<B>Chris says:</B> Sun Behind The Hill. Yes. A few of our (more hardcore) fans seemed to take an obscene liking to this song when we first debuted it; whether due to the fact that the title is a little bit cheesy, or due to the simple (yet incredibly effective) nature of the intro melody, or some other bizarre combination of things, I just don't know... I do know, however, that when we stopped playing Sun Behind The Hill to open our sets people complained. :P This was partly due to losing our female vocalist, Lindsey, due to her moving away from Sheffield; this is a song that largely works due to the beautiful female vocals at the start, and without those vocals it just doesn't sound the same.

The song was actually written by me as a conceptual thing; I spent a lot of time during that period of Northern Oak experimenting with writing conceptual pieces of music that could invoke a situation or a location through the music itself, and Sun Behind The Hill was an attempt to invoke the first rays of sunlight peeking over a thickly wooded hill, flooding the dim half-light before dawn with golden splendour. I think it works; the ambience of the night-time rainstorm that we added during the recording definitely helps with that mood, as does the haunting and beautiful alto flute melody.