Douglas Von Irvin’s Carnival deliver a romantic ballad to sink your teeth into with Vampire Lovers — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The third single from the Toronto and L.A.-based pop duo’s upcoming EP Meet The Monsters, the darkly shadowed ballad — festooned with lyrics about bleeding, sunrises, reflections and other vampiric tropes — will certainly appeal to children of the night and their followers. But the song is actually a romantic metaphor crated by Von Irvin, who had become exhausted by people that “have to be the center of attention all of the time” — people who “actually take energy” and “leave nothing behind … except-worn out people that run in the other direction to avoid getting energy sucked out of their lives again.”
Though its concept was born of negative experiences, Von Irvin was hell-bent on spreading a positive and inspiring message. “The dark loneliness [these people] go through would change if vampires could learn to live and give,” he said. “I used the lyric ‘learn to live and give’ to build the song’s foundation on a positive note. The characters in this song are vampires; one of them has decided to make a change, then makes a dramatic plea to his lover to follow him. We can change anything we decide to change about ourselves when we decide it’s time to do it.”
Rather than include a ripping guitar solo, Von Irvin made the conscious decision to break off into a low-key spoken-word bridge in the tail end of the song. The section speaks volumes (metaphorically) about shaking the negative connotations of being vain. “I’m suggesting a possibility to break the curse and for you to become my one bride,” he says.
Boasting a keyboard feature from Walter Ino (The Babys, Eagles of Death Metal), Vampire Lovers was co-recorded and co-produced with Von Irvin’s collaborative counterpart Dr. Prycenstein, and drummer/producer Matt Starr (Mr. Big, Ace Frehley).
Meet The Monsters arrives on May 25. Check out Vampire Lovers above, hear more from Douglas Von Irvin’s Carnival below, and keep up with them on their website, Facebook and Instagram.
