Growing up listening to Nirvana, ‘Do Re Mi’ was a very special track to me (Matthew)—I’ve always considered it one of my favorite songs. The fact that the song is shrouded in mystery and story really adds to its appeal; it is rumored to be the last song Kurt ever wrote before he met his untimely death. In addition to the low-fi ‘bedroom’ quality and haunting sonics of the recording, no one knows the real lyrics or title to the song. The best one can do is critically listen to the muddy words and analyze what they think he might have intended. We spent a long time writing out what we think the lyrics are by discussing possible meanings line by line. While the melody of the song sounds soft and sweet, it carries a dark and heavy message—such contrast really gives the song emotional depth. Kurt’s work was my first introduction to real introspective writing, and most importantly—honesty.
As a kid I would read his lyrics and passages and feel comfort knowing that artists as genuine as him had a real voice. That people could read his imperfections as what made him unique, with no desire to perform perfectly as long as you are in it and embed it with real emotion. Like a musical Holden Caulfield he helped place phoniness in my line of vision and direct my thoughts toward seeking genuine artistry.
'Do Re Mi' has always reminded me of a child’s lullaby, so our thought was to take it a few steps further with the additional harmony and altered guitar arrangement to really make the song ‘lull.' We’ve been performing this song every chance and show we could, and were meaning to record a video version of it along with a few other songs. We put together a list of some of our favorite songs to cover and realized there is a pattern among them: they are all from past decades and many of the artists are no longer living. While editing the video we realized that the 20th anniversary of Kurt’s death was approaching and decided that the ‘In Memoriam Sessions’ would be a sound way to pay homage to these artists of the past which we respect, admire, and have fond memories of—which brings us to the literal latin translation of ‘in memoriam’ which is ‘into memory.’ These melodies have been written into our ‘memory.' Our interpretation of Do Re Mi is the first of the 'In Memoriam Sessions.'
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theceremonies: Growing up listening to Nirvana, ‘Do Re Mi’ was...
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