“Many Funerals” by Eisley, Saturday, August 28, 2021

Last month I talked about Eisley, the named-for-Star-Wars sister-cousin band from Tyler, Texas. Their major label debut garnered indie cred, but due to some issues in the music industry, the band's label de-prioritized their sophomore release, delaying it almost a year from its recording and mastering. As for promotion, the record label pulled radio support as they weren't sure which format to market the band and canceled plans for a second music video to the band's only non-radio single "Invasions" and never released the video for today's song, "Many Funerals." Eisely can be added to the list of Christian-adjacent bands, such as MuteMath, Copeland, Mae, The Juliana Theory, and Anberlin, that were failed by major labels. Some of these groups saw initial success, whether radio, video, or touring, but ultimately they were left abandoned by the major label. Although RadioU plays some of their latest singles, by the end the Room Noises cycle, Eisley's creative path didn't have them marketed to the Christian rock format, which is what happened to groups like Mae, Copeland, and the Juliana Theory.

YOUNG AND AGILE, SEASIDE BORN. The lyrics of "Many Funerals" make the listener imagine a dark sea-side setting, that perhaps is set in the past. The sentence structure has an old-timey feel. The lyrical content is fictional. The Dupree parents are still alive (and active on Instagram), and the Dupree children were born in a landlocked county in Northeast Texas. There's not much information online about Eisley's comments on the song, so listeners are left to guess what it's about. The listener, the person the song seems to be addressing, seems also to have died by suicide. Sherri sings, "How could you have left us here? You had your friends, you had us, goodbye." It could also be blaming the person for a sickness or accident that person had no control over, which sometimes happens when someone dies. No matter the cause of death, "Many Funerals" is a gloomy album opener. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross's On Death and Dying categorizes stages of grief humans had been unconsciously practicing for millennia. Art--be it literature, painting, song, or dramatization--helps us a species reconcile with our own mortality. We can see others in their grieving processes. However, we cannot weigh the grief of individuals in the past, when death was much more prevalent, nor can we weigh the grief of others in the present, in a time when statistically we are living longer, despite the cancers, heart disease, car accidents, and gun violence. One funeral is one too many. Eventually one day, the funeral will be yours if it's not mine first. 

I'M CONTENT TO LIE PEACEFULLY. "I've seen so many missionaries come and go," Kelly said turning her eyes back to Allan. The wooden interior of the emptying restaurant made her voice sound far away. "Some of them I've kept in contact with. But there was one man, you kind of reminded me of him, at least you have the same blue eyes, a similar openness to learning about this country, and the same unwavering faith." She looked out the window again. The soft end of summer breeze blew through the trees at the dessert cafe's court yard, and the lack of. Allan unwrapped a chocolate served to him with his coffee. "Do you want the other one." Ignoring the question, she turned back to Allan. "He was at our institute for three years. He was my English teacher for several terms. I learned so much from him. When we went out for the tea times with the other students, the ajumma would ask 'What kind of girl are you looking for?' and he'd reply that he was looking for a girl who didn't speak any English," she unwrapped the chocolate offered to her. "Wait, what?" Kelly turned her head as if the motion were melting the chocolate on her tongue. Her eyes danced as she looked at Allan. When the chocolate had melted, she said, "He wanted to teach her everything. He didn't want her to have any mistakes embedded in her foundation. He wanted purity." "I don't know how I feel about that." "Me too." Kelly let out a sigh through her nose. "Eventually he did meet someone, Mi-young. She didn't speak a lick of English, and he did teach her." "Was she happy?" "I don't know. Maybe. For a time. Anyway, they moved to America. Texas. I wrote to him, just to keep in touch, like I do with the other missionaries who were impactful in my life. I even visited them in the late '90s. But one day, he stopped returning my letters. Mi-young wrote me back about a year and a half later, saying that he had died. Melanoma. He was too young, maybe thirty-four." "That's very sad you lost your friend that way." "He was so much more than a friend," the silence hung in the empty cafe. "He was a mentor, a spiritual adviser, a good man. I hope I can see him again someday." She glanced at her watch. "Goodness," she said grabbing her keys, "we have to get back to work!"

Read the lyrics on Genius.