I started with the idea of making a Celtic alternate-lyrics treatment of Kate Bush's “Running Up That Hill.” By the time I had worked through the story, the lyrics, the cover attempts, and a fair amount of swearing, I was making an original Sisters Erie song. Somewhere along the way there was dark Celtic techno, too.1 2

The song I thought I was making

As amazing as Kate Bush's original is, I like VoicePlay's version because it fixes what I consider some of the original's flaws. There is more variation, more range, and less repetition. The different voices give the song room to change as it develops. With four sisters to work with, I figured that could be particularly interesting.7 9

While listening to it—probably on repeat—I randomly realized that “Running Up That Hill” and “Running Underhill” fit the same rhythm. I could hear the new phrase in the melody. And “Underhill” immediately suggested a rather different story.9

So the original ambition was to write new lyrics that would work with Kate Bush's melody, taking the song in a Celtic direction. VoicePlay's treatment, featuring Ashley Diane, was the arrangement reference.1 6 7

A book I had already made for myself

The faerie part of this had been in my head for a long time.

One of my favorite fantasy series as a teenager was Tom Deitz's series beginning with Windmaster's Bane. The Second Sight, the host traveling on the Straight Tracks between worlds—that had stayed with me. It was also where I learned about Robert Kirk's The Secret Commonwealth, which sent me looking for the book itself.9

I was working in Special Collections at the time. I tracked it down, photocopied the entire book, and personally bound myself a copy. This was more than thirty-five years ago.9

Apparently, reading something interesting and then deciding I need to make an actual object out of it is not a recent development.

I was also familiar with other Celtic faerie tales: the rules you have to follow, the dangers of accepting things, and the possibility of spending what seems like a short time in Faerie while years pass in the mortal world. Those were ideas I could build a story around. Maeve's story would be our own, drawing on that background.3 4 9

Maeve's story

I worked with Apollo—my name for ChatGPT—on a story that could give the Sisters something of their own to sing. I supplied the framework and the major decisions; we researched and developed the story and lyrics together, and the longer prose telling was developed collaboratively as well.1 4

Maeve follows the Faerie procession because she wants to know where it goes. No one carries her away. She sees something extraordinary, knows she ought to leave it alone, and follows anyway.

That choice mattered. So did the next one.

When the Faerie king, Aodh, offers her a way home, she can take it. She would be safe, but Cian, the mortal prince, would still be a prisoner. She refuses to leave him. From that point, the story belongs to the two of them trying to get out, with Maeve leading because she can see the road.3 4

I really liked having Maeve rescue the prince. My 2026 sensibilities, perhaps, but having the girl save the prince seemed like a good rewrite of the damsel-in-distress being saved by the hero trope.9

Aodh also needed to be more interesting than a villain chasing people through a dark tunnel. His country is beautiful. He is courteous, dangerous, and, being Fae, bound by rules. The trouble lies in what those rules promise—and what they leave unsaid.3 4

The ending is where the escape acquires its cost. They beat the sunrise. They make it out alive. A hundred years have passed, and the people and homes they expected to return to are gone. But Maeve's refusal to leave Cian means neither has to face that world entirely alone.3

The older prose used rowan to break the glamour around Cian. That was changed. Maeve's Sight is innate; a sprig or charm does not give it to her or power it.3 5

Giving the story four voices

In the Sisters' own history, the tale was one of Ryanne's childhood favorites. That gives her a personal reason to bring it to the band. The musical treatment gives all four sisters something to do with it.1

Ryanne carries Maeve and the main storytelling. Gael supplies the counter-lead and the force of Aodh and his host. Aileen anchors the warnings and rules. Mary follows the Sight, the glamour, and the road that does not look like a road. These are musical jobs, rather than a requirement that each sister play one character all the way through.3

The repetition had to develop with the chase. The first warning means one thing before anyone is pursuing them. It means rather more when Maeve hears her mother's voice behind her, and more again when she hears Cian calling from behind while his hand is still in hers. The same few rules become increasingly difficult to obey.3

That was something worth carrying forward from the VoicePlay reference: different voices and changing repetition could tell the story together. The resulting lyric tells Maeve's own story, with “Running Underhill” as its recurring phrase.3

The cover problem

There were a lot of iterations. There was research, lyric work, and experimentation across four music tools.1

The cover attempts were frustrating. I had already run into the same broader problem while trying to make the Sisters' repertoire audible: I could imagine the band playing songs I knew, but getting the tools to produce the cover I wanted was another matter. In Creating Sisters Erie, I described the problems as “MASSIVE.” That still seems fair.1 2

Eventually I reached the point where Suno just didn't have a good way to apply Kate Bush's melody, no matter what I attempted. And I didn't have anywhere near the skill to implement it using MIDI.9

By then, I had Maeve, the escape, and lyrics I wanted to keep. So I pivoted to an original composition in Suno. I could work on what this song should sound like as a Sisters Erie song.1 2

Why I chose version 3

I had four original Suno versions to compare. I asked Apollo which sounded most like Sisters Erie, and Apollo preferred version 4. I added all four to my playlist and listened to them. I really liked version 4, as well, but it didn't quite have the punch I felt the song should have. It was a bit more simply "pretty" and traditional which didn't match my version of the Sisters.9

Then I listened to version 3 again.

When it reached “Then Aodh opened the hillside,” I started paying attention. Aodh offers Maeve a way out. Cian tells her to go home. Maeve takes his hand and refuses. The doorway closes, and the hunting horn blows.3 9

It was the vocal intensity of that entire back-and-forth between Aodh, Maeve, and Cian, all the way through the horn. Then came “We're running Underhill,” and most of the instrumentation suddenly dropped away. Almost a cappella: voices and drum.9

That shift was what made it powerful. After all the force of the exchange, hearing it stripped back like that gave the next part of the escape the punch which had been missing in version 4.

I knew we had something.9

Dark Celtic techno and artwork

After listening a number of times, I realized a techno remix could be interesting and I was curious as to what I could do with Meloty (a Suno alternative). The song had already grown out of an attempt to take an existing musical idea somewhere else, so the experimentation kept going after it became original. I mentioned this to Apollo and the response was:

That could be ridiculously good.

Running Underhill already has the right ingredients for a darker electronic reinterpretation: relentless forward motion, danger, repetition, that “one true road / beat sunrise” logic, and those big emotional lift points you’re reacting to in v3. A techno or dark electronic remix could turn all of that into something almost ritualistic.

I asked Apollo for a good prompt and ended up using the "cover" feature in Suno and immediately generated four solid remixes, now labeled as: Underhill Mix; One True Road Mix; Dark Fae Mix; and Extended Underhill Mix.1 2

There was artwork as well. As with the rest of Sisters Erie, developing the music also meant developing something to look at. The story, the song, and its visual treatment had become parts of the same project.1

An album of their own

The cover problems affected more than this one song. I had wanted to make Wind and Rain: Live at Katie's Pub from the Sisters' playlist, but put that work on hold. I was having fun with original songs, and a full album of them became the next direction.1 2

That became Beat the Sunrise, with “Running Underhill” on the album. Its 2016 date belongs to the Sisters' fictional discography. The writing, music generation, remixes, and artwork I am describing here belong to the actual creation of the project in 2026.2 8 9

“Running Underhill” helped turn an idea for a Celtic treatment of a song into a story, an original lyric, and a new composition. It also helped turn the question of what Sisters Erie might sound like into the much larger job of making an album.

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