Paris Takes the Stage
A song about COP 21
Danton and Heather didn’t plan to attend the Paris climate talks. They did imagine what it might be like, though.
In preparing for this song, and the rest of the story of Decades After Paris (DAP), they sketched a journey of what it would feel like in each part of the album. From the energy of the climate march, through despair from inaction, to hopeful breakthrough: the listener would have the opportunity to explore and feel potential futures.
Danton started expressing these feelings on a rented keyboard; some chord progressions and riffs started taking shape. This one in particular quickly took hold and set a stylistic tone to guide the rest.
Some of the other songs emerged from tunes shuffling around in Heather’s head which fit the tone of the story. Most of the music came from Danton’s finger tips, though, while Heather spilled lyrics into note books during her commute on the bus.
“Paris Takes the Stage” has a relaxed groove, delivering the irony that citizens casually go about daily life while history is made.
They invite the listener to look past media glamorization to understand this potentially pivotal moment.
To amplify the experience, this sexy, film noir styled music video was produced through the gracious creativity, gear, and time donations of Joseph Boutilier — now of Empress Avenue Media.
Lyrics
We sip on beer from Belgium
counting all the ways that we
Live a life of plenty
borrowed from an ancient sea
Counting all the footprints
Leading up to what will be
No time for second guessing
Reinvent prosperity
The first verse explores a common reflection on the impact of a privileged life. They would sit on a foreign patio, sipping imported beer, all provided by fossil fuels, some of which come from ancient marine creatures.
Paris Takes the Stage Again
It’s not a show my friends
A pathway or the endOne hundred thirty seven
years ago we gathered here
Scientific wonder
Movement from thin air
Window to a future
Lost to a familiar fate
The sun still shines upon us
It’s not too late…
In the song Paris is taking the stage for COP 21… and 137 years prior, it took the stage for the World Expo, where the first solar powered collector was demonstrated.
When the lines and lines on paper,
Guide the titans to lay bare
Options for redemption
Salvation may be in thereThe first generation
To feel the records breaking
The last generation
To make history
Finally, the song expresses some sense of hope that the “titans” (government and industry) can set us on a better path. In fact, that they really only have one chance to do it. The final part of the bridge to the ending chorus is a quote by President Obama from Climate Week NYC in 2014.
What is COP 21 all about?
International parties to the conference spent long hours, and ran over the intimal deadline, to reach some agreement on how to shape our uncertain future.
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on 12 December 2015. It entered into force on 4 November 2016.
Its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
However, in recent years, world leaders have stressed the need to limit global warming to 1.5°C by the end of this century.
As the album progresses to tell the story years beyond the agreement, the fate of the planet unfolds.
