Loading details…
about this song
“On this twenty-first of October…” The Empty Vault is a meditation on the 1938 suicide of socialite and aspiring actor Dorothy Hale. With first person dialogue, flashbacks, visual details, and theatrical cues, the song evokes a surreal cinematic experience. “Failure is often more interesting than success. I was fascinated by her story, and the famous painting by Frida Kahlo.” Joe says. The seemingly idiosyncratic musical influences come from Joe and Arun’s Armenian and Indian family roots.
why this is interesting
This album invites exploration through its unusual subject matter: a 1938 suicide transformed into something resembling a film script. The composition weaves first-person narrative, fragmented memories, and stage directions into an unsettling yet compelling portrait of Dorothy Hale's final days. What distinguishes it is the creators' willingness to examine failure and obscurity rather than triumph—drawing inspiration from Kahlo's 1938 painting while acknowledging their Armenian and Indian heritage through the musical palette. The result feels genuinely theatrical without artifice, sophisticated without pretension. It demonstrates how specific cultural inheritance and historical curiosity can generate something genuinely original, creating space for listeners to contemplate forgotten lives with genuine intellectual engagement.