Today is a great day to share the second single off of Alana Yorke’s upcoming LP, Destroyer, called “All The Flowers.” Alana Yorke channels the deepest of feelings in a beautiful, picturesque song about dealing with all the things that coincide with a loss.
Speaking on the track itself, Yorke writes:
”All The Flowers’ is about grief and loss. The song began as very personal grief and loss, related to experiences of depression and PTSD. The need to express or materialize those feelings so that they could perhaps be understood by others led to the image of “all the flowers in the world floating on the ocean” which I just found so devastatingly beautiful. While writing this song, David Bowie left this earth, and that very public, shared grief became another dimension to the songwriting experience and helped me to re-enter the intensity of feeling to complete the song. When we produced this song, I had a clear vision for the rhythmic part of the choruses (and pre-choruses) being slightly abrasive and in-your-face to counter the beauty of the song and give it a more intense, uncomfortable dimension.
If you’re enjoying the latest single, please consider pre-ordering Alana Yorke’s new LP Destroyer here. I was also able to catch up with this talented artist for a brief interview below.
You mention David Bowie’s death being a huge inspiration and catalyst to the formation of “All the Flowers.” Were there any other artists that influenced or inspired this song?
I remember David Bowie’s death as a moment in time because I was in the process of writing this song at the piano when I learned the news. I was living inside of these feelings of personal grief and loss for days – the feeling-world that the song had come out of – and I was at the stage of hammering the details out, but sometimes songs need something new to finish them. Sometimes it is time, for example. In this case, when I learned that news, the intensity of my grief was renewed. It was very vivid and it took on a new meaning, a new dimension, and of course there was a collective grief and loss at that point that was going around the world. Musically, I would say there is also an influence from Roxette and, more broadly, the big emotional pop ballads of the 80’s (the bridge and the modulation into the final choruses are examples of this heart-on-sleeve energy of 80’s pop that I love). Additionally, I will say that there were influences in the creation of the beats for this song (i.e. the rhythmic part in the pre-chorus and chorus) that can be traced back to trap.
How does the vision that you had for the production of this song, “an uncomfortable dimension” contrast to other tracks on this album?
There are some songs that you make that just stay “beautiful,” let’s say. “Too Hard” would be an example of a song that stayed with piano and vocal and strings and is very heartfelt, very vulnerable. “Léa” also stayed very beautiful and gentle, I would say. But in order to sonically express the feelings behind “All the Flowers”, in order to realize the song, I felt I needed another dimension. I think that channels the discomfort of talking about these emotions and experiences, and also, perhaps, conveys a dimension of anger which can be a part of grief. There is discomfort there that I can feel. I wanted a harshness that would contrast with the beautiful lyrical images which I considered to be very feminine (“all the flowers”) and I always like to be bold when I think that is called for. I think the rhythmic part we added to the chorus channels the emotional intensity behind the lyrical message.
How has utilizing songwriting as a form of creative expression help cope with your PTSD and depression? Can you elaborate on the importance of feeling understood?
I’ve been composing music since I was a preschooler so I’ve always used music to deal with and express my emotions, and all the more so as I moved into songwriting in my high school years and from early adulthood onward as I developed as a songwriter. For me, writing is a place for me to be by myself with my feelings and find out what I express, find out what is there – it’s exploratory and emotionally cathartic. It helps me to feel. It also allows me to have a voice and to voice things that are personal that I would not otherwise express or perhaps even understand. The music gives it validity and beauty, I feel. I think making something beautiful out of something terrible is a positive transformation for me. Specifically when I was doing exposure therapy for PTSD, I think writing songs gave me a channel for the images that were very vivid and otherworldly, and it helped me to articulate my experiences into this world. Perhaps it helps to mobilize the feelings and I like to think that, as much as I sometimes write out of personal pain in a solitary way, that I am never alone and that somewhere, someone else is feeling the exact same way and that the work will be felt by others. This is my way of being understood which I think is so important. It’s my way of taking up space in the world. It is my way of being honest. There’s also a deliciousness to transforming intense emotions into sound that is like nothing else I have experienced.