Behind The Tracks: MNRVA – Hollow (Single) (2022)

Our single “Hollow” is one of those songs that emerged from the practice room. Byron had a guitar groove written for it and once Gina worked out the rhythm on the drums we began shaping the structure of the song, getting the shift from the verse to the chorus to hit hard while still staying with the groove. The mid section then evolved through variation on the musical themes. The guitar solo too was a jam while we were working out the track. Byron repeated the riff just to get a feel for it, and it sounded really cool and hypnotic so we rolled with it. Finally, the intro to the song is a different tempo than the main groove, which we don’t really do too often. It takes one of the main riffs and puts it into a different feel and timing without changing the notes. Overall, we want to bring the doom without losing the swing, and Hollow has that doomy and groovy vibe that really cuts down the middle of what MNRVA is after in our songs.

 

Our lyric writing is pretty collaborative too. Kevin wrote the bulk of the lyrics first, before we developed the music, and then Byron tweaked bits of the chorus, put some lines on the intro, and put a title on it. The song “Hollow” is the story of someone forsaking everything at all costs to enjoy the pleasures of this world, but through a medium of folklore and horror. A hollow is both a small valley or low wooded area or clearing, and an empty space, void, or being empty inside. The imagery used for the album came from a hiking trip where Gina had found a clearing with an arrangement of large braches in a small wooded area that made a shelter. It looked like a witch’s hut or lean-to and we felt it would add to the vibe we were trying to convey and became the basis of the album cover. The video is cut together by indie filmmaker Anthony Stagliano from his film Fade and really captures the mood and flow of the song. It’s both dark and trippy, depicting the hollowing out of the self. All of these elements really show how many ideas can go into the creation of a song.