Moon Mountain | A Fearful Wonder
"A Fearful Wonder" in many ways is about facing and overcoming obstacles. Life sometimes presents us with mountains to climb. This symbol is meant to represent the process of scaling that mountain, and in the process of climbing, having your eyes drawn upward to a higher goal, something even more transcendent, daring, and elusive. It's not enough to climb high; the next step is to sprout wings and learn to fly. Far from being held back by obstacles, the message of this album is to be changed, be shaped by those challenges, and ultimately to grow beyond them. The "Fearful Wonder" is a mixed feeling - of danger, daring, awe, hope, yearning, terror, and fulfillment, all culminating in the moments when we choose to become more than the problems sitting before us.
What is your mountain?
Stonewaves | Barricade
The music video for Barricade used a thick stone wall to represent the obstructions that people face in life, as well as the inescapable finality of death. The logo from Swimming To The Stars is flipped on it's side, so that the Waves and Stars now seem more like Flames and Sparks - representing the heavier sound and impassioned delivery on this particular song. The combination of all these elements is meant to evoke the power of Resurrection - breaking through the barriers of death and the grave, transcending every notion of natural human potential and reaching out to meet the Divine.
What is your prison?
Waves & Stars | Swimming To The Stars
The title of Swimming To The Stars is based on the story of the song Transatlantic. On a dark, moonless night, a man stands on the shore of the ocean, looking out over the water to the stars above. The waters are reflecting the starry night sky so perfectly that it is hard to tell where on the horizon the water ends and the sky begins. They blend seamlessly into one. In the distance, the man spots a constellation of stars that reminds him of friends he has left behind on the other side of the ocean. Wanting to reach out and share in their company again, his feelings of longing overtake him and he begins to swim out - as if it were possible for him to swim up past the horizon and into the stars themselves, to be somehow reunited with his loved ones. But no matter how much he swims, the impossible vastness of the ocean means that the morning comes before he can get close to his goal. The sun chases away his view of the stars, and his connection to his friends is lost. In despair, he begins to sink.
Swimming To The Stars is about the need to find meaning and significance in the times of frustration, hurt, stagnation, loneliness, and failure that we all too often face. It's about attempting the near-impossible, facing failure or disappointment, and finding some way to make the best of it.
When you fall short of your dreams, or when close bonds are torn apart by circumstance, or you end up disappointed in yourself, what do you have left to aim at, to swim towards?