What happens when a fictional character writes a song and an independent band decides to record it? Black Door 74 joins The MIC to discuss “Emerald Lake,” the fascinating story behind the song, their DIY approach to music and what’s next for the upstate New York indie folk/rock trio.
FULL POST INTRO:
🎸🌲 BLACK DOOR 74: THE STORY BEHIND “EMERALD LAKE”
There are plenty of ways a song can begin.
A guitar riff.
A melody.
A lyric.
Or, in the case of Black Door 74, a fictional character sitting beside a lake.
Rigo, singer and guitarist for Black Door 74, wrote a short story for the inaugural issue of The Ranger’s Almanac. In that story, a character sits at Emerald Lake in Sequoia National Park and writes a song.
Black Door 74 eventually took that fictional song and recorded it.
The result is “Emerald Lake,” a quiet, fingerpicked indie-folk track that gives listeners the rare experience of hearing a fictional song become a real one.
In this edition of The MIC, we sit down with Black Door 74 to talk about the origins of the song, the band’s songwriting process, their decision to remain independent, their musical influences and their growing relationship with independent radio.
The band—Rigo, Afrostotle and Frost E. Beatz—has already seen “Emerald Lake” reach independent radio audiences in the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Italy and Taiwan.
It’s another reminder that independent music doesn’t need permission to travel.
🎸 Watch the complete interview.
🎵 Listen to “Emerald Lake.”
🌲 Discover Black Door 74.