Vicky von Vicky

Mangirl: A Song History

Mangirl on Spotify or Youtube 

Hi All,

I’ve heard from many friends that this is their favourite VVV song. 

BTW – although the lyrics are a bit vague, and it sounds like this is a song about people that are trans, it really isn’t about that and was never meant to come out that way. 

I can’t really tell you what the song’s about exactly but I can tell you what inspired it, and for me it’s “parenthood”, and more specifically “fatherhood”, especially the moment when you become a parent for the first time.  It’s an indescribable feeling and I know that there are many that will never experience it, and I am not saying that everyone should become a parent, it’s not for everyone. But for me it was something I didn’t anticipate in my youth and was pleasantly surprised by it.  And this song was inspired by that experience.

The song was written before my wife became pregnant back in 1999 with our first child, I can’t really remember how the song came about, but the chorus was definitely there before the other parts.  

For the first verse, I pictured the song being the last song a band plays at a show, thus the slow tempo and the “Just before we say goodbye” line. 
“Let’s give it another try”, like we were not going over well with the audience.

There are some statements about relationships, etc.  Such as: “You know you’re never gonna leave me”. Not sure about this, this wasn’t personal just maybe an insecure statement about relationships in general.

The rest is just non-sensical:”Stepping out, and stepping in” – (what the eff is that?), “Looking up and sinking down”, just opposites again, I just liked the way these things sounded.

There is a bit of confusion from the narrator (Me) throughout the lyrics, I like things that are confusing, they make sense to me, (haha).

“Stepping out into the Light, I get hit with the Night”, kind of the absolute peace I felt after leaving the hospital the night my daughter was born.  I honestly remember stepping outside and saying to myself: “Oh yeah it’s nighttime!”.  

The last verse is essentially a tribute about the immediate transition of becoming a parent and witnessing the birth of your baby.  It’s a moment for me where I thought to myself, nothing before this moment really matters and everything else after does.

Knowing whether the baby was a girl or boy was really the last thought in my head.  When the doctor said “It’s a girl”,  I remember being in a daze and saying:”oh yeah I forgot about that!”.  I was so in LOVE with my wife at that moment, at what i had just witnessed.  She was awesome and went through something that just seemed super human.  I don’t think men are capable of taking this sort of pain.

I remember leaving the hospital that night after the birth and feeling so happy, it is indescribable, and I feel absolutely blessed to have gone through it with such a great outcome.

Thanks,

Mike

Novena Sarafina! The first song on Farmers & Artists

Listen to “Novena Sarafina!” on Spotify or your favourite streaming service.

Back in 2000, we chose Novena Sarafina! as the lead song for our album “Farmers & Artists”.  Here’s how the song came about:

I believe it was Paul who had come up with the title, he will tell us in another posting how this happened.  For me “Novena Sarafina!”, meant “New Celebration”, but lyrically I just let my stream of consciousness pave the way.  I had a few dreams about this song and incorporated them into the lyrics.

For the first verse, the narrator (“Me”), seems a bit confused and is in a daze.  I liked the contrasts, “Hot damn, it’s cold December”, etc.

The “Pharoahs” line was mostly from a dream I had where I was a pharoah with arrows (i think there were arrows).  Maybe for those that believe in reincarnation, this is stuff they dream about too, I don’t think I believe in reincarnation.

The second verse was completely unrelated, I was imagining seeing someone’s aura rise, after they died.  There was a book out at the time called “The Celestine Prophecy”, I read parts of it, but didn’t really believe the contents, but I thought, what if you did believe in it, and actually imagined seeing this after someone passed on.  Anyways, I really like the DNA line here.

In the last pre-chorus, there’s a line that goes like this:  “All my old friends would sell me clothes, just like a hollow open disjointed nose”, that nose is Paul’s, who somehow had injured his nose once, and referred to it this way.

Anyways, the meaning of the song and everything I haven’t written about are really up to interpretation.  If anything I just wrote out these lines and re-wrote them until i was happy with the way the words sounded in the end, the meaning really is up to the listener.

Thanks for listening <3!

-Mike