Lindsey Stirling Details Making Concept Album 'Artemis' & Comic Book

By Taylor Fields

November 15, 2019

This past September, Lindsey Stirling released her concept album Artemis, and it's unlike anything she's ever shared before.

Artemis follows Stirling's 2017 holiday album Warmer in the Winter and 2016 album Brave Enough, and showcases 13 new songs including "The Upside" featuring Elle King, and another guest appearance from Evanescence's Amy Lee ("Love Goes On and On"). Along with the new music also comes a comic book that coincides with the album, also written by Stirling, and she explains of putting the project together, "Artemis, is a concept album. And while I was writing the album, I actually was also writing a comic book and they are partner pieces that go together to tell the story of the Goddess of the Moon, Artemis. In this story, one of our main characters, she lives underground in the part of the world that is known as The Trenches, and in The Trenches, they've never even seen the sky before. And our main character, she hopes to one day be able to go up to what is called 'The Upside,' which is the part of the world above The Trenches. So that's why the first song of the album was called 'Underground' and one of the last songs is called 'The Upside,' where she seeks to go."

She adds, "I wanted this album to be a concept album because, well one, it was a fun challenge. I've never done an album that from start to finish tells a holistic story. And the fact that I got to write a comic book along with it, it just made it for a really unique and fun process that was different from any album I've ever written. Also, I just love the moon and the symbolism that it represents. First of all the moon brings light to darkness, and each one of us, every single person faces darkness in life whether it's situational and outside of yourself, or whether that darkness is a part of you and it's inside of you. I think that we can all find hope in the idea that we can find light, even amongst darkness. We can find hope even in the midst of trial and hardship. Also I loved that the moon goes in phases, and sometimes it's bright and other times it's completely covered in shadow. And yet it still continuously to find its light again, time and time again. And I think that's a really powerful metaphor for all of us that, yeah, we go through times of shadow where we may feel covered up and lost, but we can always fight to reclaim our full light just like the moon. And that is why the album is called Artemis."

Lindsey Stirling - 'Artemis' Album Cover Art

Artemis' "The Upside" is the last song on the album, and as you would expect based on the title, it's packed with positivity. Lindsey explains, "I love the song 'The Upside' because it's written about how sometimes when we're going through hardship, it feels like we're just going down and down and spiraling further and further. But eventually, through any hardship, you'll turn that corner where suddenly you realize that you're no longer going down anymore, but things are getting better, you're finding more hope in life. And to me, I decided to call that 'The Upside.' You're on the upside of what was once a downhill slope and now you're headed back up, and it's when you're filled with hope. And so that's what this song represents. Hope."

Stirling adds of being able to work with Elle King on the song, "'The Upside' was originally written as an instrumental song for just the violin, but I liked it so much and it was so catchy that I thought it would be really fun to have two versions of the song on the album — an instrumental one and then one with a featured vocalist. And so we wrote lyrics for it, and I wanted to work with Elle for a long time and so it was so exciting when she said that she wanted to sing it. She brought such a unique flavor to the song, because her voice is so special and so unique. It really gave the song a whole new life."

Listen to Lindsey Stirling's new album Artemis on iHeartRadio.

Lindsey Stirling
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