HIGHWAY EXIT

People have been asking about the films that inspired the Just A Crash album, and I guess we never tried to hide the fact that we love the cinematic way of approaching a story, as well as drawing inspiration from scenes or just the feel of a film to write a song.
So since this blog is supposed to be the diary of Cyanna, I guess that listing some further facts about this album -where some ideas came from, the sources etc- would be an interesting article -or a series of articles-, especially for those wondering what this band’s actual influences are. After all it’s almost a year now since the album’s official release, so here goes..

It’s no secret that the basic concept of the album was conceived during a talk we had about “Crash“, the 2004 film written and directed by Paul Haggis. Self-absorbed characters, prejudice, stereotypes, guilt and the hell of facing one’s inner self, the fact that everyone and everything is connected with that invisible substance of randomness. The title of the album itself is actually not about the romantic sense of the word ‘crash’, but rather the urge of humans to collide, violently enough to feel something and exit, even for a moment, that numbness of modern life in a big city, in a bigger world. ‘Done Be’, the opening track of the album (as well as the hidden closing track), is a story, a sequence of moments, thoughts and memories of a character trapped in such a scenario.

Another film that proved a great and long lasting source of inspiration for us is “Chasing Amy“, written and directed by Kevin Smith. ‘If this is just a crash, I don’t think I can take it if the real thing ever happens..’ a phrase almost identical to that line from a scene in the movie, would become the perfect ‘end titles’ part for JAC in the hidden thirteenth track. Shit.. that was supposed to be a secret but what the hell. There actually was no dilemma or any kind of debate on the title of the album once this phrase caught our attention. ‘Just A Crash’ is an oxymoron by itself without the rest of that line and such a powerful meaning. We generally believe very much in words and their impact. After all ‘..first there was word..’.

In ‘Better Not’ there’s a spoken part of the lyrics ‘..a man on the road to perdition..’. “The Road To Perdition” by director Sam Mendes is a story about facing one’s demons and taking responsibility. Not a milestone but a strong title and atmosphere that stuck in my mind long enough to describe a totally different situation but similar in some way. Men and their demons.. cliche but always fun to indulge in.

‘Highway Exit’ was supposed to be a straight rock n roll song about one of the classic rock n’ roll topics: pissing on this fucked up world, beer and the good life. AC/DC were on our minds when writing it (music and lyrics-wise), but the ‘on the road’ feel we wanted to breathe in this tune, we borrowed from Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas” based on late Hunter S. Thompson’s book. Certainly the greatest road movie of all time – it has marked us like no other. Not so much the whole drug culture part, but the cynicism and surrealistic way of monitoring the way society works (or fails to work), which in the end proves to be more realistic than sober people talking on Satan’s box. Yea everybody is indeed fake and bends falls over way too often.

There are some more trivia-to-kill-time-reading about ‘Shine’, ‘On and On’ and some other tracks from JAC but I will get back to it later (that’s why there’s a ‘#1′ on the post topic :p). Thanks for reading folks. We’ll stay in touch I guess..