“8000 Souls” is a song with pith and punch to it, and is the third song in my debut ep “Azure Blue’ (released on 16th March 2018 on online commercial platforms). It was inspired by the anniversary of Srebinicia, where 8000 men and boys were killed in one region in the Bosnian/Croatian conflict.
The 60’s was a time that was well known for protest songs…..but there is so much going on in the world that there is definitely a place still for singing songs that may not be comfortable , that touch on things that need examining or changing in this world of ours.
“8000 Souls” is one such song. It starts with the refrain…asking the listener to feel what it would be like if 8000 men and boys around them had been wiped out. How does that feel? Beautiful life, snuffed out by senseless war. The full horror of war is considered: “War is ego’s rage and terror…”. The song focuses on the similarity of our human journey, we all wish for the same things, for happiness and joy and we all cry and suffer the same.
I wanted to leave the audience with a sense of hope that inside us all, we all have an answer to strife and difference and hatred and war. The answer is simple- our human heart which has the tremendous capacity to love. Love, if we can allow it to grow and expand, is the answer.
War is a global and timeless phenomena that has been the shadow side of our human existence since time immemorial, so I wanted the instrumentation to not only show the emotional soundscape of sadness but to also have a sense of globality and timelessness in the choice of instruments. I chose a blues guitar ( a sorrowful twentieth century based sound), a didgeridoo ( which has a gritty timeless quality to it), and a duduk ( because it sounds like the universal soul weeping). Together they create a rich and emotive and plaintive back drop to the sometimes uncomfortable story telling lyrics of this song. It may not be a comfortable song to listen to….but it does end with hope and heart!
I hope you find the song something that makes you reflect and maybe think we are capable of listening to our wise hearts.
Abi's World of Music 