The Foreboding Sense of Impending Happiness
by HIM

Album: Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • Vocalist Ville Valo told Artist Direct that this song evolved in a different direction than expected after lead guitarist Mikko Lindström went sick. He explained: "That was a really simple acoustic piece that I thought would make a nice interlude for the album, being the center of Screamworks. We were starting to record the crunchy guitar tracks and Linde got this weird infection. I'm not sure what happened if a spider bit him or something, but his hand was swelling up so bad that he couldn't play at all. He had to go to the doctor's and get some antibiotics for it. He took a couple of days off from the studio. We couldn't really do anything then anyway because that was when Linde was supposed to be in there.
    During those few days, Matt (Squire, producer) and I got to know each other in a more artistic way. We just started playing around with the song. He came up with a couple ideas, and I came up with a couple ideas. We wanted the track to sound '80s, but have a soundtrack-y and ethereal vibe in comparison to what we'd done in the past.
    When the whole album was done, it just felt natural for the song to be the last one—the oddball track of the record. I love that song too! It's not necessarily that electronic sound. It's not something that I see HIM doing more in the future. It was a successful experiment. I love the cinematic quality the song has. That's the magic of music. Occasionally it happens; occasionally it doesn't. With that one, we had a series of lucky accidents."

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