Medical emergency, song contest lead to new track, with proceeds going to malignant hyperthermia research and awareness
Ferocious Designs, the music project of central New Jersey-based songwriter Brian Kelley, has released a standalone single titled “Life’s in the Balance,” available now for streaming and download at FerociousDesigns.com. A music video for the track has also been released.
Proceeds from streams and downloads of “Life’s in the Balance” will be donated to the Malignant Hyperthermia Association of the United States (MHAUS).
“Life’s in the Balance” was written for the 2023 Fedivision Song Contest — a Eurovision-like competition open to those with an account in the Fediverse, a network of servers that are used to communicate with each other, share messages, music and more.
The song entry is about being caught in a sudden life-or-death situation, a topic Kelley became familiar with in early May just as he was trying to come up with a song idea for Fedivision.
“Shortly after receiving a couple of local anesthetics during a routine dental procedure, I experienced an episode of malignant hyperthermia,” said Kelley. “I’m still uncertain how it happened because I had never had any kind of reaction to any anesthesia in my nearly 52 years on the planet and, as I learned later, local anesthetics generally are not even supposed to trigger MH.
“But my entire body went into spasms and my temperature spiked to 105.5º F in a matter of minutes while in a grocery store parking lot, so I had to call 9-1-1 for an ambulance to take me to the hospital,” added Kelley. “It was a scary situation, but I actually started coming up with lyrics in the emergency room and realized I had my song topic for Fedivision…if I made it out alive.”
And Kelley is fully aware that “life’s” is an informal contraction for “life is” and looks awkward.
“Artistic license covers a lot,” said Kelley.
The new single is being packaged with a 2023 mix of “Lay It on the Line,” a track which originally appeared on Ferocious Designs’ 2021 debut EP, A Matter of Time.
“Because I’m releasing this in time for Bandcamp’s Juneteenth fundraiser on the 19th, I felt I should include a new version of ‘Lay It on the Line’ because it deals with racial inequality and police brutality,” said Kelley. “That was the first single I ever released and it was in conjunction with Bandcamp’s Juneteenth fundraiser in 2021.”
Watch the music video for “Life’s in the Balance”
Written, performed and produced by Brian Kelley
Free B-roll footage courtesy of Videezy.com
© 2023 Brian J. Kelley. All rights reserved
About Ferocious Designs
Ferocious Designs is the DIY music project of central New Jersey-based songwriter Brian Kelley. Although he has spent most of the past 30-plus years as a songwriting hobbyist, Kelley is not a complete stranger to the New Jersey music scene. He is a longtime collaborator with singer-songwriter Christian Beach, spending time with him during the late 1980s and early 90s in a band that played the much-loved and long-gone Green Parrot Rock Club in Neptune, NJ, multiple times. Kelley has played keyboards, accordion and percussion in Beach’s backing band since 2007, and has recorded with him as well. The project name is borrowed from the lyrics of “Cover My Eyes (Pain and Heaven)” by Marillion. The debut, five-song EP from Ferocious Designs, A Matter of Time, was released on July 16, 2021. That same day, the project’s debut single, “Lay It on the Line,” was named Makin Waves Song of the Week by longtime New Jersey music journalist Bob Makin. For more information, visit http://ferociousdesigns.com. Ferocious Designs’ debut album, Looking for the Light, was released March 10, 2023.
Ferocious Designs 