Pigeon Opinion Featuring an Interview with Aurealis

"Aurealis – Fire In Rain" is an ethereal synthpop song that perfectly combines emotion with excellent production techniques. The song is made up of beautiful synth sounds, soft vocals, and late night ambiance that make the song seem moving and reflective at once.

Interview with Anette Ähdel

Fire in Rain is described as a cinematic electronic pop track. What was the original spark that started the idea for this song?

The original spark was really more of a feeling than a single event. I wanted to capture that space where something warm and alive is still trying to survive inside a world that feels heavy, cold, or overwhelming. That emotional contrast was there from the beginning, and everything grew out of that.

You mention that it first felt like a song about love but later revealed itself to be about people. What changed your perspective during the writing process?

At first it felt very intimate, almost like it was speaking to one person. But the deeper I got into it, the more it opened up. It stopped feeling like just a love song and started feeling like it was about people in general - what we go through, what gets buried, and what still tries to glow underneath all of it.

The idea of keeping your flame alive in a heavy world feels central. What does that inner flame represent to you personally?

To me, that inner flame is the part of you that refuses to go out. It’s hope, identity, sensitivity, wonder, resilience - the truest part of yourself. Life can wear you down and make you forget that part is there, so Fire in Rain is really about that spark still surviving even when everything around it says it shouldn’t.

The track balances danceable momentum with emotional depth. How do you achieve that duality in production?

For me, the emotional core always has to come first. Once I know what the song is really saying, then I can build movement around it without losing the heart of it. With Fire in Rain, I wanted the pulse to keep lifting the song forward while the atmosphere and vocal layers still carried that ache and beauty underneath. I’ve always loved music that can move you and hit you emotionally at the same time.

There’s a strong sense of atmosphere and storytelling. How do you build a visual world around a song that exists mainly in the studio?

That visual world usually starts forming very early for me. Some songs come with colors, textures, weather, lighting - almost like they already know what world they belong in. Fire in Rain always felt like wet streets, reflections, dark blue night, shimmers of color, beauty in the middle of heaviness. That became a huge part of the official video too, because I didn’t want the visual side to just decorate the song - I wanted it to feel like a true companion piece that lives inside the same emotional world.

You describe the music as cinematic. What does “cinematic” mean in your creative process specifically?

To me, cinematic means the song feels bigger than just audio. It feels like it belongs to a world. It has movement, atmosphere, emotional scale, and imagery. I’m always drawn to songs that feel like they could open a scene, hold a memory, or reveal something deep without needing to explain it directly.

How does Fire in Rain contrast with your previous release Shadow of a Doubt in mood and intention?

Shadow of a Doubt lives more in uncertainty, fragility, and emotional tension. It’s intimate in a haunted kind of way. Fire in Rain still has emotion and sadness in it, but it reaches more toward warmth, release, and restoration. It feels more open, more luminous. It’s about surviving the heaviness without letting it erase something beautiful in you.

Your sound blends shimmering synths, layered vocals, and late-night aesthetics. How do you approach vocal layering as part of the emotion?

Vocal layering is a huge part of the feeling for me. I don’t hear it as decoration - I hear it as part of the emotion itself. Different layers can make something feel closer, bigger, softer, more aching, or more immersive. With Fire in Rain, I wanted the vocals to feel like emotion blooming outward while still staying intimate.

The song is both bittersweet and hopeful. How do you avoid tipping too far into either sadness or optimism?

I think the answer is just honesty. Real emotion is almost never only one thing. Some of the most beautiful moments in life hold ache and light at the same time. If a song leans too far into sadness, it can collapse in on itself. If it leans too far into optimism, it can lose depth. Fire in Rain needed that in-between space.

You focus on recorded music rather than live performance. How does that shape your identity as an artist?

It makes me very focused on building the full emotional world of a song. I think of the recorded version as the final experience, not just a snapshot of a performance. That fits who I am creatively, because I care so much about atmosphere, detail, layering, and immersion.

Does not performing live give you more freedom in how complex or detailed your productions become?

Yes, I think it does. It lets me focus completely on what the song wants to become, without needing to simplify it for a stage first. That gives me more freedom to lean into detail, layering, mood, and sonic texture in a way that feels true to the song.

There’s a strong emotional core around resilience and uncertainty. What drew you toward that theme now?

I think a lot of people are carrying disappointment, exhaustion, uncertainty, and still trying to keep moving anyway. That emotional tension feels very real right now. I’m always drawn to songs that acknowledge pain without completely giving in to it, and Fire in Rain came from that place.

When you start a track do you usually begin with atmosphere, emotion, or melody?

Usually emotion. Once I know the emotional truth of something, the rest starts to find its place. Sometimes that truth arrives through melody, sometimes through a phrase, sometimes through atmosphere, but the feeling is always what tells me whether the song is alive.

Looking ahead, how does Fire in Rain expand the world of Aurealis going forward?

It feels like a deeper step into what Aurealis really is becoming - more cinematic, more immersive, more emotionally and visually connected. With this release, the song and the official video really belong to each other. The video doesn’t just accompany the song - it opens the door deeper into its world. I think Fire in Rain pushes helps to push further into that space where the music isn’t just heard, it’s experienced as a whole world.

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out Aurealis on the Pigeon Opinion Playlist