The remastered “Secure the Moment” is officially released! Lyrics have also been posted on the lyrics page. Here, Dede shares for the first time, the process she took in writing this song, and the meaning behind it:
“The framework and conception for Secure the Moment was written and completed on September 27, 2005. At the time, Sententia, wasn’t even a word I had heard of before let alone the name I would use as a band name. I was playing drums in the pseudo progrock, slightly hardcore Boston band, Left Handed Thieves. While in the band, I was always writing music on the side, purely for myself. Teaching myself guitar and writing music had become my form of journaling for years. But it was around the time of Secure the Moment, where we were coming off of a tour, and I had started to contemplate the idea of sharing my songs with the band and wanted to begin contributing more to the songwriting process. This was indeed a song I felt proud of and had planned on sharing with the group.
When I finished writing Secure the Moment, however, there was something ominous in the air. I stared at the lyrics and began to feel uneasy. Band practice was the next night, and somehow through this song, I knew something was going to happen. That night at practice, an unexpected band meeting was called and was held right outside of a mexican restaurant near an empty parking lot. There was a slight drizzle in the air, the kind that doesn’t feel like rain, but soon you realize the film of mist that is accumulating on you. It was at this meeting when I was asked to leave the band. Although I was shocked and devastated, I couldn’t help become dissociated from my situation. I couldn’t hear the guys talking to me. All I could hear was this song in my head. All I could see were the lyrics that I had finished writing the night before.
I used Secure the Moment as a way for me to look at my future and where I wanted to take it. I saw myself at a cross roads. I could either start looking in want ads and audition to become the drummer for another band, or I could use this song as a sign for me to form my own band. Obviously, I chose the latter. A month later, I formed Sententia. Secure the Moment was arranged, conceived, and recorded four months later as part of a four song EP, Fruition. At the time of the Fruition sessions, I was joined by Matt Nazzaro on guitars, bass, and backing vocals. We recorded Fruition on a digital 8 track player, and though it was a great tool that allowed us to demo our work, I could never quite get that EP to sound the way I had intended…granted I was also just getting my feet wet with production and didn’t really know how to achieve what I wanted.
This remaster of Secure the Moment is a pretty damn close representation of who Sententia was back in 2006. I was really into acoustic melodies driving a song, while having those hardcore rock influenced electric guitars (they had become part of my musical influences from all the bands I was being exposed to with Left Handed Thieves) pierce through the mix intermittently. I was listening to a lot of The Gathering, and I think those melancholy vocals rubbed off on me, but the vocals were never suppose to be as shoegazey as they had sounded on the original recording. The vocals on this remaster were rerecorded in order to capture more of that Gathering appeal and less of the My Bloody Valentine that they had originally sounded. There are no backing vocals on this remaster because I think the backing vocals were a little more folk than intended, and never quite worked to begin with. It’s been exciting and invigorating to be able to celebrate Fruition in this way. I hope everyone can hear Secure the Moment now in the way in which it has been pictured in my head for the past six and half years. Enjoy!”
