MADRID, Spain, October 24, 2026. There is a moment, very early in the morning, before alarms go off and church bells ring and phones start buzzing, when the world seems to pause. "Before the Bells", a track by Mike Sain't Louis, is set entirely inside that moment. It is a song about the time before anything is demanded of us.
It begins, unexpectedly, in Spanish, with a lament straight out of the flamenco tradition: «Aaaaaaayyyyy mi pena / Ayyyyyyyyyyyy mi penita». Oh my sorrow, my little sorrow. The drawn-out "ay" is one of the most recognisable sounds of Andalusian music, a cry that expresses grief before any words arrive. Then the song switches to English and to a completely different register, slow, reflective and almost philosophical.
**Two languages, one sorrow**
That opening is more than decoration. It tells the listener where the song comes from: from pain, expressed in the oldest way Spanish music knows. What follows in English is the attempt to sit with that pain calmly. «We sit with what we cannot make behave», says the first verse, «A breath between the living and the brave».
The line about sitting with what cannot be controlled sums up an idea that many therapeutic approaches share. Some feelings cannot be fixed or argued away; they can only be accompanied until they loosen. The song puts it simply: «Time loosens what it came to claim».
**No victory, no plan**
What makes "Before the Bells" unusual is its refusal of triumph. Many songs about getting through difficult times end with a victory, a new beginning or a defiant chorus. This one explicitly declines: «No victory, no hidden plan, / Just being here the best we can». The goal is not to win but to stay present.
The third verse goes further, setting aside even hope and faith: «Not hope, not faith, not something new, / Just staying where the breath stays true». It is a remarkably honest statement. On some mornings, hope is too much to ask. What remains possible is breathing, and that is enough.
There is also a gentle critique of a world that demands constant performance: «Before the morning asks us to be loud, / Before the world decides what's allowed». For queer listeners in particular, who often feel the pressure to justify themselves or to be visibly cheerful, those lines describe a rare space where nothing needs to be shown.
**The video: an empty fairground**
The official video moves between symbolic settings: a bell hanging in a misty forest, a lone figure on a theatre stage, a great bell in a stone tower, and a fairground at night, its rides lit but empty. The photograph accompanying this release is one of those frames: a figure seen from behind, standing alone in a deserted fairground while searchlights sweep the sky above the stalls and an old ride tower. It captures the song's atmosphere exactly: the quiet that comes before or after the noise, when the place is still there but the crowds have not yet arrived.
**Part of Planeta Gayfolk's quieter side**
Planeta Gayfolk, the imaginary queer universe invented by Mike Sain't Louis, is often associated with satire, dance tracks and loud celebrations. "Before the Bells" belongs to a smaller group of contemplative songs in the catalogue, alongside lullabies and hymns, that offer a different kind of refuge. On this planet, stillness is also a form of freedom.
**The meaning of bells**
Bells have marked time in European towns for centuries. They call people to work, to prayer, to weddings and to funerals; they announce the hours and the feast days. In the song, they stand for the moment the world starts making demands again. «Before the names are spoken into stone, / Before the body learns to stand alone», goes the second verse, evoking inscriptions on gravestones and the long process of learning to live after a loss. The track lives in the silence just before those bells, a space that belongs to nobody and therefore to everyone.
**When to listen**
The song suits the hours its title describes: very early in the morning, on a sleepless night, or in the minutes before a difficult day begins. It does not try to cheer the listener up. It keeps them company. For anyone carrying a sorrow they cannot yet put down, that is often what helps most.
**Listening is free**
"Before the Bells" can be streamed and downloaded at no cost and without registration from the downloads page on mikesaintlouis.com and from the free shop at gayfolkplanet.com. Its lyric is published unaltered on gayfolkplanet.com together with the official video.
- Song page and lyric: https://gayfolkplanet.com/letras/before-the-bells
- About the track (in Spanish): https://mikesaintlouis.com/blog/before-the-bells
- Free downloads: https://mikesaintlouis.com/descargas
- Free shop: https://gayfolkplanet.com/tienda
About Mike Sain't Louis: Madrid-based lyricist, composer and music producer and creator of the GAYFOLK trilogy and Planeta Gayfolk. He presents himself as the first AI songwriter («el primer cantautor IA»); he writes all of his lyrics, while the music and vocal performance are made with AI. Label: MIKE SAIN'T LOUIS. Distribution: Ditto Music. Website: https://mikesaintlouis.com · Press: https://gayfolkplanet.com/prensa · Free listening: https://mikesaintlouis.com/descargas and https://gayfolkplanet.com/tienda