Song Origins: A Silent Moment

The song that found its way

When subscriber Jim McDonald commented on one of my recent posts, he called “A Silent Moment” a masterpiece of psychedelic rock. It meant a lot to hear that, especially because writing and recording the song was genuinely a watershed moment for me as a musician.

The origin story starts with discovering Taken By Trees, a solo project by Victoria Bergman. She was the lead singer of The Concretes, and she’s the voice on Peter Bjorn and John’s huge hit “Young Folks.”

I came across her album “East of Eden,” where she traveled to Pakistan to record, working with local musicians as she was deeply inspired by the qawwali legend Nusrate Fateh Ali Khan; she created something that beautifully fused Eastern and Western music.

I was completely enamored by what she’d done, and when I started writing “A Silent Moment” around 2011, I knew that fusion was exactly what I wanted to explore with this song and with Elephant Stone’s direction moving forward.

My home demo (below), titled "My Silent Days," already had a pretty clear sonic vision: harmonium, my recently purchased dilruba, tabla, and sitar, with Kirsty on the higher harmony. It has a very Brian Jonestown Massacre vibe to it… which, honestly, felt like exactly the right starting point.

But then I thought maybe a santoor (an Indian hammered dulcimer) would work better rather than the sitar during the break.

I brought the idea to Shawn Mativetsky, a frequent collaborator on tabla, and asked if he knew of a vocalist who could handle that section. After having some doubts, I decided a female vocalist would work better. We talked about the range and feel, and Shawn suggested that actually a male voice would work better. When I asked him who he considered the best male vocalist he knew, he said without hesitation: Pundit Vinay Bhide, a Hindustani classical vocalist from Ottawa.

I sent Pundit ji an email with the song and told him what is was about: those quiet moments when you’re meditating or reflecting, when you’re thinking about your past, your present, your future, trying to understand who you are and why you’re here. He agreed to come in and vocalize it using shuddha — wordless melodic singing — in the raga we’d chosen. He came to Brealglass Studios in Montreal with his son, and honestly, he brought this wisdom about music and life that I’ll never forget (I think one of his quotes were “you’ll never make a living off of music!” but I digress). When he performed it, I think he did it in one take. And I remember sitting there at the end of it, just knowing this was something very, very special. Something I couldn’t have imagined on my own.

Years later, we played in Brno, Czech Republic, our first time in Czechia. Some fans drove all the way from Prague to see us. We didn’t end up playing “A Silent Moment” that night— we were opening and didn't have time — and I remember the husband coming up to me after, saying his wife was disappointed because it was her favorite song. She didn't speak English, so she couldn't tell me the title, but when I asked her to describe it, she just started singing the melody.

After the show, I sat with her at the merch table and we sang “A Silent Moment” together. And she just started to cry. In that moment, I realized something I think every musician hopes for: this song had become something meaningful to people. It wasn’t just mine anymore. And that’s really all you can ask for— that your music actually means something to someone.

om shanti om. rishi.