Swimsuit Issue from Australia had a dream which inspired the writing of “The End.” Here the writer recollects it for us: “I woke up feeling a heavy loss at 3 am after having an incredibly real dream where my fiancee had been killed. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I stayed up and wrote this song whilst in that emotional state. It is basically looking back at some of our travels and reminiscing whilst coming to terms that my partner is no longer here. I was deeply affected by the nightmare as it felt very real.” Dreams have inspired many artists and poets from time immemorial, including Edgar Allen Poe.
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow:
You are not wrong who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand–
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep–while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
Edgar Allen Poe said this about his poem A Dream Within a Dream back in 1865: “It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.”
What is it about dreams? Some of them feel so real, others pass like déjà vu. Some dreamers can become lucid enough to act as both dreamer and architect during the dreaming. Others can’t seem to remember what they dreamt about a moment or so after waking. It’s most interesting to me when people try to interpret dreams, their own or others’. Like when something bad happens in a dream, like death, say, it may be seen as a good thing, in fact. They say you should write down your dreams as much as you can, so as to not forget them. Paul McCartney said he found the inspiration for Yesterday in a dream, claiming to have heard the melody during his sleep. Swimsuit Issue‘s “The End” may be the Australian dream-pop equivalent of “Yesterday,” in that sense.
You ever get the thought while listening to a band, “yeah, I would enjoy sifting through these guys’ record piles”? I sure do. I hear a group like Swimsuit Issue, which is a great name by the way, and I think there must be some My Bloody Valentine, Beck, Slowdive, and even E Street Band in those guy’s collections. Also, it’s neat hearing this style being sung with an Australian accent as opposed to the American or British dialect one is used to. “The End” sounds like something off the new Slowdive record, which is saying something for a self-produced indie track. Kudos to these guys for paying attention to the details and delivering some quality dream-pop with their latest single. Listen to it here.
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