Orfila release Raise a Glass
Orfila are one of our favourite trios here at Belles and Gals, so were delighted to hear they’d be releasing their brand new single ‘Raise a Glass’, which is out today! The song was written as a tribute to their grandfather, the inspiration being a self-written note read out at his funeral.
“We had just returned from his funeral and we were all a bit down so decided to write a song in his memory. Our Grandpa was a man of strong faith and during his funeral the priest read out a speech that our Grandpa had written specifically to be read out during his funeral. The letter’s theme was basically for us not to be sad that he’s gone but to be happy for him as he is in a better place. We took this idea and wrote the song. It’s quite rare for all three of us to sit down and write a song together as we usually write songs individually and then present them to the rest of the band to fine tune them. We decided to write the song from a Christian perspective as our Grandpa was a devout Catholic but also wanted the meaning of the song to remain open to interpretation, so anyone can choose to take some comfort from the song’s message that departed loved ones are never truly gone and perhaps are in a better place.
As we grew up regularly attending church and singing hymns we wanted to give the song a hymn style sound in the chorus with strong three-part harmonies (which is one of our trademarks as a band). We wrote the song to be an upbeat celebration of life and it took on a life of its own when we started recording. We were really lucky to be working with some top names in music as the album was engineered by Sean Genockey, a well-regarded engineer who has worked with The Who. We were really proud with how the song came out and it’s one of our favourite tracks from the album because it is such a personal track for us. We decided to end the track with the simple line “God bless”, which was the last line of our Grandpa’s letter and is also the last line sung on the album”
I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a beautiful song and a wonderfully touching tribute.
To download a copy of the song, click here – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/raise-a-glass/1370013373?i=1370013375
