Tag: Song Meaning

Behind the Song “Masquerade”

~ Melissa Bianco ~ Leave a comment

I love writing. I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. Nothing great, mind you, but just stuff. I was just chatting with my bestie from grade 6 (grade 6!!) and she remembered a poem I wrote for her for her 11th or 12th birthday and she quoted my own poem back to me, word for word. I was floored.

The poem was terrible, but it rhymed, so I have that going for me. Anywho, once I hit double digits and started going to high school, I kept writing. Nothing fancy. An entire story dedicated to meeting Davey Jones (yes, from The Monkees, I had a crush.) to other just ridiculous stories.

But I also wrote a few poems. So when I was on my High School Annual (Canadian version of a Yearbook) Committee, I had an opportunity to GET PUBLISHED. Hey, published is published. I’ll take it.

Since I was in high school and everything was a big deal, I wrote some incredibly angsty poem about hiding behind smiles and living in cages of making everything seem perfectly okay (please note: this is an Easter Egg. Continue listening to my music to see a reference to this phrase…someday.)

So I thought, you know what? I’m gonna write a song about how we all hide behind these masks in some way. And that’s where the song came from. . Throw in a catchy 80s new wave vibe and we’re cookin’!

So now you know.

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Behind the Song: “Fight for Love”

~ Melissa Bianco ~ Leave a comment

Just in time for Valentines Day! (Which neither my husband or I are particular fans of so we usually celebrate date night on a different day.) I mean it just make sense, doesn’t it?

Anyway, on the dawn of Valentines Day, this is the second of two male vocals for this album. Let’s see if I can explain this. I wrote this song for my husband as if he wrote it for me. (It really makes more sense when you hear the song. Truly.)

Anyway, a few easter eggs in the song:

  • The first day we met he saw my smile and well obviously it was over for him (I swear, he likes my chubby cheeks)
  • North Star is a reference to my coming from Canada
  • The line, “I’ll slay your dragons, one by one” is a reference to a story he wrote me when he proposed to me

Some songs fall out of my brain straight onto the page. This was one of them. I’m not going to say how long it took, it’s a pretty simple song, but it came quickly.

By the way, he liked the song. I know I did it right if I see some tears in his eyes. (I got me some tears.)

I normally design my own covers, but since this one was for him, I let him contribute to the cover.

The ASL (American Sign Language) sign for “I Love You” is front and center. (It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek since it’s a hair band 80s ballad so that’s why you see the long hair. And normally guys are all, “Yeah, man! The horns, baby! The horns!” Since Ron and I are Christian, that was out, so we added our take instead. Actually, I thought it was pretty clever. Again, that was his idea.

The shining star does double duty — one is a reference to the North (it’s north on the album cover), but also since Jesus is our guidepost, it’s a nod to his guidance as well. (That’s why you see “I swear to Heaven above” — we married and made a commitment to each other.)

We’ve been together for over 25 years and, man, time flies! Needless to say, this one is dedicated to my husband, Ron Bianco.

Happy (almost) Valentines Day, everyone!

If you’re all, “Bah humbug. People are horrible.” Uh….then Happy Friday the 13th?