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Ulalume

by Instant Empire

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about

The first single from Instant Empire's fourth full-length album, 'Standing Eight Count,' has arrived. The song is a character-driven epic that revolves around a woman introduced early on as June... but to friends and family, she's better known as Ulalume, a reference to her childhood obsession with Edgar Allan Poe and a nickname that has stuck with her throughout the first 40-odd years of her life. By the time we meet her, she’s freewheeling through a particularly difficult phase in her life. That might sound like a bummer, but tapping into her dad’s old mantra grounds her. It gives her strength. A ray of hope. The song feels damn near buoyant for a fleeting but rapturous moment.

We hope you enjoy it!!!

Love,
IE

lyrics

​At an early age I went through a Poe phase
Friends & family still call me Ulalume, but you can call me June
These days I'm a bit of a nervous wreck
I got a tongue for biting & hands for writing some bad, bad checks

​Pop some pills; chase the sun; run, run, run 
Until the whole web has been spun, spun, spun 
Steady weaved my way through an endless run of days 
Spent most of my childhood chasing the best ways to receive praise

​I could use a place to crash, but I'd settle for some cash
Burned so many bridges I erased the past

​Spent a decade or two floating through 
Albuquerque, Sacramento, Lake Havasu
Men coming & going, gravitating & flowing
Like cattle to the Karasu

Still baby-faced but these grays betray a somber senescence 
Aging isn't the waiving of a white flag, it's an acquiescence

My late Pa, rest his soul, 
Where he lies I'll never know 
He had a simple mantra
An American take on that 'ol Buddhist tantra:
‘Here for a good time, not a long time
The sun is yours. The moon is mine’

‘Here for a good time, not a long time
The sun is yours, but the moon is mine’ 

Hear the angels sing…

*The skies they were ashen and sober
The leaves they were crisped and seared
It was night in the lonesome October
Of my most immemorial year*

*Adapted from the poem, Ulalume, by Edgar Allan Poe

credits

released January 21, 2022
Music by Instant Empire
Lyrics by Scotty Saunders

Published by Olde Oaks Music (SESAC)
Administered by Instant Empire Music (SESAC)

Produced & recorded by Sean Connaughty
Mixed & mastered by D. James Goodwin at The Isokon, Kingston, NY
Additional recording by Rich G at Ghosthouse, Denver, CO

Artwork and layout by Luke Giltner

license

all rights reserved

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Instant Empire Denver, Colorado

Indie rock.
Storytellers.
Chroniclers of the human condition.

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