Hollywood

Behind the Video Part 2 – “Rose Ashes”

Following the upbeat classic rock-inspired “Just a Man”, Siren Call makes on a darker and moodier turn with “Rose Ashes”. Described as “rock’n’roll poetry”, the song takes the audience on a journey inside singer/bassist Lace’s complex and ultimately cathartic relationship with music and those behind it. The song explores the loss of innocence, subsequent fall from grace, eventually turning into the ultimate ode to survival. Each verse is a stage in the heroine’s path to understanding the significance of suffering and embracing one’s pain to grow and thrive.

The opening line “I used to be a crystal, melting into sound” introduces Lace’s pure love of music, while the second verse’s “I used to be a moth attracted to the light” is reality’s cruel ways of tainting one’s ideals. Eventually an equilibrium is reached, by embracing the tragedy and triumph which result unconditional love: “the petals with the bruises, they often come to fall, but then to take their place new petals come to grow.”

Siren Call did not choose the literal path for the song’s video, which would be to use all the lyric’s metaphors as visuals. Instead the band chose a few striking images, presenting them in a subtle manner, such as the moth (which was a complete accident during filming in the woods) and of course, the roses. The significance of rose comes Lace’s infatuation with “The Little Prince” and the role of the Rose in the story. “The book got me through a particularly rough break-up and symbol of the Rose meant so much.” Yvonne says. “During that time I also talked to a healer, who told me roses are incredible flowers, that despite their fragile beauty can survive during the coldest of winters. Since then they have been an unlikely symbol of strength for me.”

The “Rose Ashes” video focuses more on the emotional atmosphere creating a dreamy reality of shapes and colors mixing and dissolving into one another. The Siren Call motif is also present with the images of ships and pirates which bring both a sense of nostalgia and undying rebellion. The homage to “Old Hollywood” is no accident either, with images featuring guitarist Jason’s grandfather Pedro de Cordoba, a Hollywood actor from Hollywood’s Golden Age.

As you watch the video to “Rose Ashes” allow yourself to be vulnerable as it is through embracing our delicate nature, that our strength can truly reveal itself. In this sense, “Rose Ashes” is the ultimate triumph of life over despair.