Pillars by SPACESHIPS

When we went to write Son of Man, it felt a bit like the world was ending—racial tensions were high, massive protests were becoming commonplace, and we were entering the most contentious election in recent history. Lyrically, most of the songs were centered around the things that survive through the world’s end.

Then, a few weeks after Son of Man was released, the world actually did fall apart in a lot of ways. A crisis struck my church where
I’m on staff. Some of my closest friends found themselves pinned under the weight of the trauma. I didn’t know if I would have a job in three months. People I trusted and partnered with for years became duplicitous and venomous.

After years of writing songs about the things that hold on when the world falls apart, my world actually did fall apart. And in the rubble, I found the things that really did matter, beaten by the trauma, but never broken, strengthened now in the furnace of calamity.

While I did not intend this to be as thematic a concept as Son of Man, the songs had their own idea. It wasn’t until a year after the crisis struck that I realized how much it had informed the songs I had written in that time. These are songs written out of a hope that disregards any sort of reason, common sense, or empirical evidence. And yet, it is a hope that does not disappoint.

Since writing these songs, crisis has come for us all. Division has become the norm in our politics and our discourse. Calamity has visited all of our houses. Many of us are living with the sudden realization that the things we put our hope and purpose and identity in might be a bit flimsier than we imagined. We’ve canceled tours, lost jobs, and mourned the loss of loved ones—whether to death or to the ever growing walls that divide our society.

Our hope is that these songs can bring a sort of hope, or at least a solidarity. Whatever calamity falls, may the Pillars of your life stand firm.

Stand firm.
nathaniel.

Post-gaze/dream metal from South Bend.

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