Richard Colado, otherwise known under the moniker Rickolus has composed a double disc ode to express his relationship with his wife through song sketches both acoustic and electric. On our premiere of “Snow Globes” from his upcoming album Troubadour for Circle into Square, cold nights become recounted where moments in the afterglow of evening events, dive and run through the passages of parties and intimate meetings get held tight in a recounted song about relentless bonds of desire.
The breath of the accordion keys shines a lamplight on a night's street paths where emotions are relayed in bursts of color. The piano guided vehicle sets a pace that sounds naked even when coupled with a muted synth spring and percussion gallop before you are brought to the chorus chapters where all instruments fly through the air like a musical blizzard. In this world, Richard paints a picture where the 2 of them are inseparable and surrounded by a triumphant salute of cannons and the company of an animal menagerie.
The storm of elements hinges on the folk verses and metaphors of lovers stealing their passions into the corridors and hallowed hallways of the night between the mighty chorus bursts into song. First reciting the song title, the piano gets louder, the tubular bells clang in a resounding meeting of celebration that affirms the comfort of, “we don't have to be alone.” Following the second glorious sweep of sound, an interlude of percussion drums heavily into the closing calls that all but extinguish the song's shining light that picks up the chorus's energy before you are left with a clip of cassette recorded studio banter.
Rickolus wrote us his thoughts on the songwriting process for Troubadour, divulging the developments behind the creation of “Snow Globe” in the following generous piece:
“Concerning 'Snow Globes':
Some songs you write in one sitting and they are perfect, it almost seems like the song was already finished and it just needed a vessel to birth it into the world and you are the vessel, 'Snow Globes' was NOT one of those songs. I started work on this song when I started working in this album, three years ago, and since it's inception I've been wrestling with it, molding it, trying to make it work, slowly chipping away it's shell to make it into the song it is today.
I think the reason the song took so long is because I didn't really have a vision of where it was going to begin with, I just kinda started building it and had to figure out as I worked. It started as just an idea, a piano attack with a synth decay, the first sound you hear in the song. Then I started adding drums, more keyboards, came up with the drum breakdown, then all the voices at the end, all that was pieces together over months. And the lyrics, I think I just was playing with words when I first used the word 'snow globe,' I didn't know what the song was about at that point. Then over time I found a subject that fit that word and wrote from there. Eventually when I sat down to mix I had a mess of a song with a million tracks and I nearly lost my mind. Overall it was one of the tougher songs to finish on the album, I'm glad I stuck with it though.
The song lyrics are about a night my wife and I spent together long before we were married. It was at a Christmas party my boss at the time was having. Just one of those nights that you remember forever.”
Rickolus's album Troubadour will be available October 15 from Circle Into Square.
