“A Thousand Angels” by Rachel Macwhirter
Posted: August 29th, 2010 by Aaron Clark
I like seeing people inspired by works like Evangelion. I also like to see what comes from that inspiration. Usually it’s things like art, fiction, cosplay, music videos, and occasionally parodies. But I think original music inspired by creative works is horribly lacking, so I like to see when someone writes a song inspired by Evangelion. Sometimes I stumble upon these things, sometimes someone points it out to me, but what I love most, is when someone over at Eva Geeks goes and says “So uh, I went and wrote a song based on Evangelion”. I tend to take better notice when they’ve been around a bit, and actually take the time to become a peer, as is the case with Rachel Macwhirter, who turns out to be a pretty talented singer and songwriter from Melbourne, Australia. Even though she’s only sixteen, I think she’s a pretty strong talent, and I’ve enjoyed her music quite a bit. In the case of Evangelion, she has a song entitled A Thousand Angels, an angsty little piece that seems written primarily from Shinji’s perspective, as evidenced by lyrics like “I must not run”. But overall it’s a really nice piece that encapsulates the pressures of the responsibility of being an Eva pilot. If you like it, check out some of her other songs. I also really like her song “Hey Alice”, a dark little piece inspired by Alice in Wonderland.
I’m sure everyone has had this experience at some point in their life, where you create something as a child or adolescent, and when you go back and look at it many years later, you ask yourself, “How can something that terrible exist?”. Ten to fifteen years ago, those sorts of things were relegated to folders and composition notebooks tucked away beneath beds or in the back of a closet somewhere. But now, with the internet, those sorts of things aren’t a private thing anymore, they exist for all sorts of ridicule. Sometimes its funny, and sometimes, as is the case with Hellstorm Evangelion, it’s hilarious.
