We want to share the story behind each and every song from our latest album “Concrete Flower”. Let’s start with “On Fire”. We worked on this song for nearly 9 months, rewriting it multiple times until it started to sound the way we wanted. “On Fire” raises the topic of ageism and touches upon the personal history of the band, when one music manager refused to work together, because the band members were ostensibly too old to reach anything. We did not believe that. When the song gained its form and we finally recorded it, we realized we had no money for a music video, stage costumes, and proper preparation for the Lithuanian National Selection for Eurovision. It was sad because we felt that the song was strong, but we had no means to properly present it to people. Then Vaidotas came up with an idea to create a presentation about THE ROOP band, who we are, what does “On Fire” mean, added a private link to the song, and sent it out to friends and friends of friends asking for any kind of financial support. Shortly after, Vaidotas started active sales tactics by contacting everyone personally inquiring if they could help. Unfortunately, there were a lot of No’s. However, some replied they would help and it allowed us to collect a minimum amount for a music video and further promotion of the song. THE ROOP won the National Selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, which later was canceled due to the pandemic. Yet “On Fire” still reached its listeners, won numerous awards and became the band’s icebreaker.
Photo by Jurga Urbonaitė