Blue 52 

Blue 52 wasn't the first song I wrote, or even what I expected to be one of our most popular songs. It started off pretty simply. I was reading about the Blue 52 whale. In a nut shell, the Blue 52 whale is a mutated blue whale scientists have been tracking that calls out in 52 hz. While humans can hear this frequency quite easily, most whales can't. So, essentially, this whale travels around calling out to other whales, but no whales can hear it. This was one of those "There should be a song about that" moments you sometimes have.

Well, it turns out there are many songs about this whale, but I tend to lean towards a more parabolic writing style. So I wanted to take this idea and turn it into a human story. I started with the idea of feeling alone, and crying out for others, but for some reason or other you feel that nobody truly hears you. Maybe you're crying out to God, or whatever being you choose, hoping that they exist, but not receiving any response back. I don't know, it's all pretty existential at this point.

I pretty quickly came up with the chorus, but then got stuck. This was in the early days of SMSM, where I had just started coming up with what I wanted this project to look like. I reached out to Michael Ronstadt, the cellist working on these songs with me, and who happened to be quite a talented songwriter in his own right. This is where the song started taking shape. The first verse depicts the character in the middle of a crowded area (we imagined a food court at a mall). This character is tired, "Looking on a sea of empty faces" (here's the album title). He sees a huge gathering of people each showing their own emotions, hopes, fears, etc, but this individual still feels empty.

The second verse brings in the whale metaphors. Drifting along currents, screaming silent questions. Begging for someone to hear, understand, and come along side the character. It was difficult to bring in analogies to the actual whale without it being too on the nose, but I feel we did it justice. 

Outside of the lyrics, we also tried to bring in other musical elements that complimented the song. Kristen Bennet, who sang harmonies, provides haunting "oooohs" that I feel emulate the call of a whale. We wrote the song in A flat, which is the pitch of the 52 hz frequency. You'll also hear in the background of the song an actual 52 hz frequency being played on the upright bass. Pretty neat. 

This would quickly become the song we had to play at every show, an almost universal fan favorite. 

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