Girling’s Dance With Death

In Girling’s nocturnal new video, Andy Sharp sings of a celestially connected afterlife, in which our dead friends and family raise the morning sun and fill moon with light. Sadly, it’s only “Fiction.”

The typically heart-on-sleeve lead single from the locals’ forthcoming EP, Side 1, unfolds with the protagonist’s brother drowning in a lake and takes another sad turn when his mother dies of cancer. Solace occurs in their belief of a cosmic reunion.

“The song is about the singer convincing himself to not be so afraid of death,” says the power pop quintet’s frontman, Sharp being a veteran recording engineer who’s worked on albums by the Toadies, Spoon, and Sheryl Crow. “He’s trying to make it sound necessary. The child drowns, but now his energy is helping the sun shine and the moon rise.”

As portrayed in stunning visuals directed by Angela Lancaster, the mother believes she’ll dance with Patrick Swayze in the by-and-by and looks forward to her departed son setting some soft moonlight.

“People are going to have to die to make that moonlit dance happen, so every lost life ensures that the moon will be there for her making her happy,” elaborates Sharp. “It’s the least we could do.”

The ambitious alt-rock arrangements and off-the-charts emotional integrity of “Fiction” previews Girling’s third release, recorded by Reivers leader and early Spoon producer John Croslin. The new effort is the first half of a pair of EPs decade-old local indie Nine Mile Records plans to issue from the band this year. Side 1 hits Friday with a release show at Sidewinder, the quintet supported by A. Sinclair and Ben Millburn.

girling-Fiction Video Official from Enterprising People on Vimeo.