Ocean

Album: Something In The Room She Moves (2024)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Inspired by her newborn daughter, Julia Holter attempted to create "a realm that's waterlike, fluid, evoking the body's internal sound world," for her sixth album, Something in the Room She Moves. This instrumental track captures the awe-inspiring beauty and primal mystery of the sea at night.
  • Holter co-wrote "Ocean" with longtime collaborator Devin Hoff (bass, composition, arrangement) and saxophonist/composer Chris Speed.

    "I started it at home as a demo, mainly using an old analog synth called a Cadio CS-60 and my Nord Stage," Holter told Uncut magazine. "Yes, it was an abnormally ambient thing for me very minimal, I fell in love with the sound of it. I kept listening to it in a car during the most anxiety inducing times of the pandemic! Then we took it into the studio, and we' got Chris Speed and Dev to improvise over it, on clarinet and double bass respectively, in real time. So, it's became this collaborative thing. I love how that turned out."
  • Inspiration for the album struck after Holter, a new mom, introduced her first daughter to the 2008 Japanese animated fantasy film Ponyo. The themes of transformation and fluidity – a goldfish princess yearning for the human world – resonated deeply with Holter, who was experiencing her own physical changes during pregnancy.

    "It was her first-ever movie," she told The Independent. "I was suddenly having these crazy horror feelings I'd never experienced. It was crazy how intense it was. I've never felt hormonal changes like that."
  • The album title, Something In The Room She Moves, has been framed as a feminist reimagining of a classic Beatles lyric, but the origin story is much more prosaic. Working on a Logic Pro file, the title simply popped into her head. She'd just watched Peter Jackson's documentary Get Back and was singing a lot of Beatles songs to her newborn baby. "I had to name it something and for some reason, I wrote that," Holter said to The Independent.

    Holter admitted she initially wrote "something in the room he moves."

    "But I don't know why, and then I changed it. I don't really have a logical explanation," she shrugged. "I think it is to do with capturing the subconscious at a moment in time, preserving it or something."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots

Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple PilotsSongwriter Interviews

Stone Temple Pilots bass player Robert DeLeo names the songs that have most connected with fans and tells the stories behind tracks from their Tiny Music album.

The Evolution of "Ophelia"

The Evolution of "Ophelia"Song Writing

How five songs portray Shakespeare's character Ophelia.

Christopher Cross

Christopher CrossSongwriter Interviews

The man who created Yacht Rock with "Sailing" wrote one of his biggest hits while on acid.

Daryl Hall

Daryl HallSongwriter Interviews

Daryl Hall's TV show is a hit, and he's been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - only one of these developments excites him.

Brandi Carlile

Brandi CarlileSongwriter Interviews

As a 5-year-old, Brandi was writing lyrics to instrumental versions lullabies. She still puts her heart into her songs, including the one Elton John sings on.

A Monster Ate My Red Two: Sesame Street's Greatest Song Spoofs

A Monster Ate My Red Two: Sesame Street's Greatest Song SpoofsSong Writing

When singers started spoofing their own songs on Sesame Street, the results were both educational and hilarious - here are the best of them.