The shortest road to paradise goes through hell or more correctly… The only way.
Paradise for a musician is the field of his creation, his own inspiration.
A totally happy artist has no sources of inspiration or some bad memories to turn them into beautiful notes.
Then personal hell comes usually to move their inspirational wheel, even to become a source of wisdom by itself.
“In Hell Here,” was written in 2016, a year particularly difficult for most members of the Memphis band.
It appears both in the lyrics and the composition of the song, as Alkis, the singer of the band, tells us.
“The music we wrote in the studio matched our mood.
The subject came out dark and agile, and I did not need to search more than to look at myself in the mirror,” says Alkis.
“I had found shelter in alcohol, and I had become particularly temperamental and quarrelsome especially with the people who loved and supported me.
I was fighting inside myself with an unprecedented depression, which, more or less, had crushed me“.
The most precious diamonds are in the darkest places
The Twisted Sister‘s Dee Snider example is also characteristic.
When he dissolved the band for the first time, he said he was very happy to be able to write interesting songs.
“Alcoholism has no charm.
I do not remember anything funny from that period of my life.
I remember being on the verge of confinement and being isolated in my house.
At the same time, pushing myself to get drunk as fast as possible to stop thinking. “
There are some wrong turns that sometimes lead you to the right path.
“This situation lasted almost a year. Permanently dazed, untidy and nervous …
From work, at home, in the studio, to how I was driving and walking on the road,” continues the singer.
Hell is always finite, has boundaries, an entrance, and an exit.
“Somewhere around that point was when the boys grabbed me from the collar and they shook me for good.
It was painful for someone to tell you how low you have fallen. But it was the truth.
It is humiliating for a person to admit how wrong he is managing his life. Especially when this person… Was me!“.
A birth is accompanied by a lot of pain.
Just as the creation of knowledge comes from the recognition of ignorance.
Perhaps the only path of self-knowledge and discovery is lonely.
“I picked up my shit, I went to the mountains for a few days to empty my head.
I came back determined that whatever it is that eats me, not to give it the opportunity of beating me.
Guys, (Memphis), were always there. Family, Friends, Mentors, Psychoanalysts, Social Workers.
All this together was what kept me before I find myself in a ditch.
Sweet word above the grave are pointless.
In this case everything is judged and requires stubbornness and guts … Every fucking day. “
And that’s how one of the most recognizable songs of the band was born.
First, the music was written, then the lyrics, without much distance, of course, a month – two months difference.
It is our psychological journey: From the bottom we can stand again on our feet.
Creation is the road, but also our own steps, each one of us to reach out from nadir to zenith.