We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.
/

about

Melancholia is a throbbing, galactic pop tragedy about trauma and its consequences, a reflection on a queer person’s inner struggles in a modern world.

It was written as a piano piece in 2014, a few weeks after I suffered a homophobic attack in my hometown Athens. It parallels the story of Lars Von Tiers’ movie Melancholia with the my own personal reality after the incident. It was reworked as synth anthem, complete with a choir-driven bridge and a final chorus that connects it with my earlier work. The lyrics describe the struggle to remain afloat while spiralling down the void of depression, not without a certain sense of humor and a ray of hope. The other voices-all personal friends and partners in crime in the Barcelona underground scene-serve as a Greek choir that empowers the narrator to keep fighting.

Melancholia was written at a breaking point. Years of poor mental health, unfortunate choices and substance abuse had led to that situation. Having to run for my life, to jump from a cliff, to spend months in crutches at a friend’s house  broke me but also made me look at my life under a different light and decide it was high time I changed attitude. I moved in with a friend who had a lift in her building because my flat was on the fifth floor without a lift. I wrote the a song in her daughter’s playroom, surrounded by dolls, thinking of Marianne Faithfull (the ultimate survivor and an artist I adore) and wanting to channel something from David Bowie’s "Space Oddity" because, frankly, like the astronaut in that song, I had been drifting hopelessly into some inner space for quite some time. At the same time I was thinking of The Magnetic Fields and how they always have a touch of humor, often hilarious one, even in their bleakest moments. I named the song after Lars Von Trier’s film and even included the final scene in the chorus. I rarely feel that a film has spoken to me the way this one did. It made clear to me that even the bleakest personal situation can inspire to create something beautiful. After all, poor mental health takes so much from you. If at least you own it and manage to create something beautiful and empowering out of it, then you are winning.

The song’s final version was developed at home using software, a work process radically different from the multi-instrumentalist approach of the past, and having in mind Giorgio Moroder’s productions as well as contemporary artists like Molly Nilsson, John Maus or Patience. After doing all the arrangements myself, the song was then produced and mixed by Sergio Perez, a key figure in the Spanish indie scene, and mastered by Philip Granqvist.

lyrics

MELANCHOLIA

Blood moon rising, strange dust falling from the sky
I saw that weird star shining bright the other night
It didn’t look like the ones wistful people wish upon
It looked more like the tip of a lethal iceberg
The kind that sends hundreds to a cold, watery bed

Warm summer nights still give me a light chill
My vision is blurry, my lips have been tight lately
Among friends I don’t have much to say and I pretend
To listen, but I am adrift offshore I’m afraid
There is a creeping tide that I can’t fight
it drags me into the middle of the ocean

Melancholia is closing in
Resistance is futile, I’ll have to give in
Will it be a fly-by or a full on collision
a dance of death, in all its precision
in any case I swear, I don’t care

My trips, my drinks, my pills and my cigarettes
And some endless row of one-night stands
Some powders, some muted laughs, watching tv with friends
I could quietly waste my life away on those
Clinging to a star that’s growing larger

Melancholia is closing in
Resistance is futile, I’ll have to give in
Will it be a fly-by or a full on collision
A dance of death, in all its precision
In any case I swear, I don’t care

Don’t wave goodbye to hopes and dreams
Underneath a star looming large
A star looming large
(Don’t give in)
A star looming large
(Don’t give in)
A star looming large
(Don’t give in)
A star looming large
(Don’t give in)
A star looming large
(Don’t give in)
A star looming large
(Don’t give in)
A star looming large
(Don’t give in)
a star looming large

Melancholia is closing in
(Don’t give in)
Melancholia is closing in
(Don’t give in)
Melancholia is closing in
(Don’t give in)
Melancholia is closing in
(Don’t give in)

A star looming large
A star looming large
A star looming large

credits

from Melancholia, released December 4, 2020
Melancholia written by Evripidis Sabatis
Pre-produced and arranged by Marc Ribera and Evripidis Sabatis
Produced and mixed by Sergio Pérez
Mastered by Philip Granqvist

Evripidis Sabatis: vocals, synthesizers, piano

Francina Ribes Pericàs, 
Laura Antolin, Liza Cox, Eliza Ariadne Kalfa, 
Osa Gambas, 
Emma Roulette, Marc Ribera, Sergio Pérez, Max Jacob Andrucki: backing vocals

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Evripidis and his Tragedies Barcelona, Spain

Evripidis and His Tragedies is Evripidis Sabatis. The "Tragedies" are the devastating, confessional, self-sarcastic, darkly humorous songs that draw on his classical piano training, queer sensibility and storytelling skills to examine and own up to the vicissitudes of life. Evripidis' pop inclinations take us for a bumpy, dancey ride across the fine line between tragedy and joie de vivre. ... more

shows

contact / help

Contact Evripidis and his Tragedies

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Evripidis and his Tragedies recommends:

If you like Evripidis and his Tragedies, you may also like: