Group member Kate Pierson revealed to Onion AV Club that the song’s “topaz” theme is credited to a Maine-based psychic she consulted while the group was finishing up its Cosmic Thing album.
“You have two more songs that you should write before you record… and one of them is ‘Topaz,’” Pierson remembered the psychic saying. “I just see the word ‘topaz.’”
Pierson explained that the group had started writing the song that would eventually become “Topaz,” but they didn’t have a chorus.
“But after she said that, we were, like, ‘Oh, my God: Topaz is the perfect name for this new city by the sea!’”
After the song took on the “Topaz” title, band member Keith Strickland received a comic affirmation when he drove by a giant billboard promoting a Mercury automobile that read: “Topaz: The Right Choice.”
“In retrospect, it seemed so auspicious that that should happen,” she told Onion AV Club. “So we started jamming with those lyrics, and it just came together beautifully. The lyrics just make me tingle. It’s very meaningful. No matter how many times we sing it, it just feels very heartfelt. And it’s one of those songs that everyone knows, so when we play it, everybody gets up and starts shaking it a little bit.”
Group member Kate Pierson revealed to Onion AV Club that the song’s “topaz” theme is credited to a Maine-based psychic she consulted while the group was finishing up its Cosmic Thing album.
“You have two more songs that you should write before you record… and one of them is ‘Topaz,’” Pierson remembered the psychic saying. “I just see the word ‘topaz.’”
Pierson explained that the group had started writing the song that would eventually become “Topaz,” but they didn’t have a chorus.
“But after she said that, we were, like, ‘Oh, my God: Topaz is the perfect name for this new city by the sea!’”
After the song took on the “Topaz” title, band member Keith Strickland received a comic affirmation when he drove by a giant billboard promoting a Mercury automobile that read: “Topaz: The Right Choice.”
“In retrospect, it seemed so auspicious that that should happen,” she told Onion AV Club. “So we started jamming with those lyrics, and it just came together beautifully. The lyrics just make me tingle. It’s very meaningful. No matter how many times we sing it, it just feels very heartfelt. And it’s one of those songs that everyone knows, so when we play it, everybody gets up and starts shaking it a little bit.”