Singled Out: The Yagas's Life Of A Widow

The Yagas, the newly formed alt rock band fronted by Oscar and Emmy-nominated actress Vera Farmiga, just released their new album "Midnight Minuet", and to celebrate we asked keyboardist and album producer Renn Hawkey to tell us about the song "Life Of A Widow". Here is the story:

"Life Of A Widow" emerged while I was in the hospital, coming off anesthesia after a spinal fusion surgery. I probably should have been sleeping but I kept hearing a pulsating synth bass and horns in my head. Vera came to see me, brought me some carbs and my laptop. I stayed up through the night putting down the blueprint for the song.

When I played Vera the instrumental track, she asked what it was about. I said something to the effect of "me dying." Vera ran with it and joined up with our friend and lyrical collaborator, Acacia Ludwig. I call Acacia 'Ghost Yaga" because you feel her presence in several of our songs but you can't see her. She's an elusive one! The lyrics emerged really quickly. The rest of the song was loosely stitched together independently on weekends with each of the other members on my laptop, but it didn't truly come to life until we went into the Dreamland Studios where we tracked Jason's drums, Mike's bass and Mark's guitars. All vocals and keys/synth design happen afterwards in our living room. Of all the songs, I'm most proud of the production of "Life Of A Widow." It's a true representation of our genre-blending sound, which for me, ties the rest of the songs into the record. I describe our sound as ALT, INDUSTRIAL, THRASH, GOTH, SYNTH, LOUNGE, CARPATHIAN PSYCHEDELIC METAL. Is that a genre yet?

This video was the brainchild of our director Sam Reiss. Sam, Vera and Jack Shanahan, our DP, went on a scout. Vera brought them to an abandoned barn complex that she and I own that we are adaptively repurposing into an inn and restaurant. The fireworks went off when Jack saw it and the concept for the video came to life on the spot. Sam drew a lot of his inspiration from Ralph Eugene Meatyard, who was known for his dreamlike B&W abstract photography. If you don't know his work, you should. Like all the videos we make, it's all hands on deck, whether that's Vera directing, producing, art directing and doing costumes or me producing, art directing or cleaning toilets. We have been incredibly fortunate to have a crew of talented creatives who are down for the cause of making art, for very little money. Sam truly knocked this one out of the park and I'm excited to watch him grow as a director. Hopefully he won't get too famous to come back and direct another video for us!

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here

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