stars
Your touch is lightening
I can feel you
Prickling like a thousand shark teeth
Prickling like a thousand shark teeth
Closer to me
Come closer to me
Come closer to me
Come closer to me
Come closer to me
Still
The lyrics to My Brightest Diamond's song Goodbye Forever can be interpreted in a number of different ways, depending on the listener's perspective. One possible interpretation is that the song is about the intense feelings associated with falling in love, and the overwhelming nature of those emotions. The line "Oh, to love/By fire, by flame" suggests a passionate, all-consuming love that is both beautiful and dangerous.
The following lines, "This old feeling/Insignificance/Insignificance," could be interpreted as the singer's sense of smallness or powerlessness in the face of such intense emotions. Despite feeling insignificant, however, the singer feels drawn towards the object of their love. The lines "Then I can hear you/Brighter than the stars/Your voice is a razor blade" suggest that the object of the singer's affection has a powerful and commanding presence, one that cuts through the noise of the world like a knife.
As the song progresses, the theme of fear enters into the lyrics. The lines "Lose the hold/As I throw this/With a goodbye forever" suggest that the singer is trying to let go of something or someone that they are afraid of. This fear might stem from a sense of vulnerability or exposure, as suggested by the lines "Fear of exposure/Fear of exposure." Despite this fear, however, the singer is still drawn towards the object of their love, as expressed in the lines "Come closer to me/Still."
Overall, the lyrics to My Brightest Diamond's song Goodbye Forever suggest a complex and passionate emotional landscape, one that is characterized by love and fear, vulnerability and power.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh, to love
Expressing a desire to experience love
By fire, by flame
Describing the passionate intensity and heat of love
This old feeling
Referring to a familiar emotion associated with love
Insignificance
Feeling small or unimportant in the grand scheme of things
Insignificance
Repeating the feeling of smallness and unimportance
Then I can hear you
A shift to describing an auditory experience with a specific person
Brighter than the stars
Comparing the person's voice to something exceptionally bright and captivating
Your voice is a razor blade
Describing the power of the person's voice as sharp, intense, and potentially dangerous
I can see you shining through the sun
Indicating the person's incredible radiance and magnetism
You're so mysterious
Acknowledging the enigmatic nature of the person
Lose the hold
Suggesting a need to let go or release something
As I throw this
A metaphorical action, potentially indicating discarding or moving on from something
With a goodbye forever
The ultimate act of moving on and leaving something permanently in the past
Fear of exposure
A fear of being emotionally vulnerable or exposed
Fear of exposure
Repeating the previous line for emphasis
Then I can hear you
A return to describing the experience of being with the person
Brighter than the stars
Repeating the previous comparison between the person's voice and something incredibly bright
Your touch is lightning
A new comparison, now between the person's touch and something electric and intense
I can feel you
Describing a sensory experience of being close to the person
Prickling like a thousand shark teeth
An intense sensation of being simultaneously stimulated and hurt by the person's presence
Prickling like a thousand shark teeth
Repeating the line, further emphasizing the sensation
Closer to me
Expressing a desire to be even closer to the person despite the intense feelings described earlier
Come closer to me
Repeating the desire for closeness
Come closer to me
Repeating the desire for closeness
Come closer to me
Repeating the desire for closeness
Still
Ending with a single word that can be interpreted in various ways: a feeling of contentment, a sense of finality, or a continuation of the intense emotions described throughout the song
Lyrics © DOMINO PUBLISHING COMPANY
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