Track By Tracks: Aythis - Secrets From Below (2021)

1. Just like a Tear:

This song starts very atmospheric, it puts you in the mood for the rest of the album I think. I grew up in a house by the forest in the south of Belgium. I was a lonely child, so I spent a lot of my time walking , playing in the woods, and inventing my own games... I guess that is why I became so attached to trees, to forests. It has always been a very special soothing place for me. I energize a lot from this nature environnement so I thought it was about time I dedicate a song to this. There is more to it in the lyrics of course, they are metaphorical and tainted with melancholy but this vivid childhood memories are what gave birth to the song.

2. Into The Blue:

Into The Blue is about depression and the emotional rollercoaster that is part of it.

I wrote it after I had spent some time by the sea, staring at the waves. That is why the very beginning might remind you of some waves washing over the shore. I really like this song, It took a while before finding the special guitar sound for it. When the distortion comes I didn't want it to be brutal, I wanted it to cover you, to swallow you, like the sea would do.

It starts rather calming but if you listen closely there's an underlying uneasy atmosphere that builds up. When you hear me scream around 4 min, it is just like you feel when your head feels like exploding from those emotional roller coasters.

This is also the first song that I wrote for the new album. After that, it became clearer to me about how I wanted the album to sound like.

3. A Faint Butterfly:

The album theme is the secrets of the world. 'A Faint Butterfly' together with the song 'Secret ' represent what I wanted to achieve sonically. 'A Faint Butterfly' has no real lyrics, I was more interested in vocal sonorities and I didn't want the lyrics to distract the listener from that. This song reminds me of being underwater, the guitar sounds are watery. When I listen to it, I imagine some sort of creatures from a world Below singing toward us, for those who can hear them. Those of us, trapped in the world of the above.

4. Ashes:

Ashes is the song from the new album I chose to reveal first. It is a dark song. It is about trusting the darkness.

You chose the moon over the sun. The Night over the Day. You make a commitment to the dark because it has always been in your heart anyway.

5. Secrets:

This song reflects the album thema for me, it talks about the mysteries of the world and what it evokes in you on a personal level. This is a recurrent theme in the new album as I've always been intrigued by unexplained phenomena. In difficult times I think it's even more important to be remembered by the beauty and the mysteries of nature. Nature helps you to understand yourself and can be your best ally in healing a pain you might have.

6.When your Ghost Wanders:

Imagine, you die and people never knew you because you never let them the chance to. That's the spirit of the song. Musically, it starts rather tranquil but the end is more uptempo, the lead guitars are sort of black gazey and I recorded maybe 12 layers of vocals just for the end, as a choir effect, one step farther from the mic every second time and sang my lungs out. It was relieving.

7.Just Wait:

Just Wait is a very introspective song. Both lyrically and musically. It is piano based/ synth based, with a classical / orchestral feel like I used to do on the previous albums.

8. Homelights:

It is one of my favourite songs from 'Secrets from Below'. I just love the atmosphere, the guitars take me away into a beautiful place. I hope it will take others to some nice places too. About the meaning of the song, it is about the dark sides of yourself, they can become your lighthouse if you dare to let them.

9. Facing The Shadow

It is the darkest song of the album I think, qua thema. It is about manipulation. There is a Twin Peaks vibe about the atmosphere for me and I emphasized that with some jazzy drums at the very end, I thought it was a good introduction to the last song, which is the 'Twin Peaks theme' cover. The voice is very high pitched on Facing the Shadow, it was quite a challenge to record it!

10.Falling:

This is the Twin Peaks theme, an acoustic cover. I love the serie Twin Peaks and everything else from David Lynch, I wanted to honor that. I kept the same recordings I did a while ago , I only remastered it for the album. I didn't feel like re-recording everything, it would have lost the spontaneity of it. It is only present on the first 300 copies of "Secrets From Below" and won't feature on the following re-print.