Copyright © 2025 Downcoast
This one is David’s favorite on the EP.
The song came about when it was nearing Halloween time, and David wanted to write something that reflected the mood. It was originally titled simply “Halloween Song.” The Castlevania: Symphony of the Night soundtrack was a big inspiration, specifically the song “Marble Gallery.” (David’s favorite) This one took a long time to write, because the structure is more complex than usual.
It’s about a man running through the forest in search of something. The band likes to think it follows the same protagonist as Help Me Doctor!!, which made it a perfect track 2 for the EP. Ryan really enjoyed making a Halloween-inspired song, and thinks writing songs based on “vibes” is a fun way to put something together.
The structure made it very difficult to put this song together as a band for the first time, and it took a while longer than Help Me Doctor to complete. Very few changes were made after David’s original demo, other than adding a chorus. It also originally had a pretty bad chanting outro thing that was changed into the spoken word/falsetto part we have now.
Fun fact: This song has a vocal range of exactly four octaves. (F2-F5) It also features one of Keegan’s friends as one of the low voices in the chorus. Shoutout Mike.
It’s also Grant from Naked Giants’ favorite song we played at our Shredder show on 2-18-22. It was great to get validation for such a weird track, even though this is the least-streamed song on the EP. The world just isn’t ready for Pariah I guess.
[Verse]
The branches sway like plastic kites
In a hurricane that tears the night
Don’t wait
For me
[Chorus]
Pariah (x4)
[Bridge]
There’s a light (light)
And it’s buried in the shadow of the oak
I feel the end is (in sight)
But have I seen that apparition here before
But why (why)
Am I buried in the shadow of the oak
My chest is tight (tight)
The sky collapses into dust under the weight of the-
[Chorus]
Pariah (x4)
[Outro, spoken word]
Into the woods
With a question with no answer
And a journey without a destination
The twigs dance in the moonlight
Obscured by the leaves of the sea
He was hoping to find what wasn’t there
But as he searched and the day grew old
The night laid upon him and he began to run
Here is David’s first demo of the song, using the working title “Tinker Tailor.” This one doesn’t have a chorus, and a couple parts are different. Probably from around July 2020.
Here’s another demo of the song for when it was simply called “Pariah.” This was made shortly after the first demo, and is a lot closer to the final song. David’s guitar is going through an old Boss multi-effects pedal from 2001 he found on Craigslist.
(If this doesn’t load for you, reload the page. Idk why it does that lol)
This is easily the hardest song off the EP to play, mostly because of the bizarre structure and varied tones. David specifically has a really hard time playing this one because it requires him to constantly be using his pedals to change his guitar sound for every new section. It’s also the most difficult one to sing.
But at the same time, it’s an incredibly interesting song to play live. People always seem to bob their heads and get into this one, even if it isn’t crazy with mosh pits and such during our other songs. For that reason, it’s a good stop-gap between two songs that are like that to give people a moment to just vibe with the music and appreciate the song.
Down the line, we doubt we’re going to play this song as much as the others simply because of the difficulty. Tell us if you want us to keep it around though!