White Fire

Album: Burn Your Fire For No Witness (2014)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This rumination over distant youth serves as the emotional centerpiece of Burn Your Fire For No Witness, Angel Olsen's debut album with Jagjaguwar after a lengthy stint with her friend's label, Bathetic Records. It was also the Missouri-born singer-songwriter's first full band release, having enlisted her former Chicago cafe co-worker Josh Jaeger to play drums and the stickman's friend Stewart Bronaugh as bassist.
  • Olsen told Billboard magazine that she didn't originally intend to record the song. "It was one of the last things I had written and wasn't meant to be shared, but I ended up taking the album title from it," she said.

    "A lot of the songs on the album are about knowing the self outside of everything else and I think of ('White Fire') as being from the perspective of this character who has grown old and is going back to the beginning of who they were," Olsen added. "They're thinking about how many times they were defiant and confident that they were doing the right thing, but in hindsight they're like 'Oh, that was kind of silly. I was so fierce and yet so wrong.'"

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Boy Bands

Boy BandsFact or Fiction

From NKOTB to 1D, how well do you know your boy bands?

Real or Spinal Tap

Real or Spinal TapMusic Quiz

They sang about pink torpedoes and rocking you tonight tonight, but some real lyrics are just as ridiculous. See if you can tell which lyrics are real and which are Spinal Tap in this lyrics quiz.

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce Pavitt

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce PavittSong Writing

The man who ran Nirvana's first label gets beyond the sensationalism (drugs, Courtney) to discuss their musical and cultural triumphs in the years before Nevermind.

Mike Scott of The Waterboys

Mike Scott of The WaterboysSongwriter Interviews

The stories behind "Whole Of The Moon" and "Red Army Blues," and why rock music has "outlived its era of innovation."

Brenda Russell

Brenda RussellSongwriter Interviews

Brenda talks about the inspiration that drove her to write hit songs like "Get Here" and "Piano in the Dark," and why a lack of formal music training can be a songwriter's best asset.

Second Wind Songs

Second Wind SongsSong Writing

Some songs get a second life when they find a new audience through a movie, commercial, TV show, or even the Internet.