EXCLUSIVE: Northlane discuss Singularity song meanings

Sydney metallers Northlane are preparing to unleash highly anticipated new studio album, ‘Singularity’ this Friday.

Killyourstereo.com recently sat down and chatted with frontman Adrian Fitapaldes about the themes, inspirations and meanings behind each song on the sophomore album.

The reason behind album title ‘Singularity.’

The word ‘Singularity’ traditionally refers to a point in the future where humans will have reached technological advancement, where it would be really hard to comprehend what life would be like. I’m talking about things like time travel, infinite life – a point in history where human life will be incomprehensible to the state we are in now. It is almost like that glimmer on the horizon that you can’t see that is just around the corner. The universe began in a ‘singularity’ – a huge explosion. I thought that would be a cool metaphor to adopt for our album, something that you can’t understand, that is in the future and you can’t quite put your finger on.

‘Singularity’ also refers to the singular nature of a human being – we are separate human beings. A singular individual. We all view reality through our own hearts and our own minds. I really wanted to empower the perspective of the individual on this record. It is not me, it is you that is important…and it is you that needs to seize the moment and really take control of your life and what makes you happy.

‘Genesis’

The word ‘genesis’ means beginnings and origins, and I think that’s a nice way to start the album for the first track. It is all about a sense of confusion running through the track – what do I know is wrong or right? It is pretty much re-affirming that this is the right thing I should be doing and I can dream if I want to.

‘Scarab’

‘Scarab’ is quite a weird song. It has got this whole Egyptian sound to it, obviously with the name ‘Scarab’ and of course with the Egyptian theme going on in the background of the album art. I wanted to create a theme of an almost past life – a reincarnation of a past life of a man in Egypt crawling through the sand, lost in time. More importantly, this song really focuses on the suffering in life. The key line in this song is, “We all suffer in this life, that is the truth about life.” I thought the whole inspiration for that came from Buddhist philosophy. I’m not a religious man, but I am fond of Buddhist philosophy. One of the Buddhist’s first noble truths was very honest. His first noble truth was – in life there is suffering. For such a happy, spiritually sound leader to say that to his students or followers is quite a bold statement, and I loved it. It is very honest and being the first proper song on the album, a perfect little theme.

‘Windbreaker’

The image I wanted to give people was ‘Windbreaker’ – cold. This song is all about travelling on the road with the boys in the band. The wind breaking before our path – whether it is us travelling or us walking. It is really about the tour life and not looking back, and being head strong about career and about our work.

‘Worldeater’

‘Worldeater’ has a few different themes running through it. This song has a lot to do with our divorce from nature. We have lost touch with nature I believe. By ‘nature’ I don’t just mean plants and forests, I mean our human bodies. We tend to treat our bodies disrespectfully and they are our vessels to navigate nature with. It is a shame that we are so detached and divorced from not just nature but ourselves. Detaching from ourselves, we are dethatching from nature ultimately. I created a theme that the world is being eaten by this chaotic plague and it is taking over the world. Meanwhile, I love alien and UFO theories – I’m a big nerd when it comes to that stuff. While we’ve got our heads up our own asses here on Earth (laughs), I reckon there are countless other civilisations out there in space that are so much more enlightened and advanced to us. They probably just look at Earth and pass right on by (laughs).

This song also has the theme of rebirth and a new perspective on life through personal experience, whether that is through dreams or whatnot. It is a very important song for me.

‘Quantum Flux’

‘Quantum Flux’ is about looking at the brighter side of life and being content and happy about life. The hook line of the song is: “Can’t you see the joy of life is right before your eyes.” That was one of the biggest epiphanies I had in my life. There is a real sense of happiness that lies in the now. The now is what you are looking at. I find so much joy and happiness in the now. I know it is easy for me to say this because I come from a nice family and live in a good country, and I’m not struggling by any means, [I know] there are a lot of people out there that do struggle. I’m sorry if anyone reads this and is struggling and they have had a bad life, I’m sorry if you might think it is easy for me to say how good and how happy and content I am with life. Even with all the crap in the world, I can’t help but feel an underlying sense of contentment and perfection about the world. The world is imperfectly perfect.

‘Dream Awake’

The song has a sense of duality to it – the whole yin and yang vibe. It is very clear in the name, it’s a bit of an oxymoron, ‘Dream Awake’. That is the attitude I try to have towards my life in general. I believe life does have some of the principles of a dream. Especially when it comes to following my passion musically and touring all these fantastic places with my band – it does feel like I’m dreaming awake sometimes. I believe as much as we can have a dream for ourselves, I believe we can also create a nightmare for ourselves. It is really the individual who has the perspective to change their life from a nightmare to a dream. That’s where the dream awake thing comes from. No one wants to live a bad life, no one wants to live a sad life, everyone would like to live the happiest life, like it was the best dream they’ve ever had. I guess that relates to my perspective on the universe and life in general. I have a good idea that the universe and reality is a kinda dream. Not only that it is the dream we’ve always wanted to have. I get this really beautiful dream sense about life.

‘The Calling’

This is a song about my personal responsibility in my life. Northlane in general stands for truth. ‘The Calling’ you could almost call it, my calling [is] to help spread a good message.

‘Masquerade’

There is this quote I try and live by these days and it goes: “If there is something and someone that no longer serves you, respect yourself enough to let it go and remove them from your life.” ‘Masquerade’ is the theme of a party, a ball, a dance, where all these people have masks on – it is this medieval, classical theme. But, for me, I wanted to translate it into a modern perspective. People can be two faced/double faced. They might be nice to you in person, but will say other things about you behind your back. I wanted to create a metaphor around that. ‘Masquerade’ also turns around not just for other people, but also the perspective for myself. We can be just as two faced as everyone out there. So not only should I work on removing that from my life, but also work on removing that from my psyche.

‘Singularity’

The instrumental track, the interlude. It does have a quote in there. It is not in the lyric booklet, but it is a quote during the instrumental track and it’s a quote by a philosopher and scholar called Terrence McKenna, who I’m very fond of. The readers or listeners should check it out, listen to what the man has to say. He is a very bright man. A lot of the messages and ideas I have are relayed from this man. I like reading and I like watching documentaries, and I like encompassing all the things I know into my art.

‘Aspire’

This is like a motivational track. It has got this strong theme about being who you are. Not fitting the mould that anyone else wants you to be. It is about being the person you want to be and living the life you want to live, and chasing the dream as well. That is why we put it as the last song on the album because it is an uplifting track. It has this motivational, uplifting, triumphant sound to it. It was one of the tracks we wrote in the studio.