Holy Silence

I’ve been thinking about where to begin telling the stories behind the songs in Chapter 01. And I suppose the most obvious place to start would be with the first song we created in this new chapter of SevenFiftyTwo. Other tracks were older drafts from another time. But this was formed as something else.

Holy Silence.

Not because it was necessarily the most important song, or because we had some grand plan for what SevenFiftyTwo would eventually become.

But simply because it was the first.

And looking back at it now, I find it quite interesting that this was the subject I chose to write about when I started making music again.

Religion.

Or perhaps more accurately, what people sometimes do in its name.

I remember having a discussion about religion, the different gods people believe in and the enormous amount of suffering that has been justified throughout history by claiming to act on behalf of something divine.

We were discussing it with the intention of trying to understand why people willingly cause so much suffering in the name of religion. But then it evolved into the purpose of writing music, in that I found a way of expressing something that had frustrated me for a long time.

And there was certainly no shortage of things to talk about.

Wars, persecution, oppression, innocent people being hurt or killed. People being denied the right to live their lives as they choose, because someone else believes they have the authority to decide what is right and wrong.

All in the name of a god.

And the more I thought about it, the harder I found it to understand how something that is supposed to represent goodness, compassion and love could so often be used to justify the complete opposite both now and through history.

That contradiction has always bothered me.

Now, I should probably make something clear before going any further.

I don’t have a problem with people believing in God, or gods for that matter.

If faith gives someone comfort, helps them through difficult times or encourages them to treat other people with kindness, I can understand why it means so much to them.

And I wouldn’t presume to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t believe.

That’s their choice.

What I struggle with is when someone’s belief becomes a reason to take away another person’s choices, or when it's forced upon others. When faith is used to justify cruelty, when people are made to suffer because they believe something different, or when the authority of a religious institution becomes more important than the people it’s supposed to protect.

And unfortunately, you don’t have to look very far back in history to find examples of that.

You don’t even have to look back at all.

But I never wanted Holy Silence to be about one particular religion, country or conflict. Because to me, that would miss the point.

The names change. The beliefs change. The circumstances change. But the suffering of innocent people remains remarkably similar.

And perhaps the thing that frustrates me the most is how easily people can convince themselves that something terrible becomes acceptable when they believe they’re doing it for a greater purpose.

As though the suffering somehow matters less because the intention is considered holy.

I’ve never been able to make sense of that.

There’s another side to the song as well, and one that I think is just as important.

Silence.

Not the peaceful kind.

I’m talking about the silence that sometimes surrounds people who have been hurt. The silence of those who know something is wrong but choose not to speak. Or the silence that is expected from victims when speaking up might damage the reputation of someone powerful.

That, to me, is one of the most disturbing things about it all.

When protecting a name, an institution or a belief becomes more important than protecting an actual human being.

Because whatever someone believes in, surely the person standing in front of them should matter more than the reputation of the institution they belong to?

At least that’s how I see it.

And I know the subject is far more complicated than a few paragraphs in a Note can ever explain.

Religion has been part of human history for thousands of years. It has inspired extraordinary acts of kindness and brought people together, just as it has been used to divide them.

I don’t think pretending otherwise would make the song any more meaningful.

But I also don’t think acknowledging the good means we should be afraid to question the harm.

Especially when that harm falls on people who have done absolutely nothing to deserve it.

So when we started working on Holy Silence, I wanted the lyrics to reflect that frustration.

Not to provide an answer to every question surrounding religion.

I certainly don’t have those answers. And I'm certainly not in a position to tell anyone what they should believe.

But to question how people can claim to act in the name of something good while doing things that cause so much suffering.

It felt like something worth writing about, and something I felt was important to be clear about where we stood. And apparently, it became the first thing I wanted to say through music when starting to write again.

Which is a slightly unusual way to begin a musical journey, I suppose.

I could have started with something easier. Something about love, heartbreak or one of the many other things people write songs about.

Not that there’s anything wrong with those subjects. As you’ll discover, I’ve written about quite a few of them myself.

But this was what I wanted to express at that particular moment. And perhaps that’s something I’ve come to appreciate about writing music.

You don’t necessarily have to choose the subjects that are comfortable to talk about.

Sometimes the things that frustrate you, confuse you or leave you with questions you can’t quite answer are the things you most need to put into words.

Holy Silence was the first time I did that as SevenFiftyTwo.

And while I couldn’t have known where the music would eventually take us, I think it established something that has remained important to me ever since.

I wanted the songs to mean something. Not necessarily the same thing to everyone who listens. And certainly not something everyone has to agree with. But something that comes from an actual thought, feeling or experience rather than simply trying to write words that sound good together.

I don’t expect everyone who hears Holy Silence to share my perspective on religion. Some might disagree with parts of it. Others might recognise exactly the frustration I’m describing.

And that’s perfectly fine.

If anything, I think it’s healthy to question things, including the things we feel strongly about ourselves. Because the moment we stop allowing questions, we risk becoming far too certain that our own answers are the only ones that matter.

And looking at what inspired this song in the first place, I think there’s a certain irony in that.

So that’s where Chapter 01 really began.

With a discussion about religion, a frustration with the suffering people inflict on one another, and the decision to turn those thoughts into a song.

The first song.

And although Holy Silence was written about something much bigger than my own life, the songs that followed would gradually take us into much more personal territory.

But those are stories for another Note. For now, I suppose there’s one thought I’d like to leave you with.

You don’t have to share someone’s beliefs to recognise their humanity.

And whatever we choose to believe in, I hope that’s something we can at least agree on.