We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

In Spite of You

by Melanie Ida Chopko

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

about

This is my song of love and commitment to our still multiracial democracy - still emerging, still under construction. I wrote "In Spite of You" to have something to sing after listening to the news, a reminder of the forces above and beyond our human story that are immutable, invincible.

While I was writing, I learned about the Serbian artist/activist group Otpor. Reflecting on why they were able to overthrow Slobodan Milošević, Srdja Popović of Otpor said this:

”Their hatred, their propaganda, their language, smelled like death. And we won because we loved life more."

lyrics

LYRIC
I felt the cold wind pick up that day 

Blowing from the shadows 

Ringing every bell in the way

A song for all that's still broken 

Truth only ever partly spoken
And with the darkness growing stronger 

We could turn away no longer

In spite of you

We will continue

We will continue to love life more

In spite of you

We will continue

We will continue like never before

Even if you never approve

The tides will rise each morning

Dawn will break with light streaming through 

And roots will crack through every wall

It’s only time before they fall
Who could keep a fog from fading? 

Who could keep the sun from blazing?

In spite of you

We will continue

We will continue to love life more

In spite of you

We will continue

We will continue like never before

And though you’re the front of every paper

We are made from something greater

And what if we came here to right every wrong 

What if we came to fill the sky with our song? 

We don’t know the end but we know who to be 

A change we want to see

In spite of you

We will continue

We will continue to love life more

In spite of you

We will continue

We will continue like never before, never before

In spite of you

We will continue

We will continue to love life more

In spite of you

We will continue

We will continue like never before

credits

released August 5, 2021
Melanie Ida Chopko - voice, piano
Max Judelson - bass
Geneva Harrison - drums
Colin Hogan - organ
Kofi Q, Moorea Dickason, Nikbo & Melanie Ida Chopko - backing vocals

Lyrics & music by Melanie Ida Chopko
Vocal Arrangement by Moorea Dickason
Produced by Melanie Ida Chopko & Jean Rohe

Engineered by Jay Pellicci at New Improved Recording, Oakland
Additional recording by Moorea Dickason at Raze the Maze Studios, Ashland OR
Mixed by Layla Moheimani at Women's Audio Mission, San Francisco
Mastered by Piper Payne at Infrasonic Mastering, Nashville

© 2021 Piney Ocean Music, ASCAP

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Melanie Ida Chopko image

Melanie Ida Chopko Asheville, North Carolina

Songwriter Melanie Ida Chopko writes “little jewels,” exploring our relationship to the natural world and to one another. Her songs are as interested in the world around her as the one within herself, lush in melody, lyric and arrangement. If Joni Mitchell, Sufjan Stevens, and Ben Folds were neighbors and made music on Sundays, it might sound like this. ... more

shows

contact / help

Contact Melanie Ida Chopko

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Melanie Ida Chopko recommends:

If you like Melanie Ida Chopko, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now