Sci-Fi Songs: vampires

"Angels and Vampires" was inspired by Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice... sort of.

I was so pleased with the results of "Beautiful Vampire" that I decided to use it as the first track on a CD that I released a few years ago. The title of that CD was "Angels and Vampires: Volume I", as there were a few songs that had references to... wait for it... Angels and Vampires. Ed. note: I also mentioned Camaros on a couple of songs, and I originally intended on titling the album "Vampires and Camaros", but was voted down by my friends that did the artwork for the CD. :-) But I digress.

At the time, I had a pretty extensive backlog of songs (I still do). I figured that putting Volume I in the title would pressure me into quickly recording and releasing a Volume II (it didn't work). With that in mind, I thought that it would be a good idea to write a title track called Angels and Vampires.

I researched the relationship between Angels and Vampires and came across Anne Rice's Memnoch the Devil. I enjoyed it, and it gave me the idea to characterize the vampire in my song as a fallen angel, but "Angels and Vampires" isn't really about Memnoch the Devil at all. It is more of a prequel to my song "Beautiful Vampire".

Carmilla, the female vampire, is once again cast as the main character in this song. This time she is younger, struggling with her existence as a vampire, walking around with artificially blond hair, and working in a coffee shop instead of a bar (what can I say? I used to spend a lot of time in the coffee shops and bars of New Jersey).

Carmilla's antagonist is a modern day version of the angel Gabriel. He shows up at the coffee shop to offer solace to Carmilla, who may or may not be a former angel herself.

I wrote this song a few years ago, but I just recorded it last week. I'm really excited to finally put this song out into the world.

Here are the lyrics:

Angels and Vampires

She scribbles his order down
to the beat of espresso machines
Adjusts her peroxide crown
Retracts her diaphanous wings

She's obsessive and manic depressive
Carmilla hates what she's become

Gabe looks in her stained-glass eyes
and sings his celestial refrain
Peeks through his own disguise
and gives her a chance to explain

Her defection and lack of reflection
Gabriel waits through the night

And he said that Angels and Vampires hide behind their wings
He said that Angels and Vampires hide behind their wings

They enter the cold night air
and head south on Patterson street
Climb up the cathedral stairs
propelled by the blood and caffeine

Then he mentions he offers redemption
Carmilla can't make up her mind

And he said that Angels and Vampires hide behind their wings
He said that Angels and Vampires hide behind their wings

But she's got to find her way home
But it's too late

Here are some of the tools that I used to record the track:

Martin Acoustic Guitar in Standard tuning with a capo at the third fret
Les Paul Studio Electric Guitar in Open A tuning (EAEAC#E) for the slide guitar parts.
Washburn Bass Guitar
Rode NT-3 microphone (to record the acoustic guitar and my vocals)
Apple Logic Pro 7 recording software
1. The EXS24 Sampler for the violin, organ, and synthesizer sounds
2. The ES2 software synth
3. Logic's included compressor, delay, and reverb plug-ins
4. The electric guitar parts were recorded through Logic's Guitar Amp Pro plug-in
5. The drum parts were created using Beta Monkey's Drum Werks V loop collection

Hope you enjoy it,
John

Beautiful Vampire.mp3

As the season passes into October, I thought that it would be fitting to post a few songs that were influenced by the Gothic/Horror side of speculative fiction.

Beautiful Vampire was inspired by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Gothic novella "Carmilla". According to Wikipedia, the novella "tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla."

I actually wrote this song about four or five years ago. I took the character of Carmilla and placed her in a modern setting, which in this case happens to be a goth club in New Jersey where she is working as a bartender.

This song was a staple of my live set for years. At the time, I was into using digital loop samplers. I would often create an ambient, reversed drone of a loop to set an atmosphere and I would improvise a solo using my lap steel (a string instrument played on the lap with a metal slide bar). That is exactly what I did for the intro of "Beautiful Vampire". In retrospect, I wish that I had cut the intro and placed it as a separate track on the CD, as it runs for about one minute and thirty seconds before the actual songs begin. If you get impatient listening to this piece, I recommend downloading it and skipping ahead to the '1:30' mark on the track.

I hope you enjoy it,
John

Here are the lyrics:

Beautiful Vampire
by John Anealio

With ample fear I descend into this dungeon paradise
The atmosphere is a haze of sweat and smoke and false black light
That illuminates the room into fluorescent shades of green
Elven queens and Gothic boys are high on Benzedrine
She's pulling on her vinyl dress

Carmilla reigns, dispensing drinks and supernatural stares
Mascara stains her ivory face and flowing chestnut hair
I'm captured in her regal glance

Now she wants to be alone with me, this Beautiful Vampire
She wants to be alone with me but I won't invite her in

As techno blares, she offers wine and immortality
As strobe lights flare, dark women act out sapphic fantasies
I'm clutching on my crucifix

Now she wants to be alone with me, this Beautiful Vampire
She wants to be alone with me but I won't invite her in

Her eternal life began in 1810
when she was bitten by an English nobleman
Just a farm girl who was young and innocent
And as the decades past she hasn't aged a bit

Now she wants to be alone with me, this Beautiful Vampire
She wants to be alone with me but I won't invite her in

Full disclosure:
I actually released this song on CD a few years ago. If you are interested in hearing the other songs on this CD, you can check it out here. When I started Sci-Fi Songs this summer, I decided to use a pen name. It is not much of a pen name though. John is my real first name and Anealio is my real middle name. I just dropped my last name. If you click on the links to my old CD, you will see my real last name with no mention of my middle name. I hope that isn't too confusing. I didn't want to receive an e-mail from someone telling me that I was ripping some other guy off when that other guy is me. :-) From this point on, I plan on using John Anealio for all of my music.

Here are the links:

Please don't feel pressured to buy anything. I am still going to release a new free song every two weeks here on the blog. I may even post some other songs from that CD here in the future if they are applicable to the sci-fi theme. I just thought that some people might be curious to hear some of my older work.

Sci-Fi Songs

Sci-Fi Song #10: Angels and Vampires

Sci-Fi Song #9: Beautiful Vampire