The Meaning Of: MIDNIGHT WIND
Crissi Cochrane
Welcome to this final edition of The Meaning Of, a series of blog posts exploring the meaning behind each song from my 2020 album, Heirloom. Today, one year from the day that the very first single debuted, I’m sharing the last piece of the story in what inspired the record, with the eleventh and final track, Midnight Wind.
I wrote “Midnight Wind” the same week of 2015 when I also wrote “Hungry Love.” Mike was on the road and it was storm season in Windsor, a thing that so fascinated me, having grown up in a part of the country where we would barely get one or two thunderstorms a year. Like clockwork, just after lunch, nearly every single day for what seemed like weeks, the windows of our apartment would become flat squares of silver, dark clouds would knit their fingers and blot the sun, and an hour of thunder and lightning would tick past. Living on the third floor, I sometimes felt too close to the sky - as if the wind was always too strong, and the lighting too loud.
The aesthetic of “Midnight Wind” came out of this stormy season. It’s why the song is so moody and tumultuous, with dissonant chords conjuring dark clouds in the verses, before the chorus sweeps in, the cold air behind a storm front, a brief respite from all that sultry humidity.
This song was born out of two things, if I recall correctly. One was a writing exercise inspired by taking Pat Pattison’s free online songwriting course, and the other was re-reading Madame Bovary, a book that smoulders with so much forbidden love that it’s virtually impossible to read without emotionally poisoning oneself just a little. “Midnight Wind” is an appeal to the fates to bring your lover to your dreams, even if it’s a love that’s only real in dreams - I don’t care if it’s a lie - and to revel in that illusion while it lasts - if everything is going to break, then there are no mistakes. Love me like it’s wrong; play, play me like a song, because any minute, I’ll be gone.
Performing at the MaRS Discovery District on June 10, 2015.
I remember testing out “Midnight Wind” at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto that month, where I was making background music for a conference of delegates from around the world. Besuited men and glamorous women were busy networking, unwinding from their busy schedules, and not really noticing me much, but off to the side of the crowd, a concierge in uniform turned to look at me, and nodded his encouragement. Funny how that one little gesture validated me, and secured my love for this smouldering lucid dream of a song.
On Heirloom, “Midnight Wind” is a song you might not have heard, being at the very end of the album. But it’s unlike any other song on the album, and one of those strange gems that make the album’s ending so unusual and creative. Long sustained horn parts remind me a little of one of my very favourite recordings, “Moonlight In Vermont” by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, and the strings really shine in this song, so shivering and sweet. Yet another example of Mike’s genius in producing this album, arranging all these voices and bringing this song to life from a bare bed of guitar and vocal.
The bridge of the song is the singular most unusual and experimental thing I’ve recorded, so tense and moody - before the full instrumentation was recorded, it was especially creepy, and Mike would always referred to it as the “Eyes Wide Shut” part. Ty Sharron played guitar leads on Heirloom, and his unparalleled soloing prowess was responsible for some of the most magical moments on the record. Plus, he’s just such a fun and wonderful human being, and we had a ton of fun drinking beer and eating Cheese Nips in our basement studio between songs. Mike suggested that we should take inspiration from Lewis Taylor’s song, “Bittersweet”, going back and forth between whispery reversed guitar leads and more head-on driven moments, and I said, let’s do it. (“Bittersweet” is one of my favourite recordings ever.)
Before learning how vinyl manufacturing would require us to re-work the song order to put quieter tunes at the end of each side, “Midnight Wind” had originally been track 9, and “Everything” was the closer. I was so dismayed to learn that this dream order was not doable, and I spent many hours on my elliptical, listening to the entire album in various sequences, trying to determine which order felt the most right, while following the rules of vinyl pressing and keeping each side under the maximum time span of 21 minutes.
In the end, I think it fits the role of closer, but the real magic comes from listening in sequence. The first two thirds of Heirloom are pretty upbeat - it’s a good flow of straight-forward, commercially-appealing, easy-to-enjoy tunes. Then “Everything” abruptly changes the tone, creating so much sustained intensity and drama, with this incredible climax that cracks you wide open. It’s only after “Everything” that “Heaven” waltzes through so effortlessly, straight into your heart, transcendent and glowing with eternal love. And then, just as you’re blinking away a tear, there’s “Midnight Wind”, something unexpected, a little encore that takes you someplace else yet again, somewhere elegant and poetic and lustful. And as the last notes fade away, it sort of feels like… you could… just keep going. It doesn’t feel like the end. It’s as if you could just flip the record, and start it all over again.
MIDNIGHT WIND - CRISSI COCHRANE
Midnight wind
Where has he been
Come, rip all the seams
Bring him to my dreams
He'll touch me with a sigh
I'll see the lovelight in his eyes
I don't care if it's a lie
Cause in the midnight wind
I'm only dreaming
Bring me to him, midnight wind
Is this real
Cause it's exactly how it should feel
If everything is going to break
There are no mistakes
So love me like it's wrong
Play, play me like a song
Cause any minute I'll be gone
In the midnight wind
I'm only dreaming
Bring me to him, midnight wind
Bring me to him, midnight wind
Still I want
But the restless night moves on
And steals him away with the dawn
Cause in the midnight wind
I'm only dreaming
Bring me to him, midnight wind
Bring me to him, midnight wind
Bring me to him, midnight wind
LEARN HOW TO PLAY THIS SONG >
LIKE WHAT YOU HEAR? BUY IT ON CD OR DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
Or find it on your favourite streaming platform here.