Bit Lie wrote “consciousness” when she felt she’d lost hers.
“It was originially an instrumental about the depression I went through when my dad died and my relationship broke up. No boards, you know? Then they came to me, but not all of them were, like, words.”
She won’t write down or otherwise spell out the lyrics, describing some of them as “words destroyed by weeping” and “the sounds of the middle of the night. I kind of make a door slamming noise with my mouth.”
“consciousness” (lower-case “c”—she’ll give us that much) is a slow, slow ballad—drone and pitch plus those mournful sometimes-words.
“It’s a weird song to be known for. I feel better now; otherwise I don’t think I could do it. But there’s always someone at every show who’s living it, right then, and has to share. I’m up for that, but sometimes it’d be nice to be known for, you know, a funny sing-along thing or something.
Tonight: The Ballad of the White Horse at The Bullfinch. One set is “Queen of Seven Swords” in its synth-orch entirety. … A Miscellany of Men at Hamilton’s. Covers, but good ones like “Brave New Family.”… An Evening With Manalive at D’ollaire’s. No original members and they have the nerve to call themselves Manalive…