The end of all things is a big idea, but the snakes have to wait until they can come back in “For the Snakes.”

Track: “For the Snakes”
Album: Songs for Pierre Chuvin (2020)

There are a few universal messages across Songs for Pierre Chuvin, but the most central one is about how we look back on history. These events happened almost two thousand years ago. These people are gone. There are remnants, but they are just that: remnants. “For the Snakes” finds literal snakes, a symbol for what outlasts all of us, I think, slithering across the ruins of a fallen empire. The use of the word “ruins” tells you all you need to know. It’s over for these people.

You can watch a recording of “For the Snakes” on Facebook from March of 2020, before the album was released. It’s only been a couple of years but already I feel like people will have a different experience with this album if they didn’t see that video when it first came out. In a lot of ways we’re still in it, obviously, but March of 2020 felt like the start of the end of the world. “For the Snakes” is a memento mori in that way, a reminder that there is an “after” that comes after a time you think is never going to end. You have to think that way, because you’re here right now. In a lot of ways it’s impossible to imagine the end, because if you really could imagine it, wouldn’t you try to stop it? The Romans could not imagine it and could not stop it. It will happen to all of us, but for now, the snakes have to wait.