The talented Low Stakes Band have already been on my radar for a minute, and they reappeared again recently with a moving, beautiful new anti-war song “Upon the Wall” which really struck me upon first listen. I decided I wanted to learn more about the origins for the song and the writing process, so I asked singer/songwriter Eric Colville to sit down with me to tell the story behind the song.
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THE INDY REVIEW: Your latest single “Upon the Wall” was inspired by seeing your reflection in the wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. What first went through your mind when seeing that?
ERIC COLVILLE: I was kind of the opinion that the monument was a bit of a cop-out for a monument, I mean, just listing everyone’s name but upon seeing my reflection superimposed over the names, it occurred to me every name there represented someone who had similar aspirations, hopes, fears, loves and dreams that I have. Every one of them. While all of these ideas happened in a blink, the farce of the Tonkin Gulf incident and the retrospective view of that war as perhaps our first “war of choice” caused me to feel anger and a deep sadness.
IR: Did you have family or friends who served in Vietnam?
EC: I do not.
IR: When did you decide to turn this moment into a song, and how did the process of that start?
EC: Like so many of my songs I catch myself singing the first few lines almost by accident. The first verse basically pooped out one day while I strumming about on the guitar. At the point, despite some effort, I was unable to finish it and the effortless rhyme scheme of the first verse suddenly felt constricting and my new verses felt forced and I always hate that so it sat idle for some years.
IR: There’s something very thoughtful and reflective when you ask in the song “Why are we here at all?” which I feel connects to something deeper about humanity and what we do to ourselves. Can you talk a bit about what this line means to you?
EC: I recall thinking as I walked away from the monument, that this “shouldn’t even be a place” and it represented an ugly gouge in the earth representing an ugly chapter in our history. It should simply be a rolling lawn on a sunny day and all those names shouldn’t be written there.
IR: The song is very stripped down and has some lovely harmonies. Why did this feel like the right approach for the track?
EC: Well, it certainly doesn’t get in the way of the message and with the current events as they were, I felt an urgency to release it. I felt a more full and polished production would take away for the rawness of emotion that the song was meant to convey.
IR: How long in total did it take you to write and record the song?
EC: If we discount the time the first verse waited in a notebook, the full writing, recording, and release took about 4 weeks.
IR: Obviously with the current war in Iran, the track is still very prescient. What do you hope people take from the track when listening?
EC: Yes – and it was literally the fact that Hegseth dubbed Iran “Operation Epic Fury” that spurred the song from its dormant state. In my aforementioned failed rhyme schemes, I had a line “they speak of fire and fury” so changing it to “they speak of epic fury” literally screamed to be written and my view of the parallels to Vietnam left me feeling that it had to be said. As far as what people take from the track, it is my hope that they understand they are being played by the Government for whatever the hell the Government’s aims truly are and that this has all been done before.
Regarding verses 3 and 4, we managed to weave in the National Anthem (with some re-arrangement). The intent here was contrast, whereas the Anthem was certainly inculcated in me as something to give one the “freedom feels” and a sense of freedom for all the right reasons. Operation “Epic Fury” is in my estimation the opposite thereof – as was Vietnam. That the vocals are almost in conflict with each other was intended to underscore the idea of conflicting ideas.
IR: Thank you Eric!
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Take a listen to The Low Stakes Band‘s powerful track in our A Single Sit-Down Playlist.
The Indy Review 