Classical crossover sister duo Classical Reflection will release a brand new single, “A Gift Of A Thistle” on April 8th. The song was first made popular as part of the soundtrack for the “Braveheart” soundtrack and was recently given lyrics.
CCM: Why did you choose this piece – what does it mean to you?
Classical Reflection: We have always loved film soundtracks, some of the great film music such as Lion King, Gladiator, Titanic & all the musicals of course. We feel like the music is really what makes the storyline so much more powerful. Composers such as Hans Zimmer have the most amazing way of transporting you into the film, we always cry at Lion King! The single that we are releasing is called A Gift Of A Thistle. It comes from the film Braveheart. James Horner originally wrote the beautiful music and we were really inspired to accompany this tune with lyrics.
CCM: When did you first hear it?
Classical Reflection: We actually first heard it on Classic FM, our Mum & Dad were listening to it in the car and said that they could imagine lyrics to it, we absolutely loved it & decided to see if we could release it as a single. We haven’t watched Braveheart, but always loved the soundtrack. We are big fans of James Horner’s music as he wrote some of the iconic music in Titanic such as My Heart Will Go On, & a childhood favourite of ours Casper The Ghost!
CCM: What are some of the elements from the original that were important for you to keep and what were some of the new ideas you are most excited about?
Classical Reflection: We love the celtic feeling to the song so we tried to keep that. The soft melody is so beautiful we really wanted the song to be a really relaxing song. Our lovely friend has recorded the piano, his name is Adrian Sutcliffe. He was our musical director in both our albums and he really captured the ethereal chords. The song was originally just a piece of music so we were excited to add lyrics to it. We really hope people will like it!
CCM: Were there any challenging moments in this piece?
Classical Reflection: We loved the whole process of recording & releasing the song. There were no challenging moments this time haha, it was so lovely to actually go into a real-life studio this time to record, it gave us another pair of ears to help decide on the final cut of the song.
CCM: Tell us a little bit about the production of the track?
Classical Reflection: The studio process is always lovely, we used this studio for our first album The Vow, it is in the middle of the countryside with fields of donkeys & sheep. It is very relaxing! The track was actually recorded really quickly in one day this time!
CCM: Did you have any additional collaborators?
Classical Reflection: We were really lucky to have Adrian Sutcliffe playing the piano for us, he recorded it from his home, so we could go to the studio to add our vocals. Of course Wally our beautiful pup was there as moral support!