“You make the best of what’s still around.”
Sorry for the delay, the world is on fire and I’m tired. We’ve been working hard on the next album, our drummer is a newlywed, and we’re navigating the shifts as best we can individually and collectively.
What we can do is create. It’s why we’re not playing live shows until next year. It’s why we get together once a week to write and inspire each other. It is important, vital even, to create art in this time. Art is an interesting tool against authoritarianism because of its duality. It can simultaneously be an escape from and a mirror facing our problems. It’s why every fascist regime tries to change art first: it influences and gaslights the population into thinking that their cruelty and rigid thinking is normal.
Our music isn’t for everyone, and that is 100% the point of it. Art made for everyone is soulless. It becomes a commodity made for mass consumption. It’s fucking boring. But it can also be easily manipulated because of how prevalent it is. Think about country music after 9/11 and how patriotic it all became.
Country music is inherently the music of oppressed peoples, both white and black. For decades, country stars sung songs of outlaws and not being dragged down by the government, police, or anyone else. They sung of true freedom and expression. Then, it all changed after 9/11. They now sing songs about “the American way” and “traditional” ways. Even the Grammys have caved. Just a year after Beyoncé wins the Grammy for best country album, they announce two separate, but equal, categories. Best Contemporary Country (for mostly Black artists) and Best Traditional Country (for white artists). Appalling is not a strong enough word for this.
“Traditional” is a dog whistle. It invokes the idea of a country that never existed. It is nostalgic for people who have never experienced cruelty and oppression on a systemic level. “Traditional”, in this sense, means solely for Whites.
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I spend the time writing these posts not because I believe that everyone who interacts with us will read it. I know that at the end of the day, I’m dropping this into a vast black hole of social media. I do it as a way to make sure that those who do read it know that the art they’re choosing to consume is from people who care and people who want change. Like all artists, I have something to say. When the music doesn’t speak loud enough, it is the artist’s duty to scream.
I absolutely hate when people say “keep politics out of metal!” Or “superheroes aren’t political!” Fuck you. Art is inherently political because the artist is political. Because the human experience, unfortunately, is political. The rock we live on, which hurtles through space, can grow food straight out of its ground, but this country is headed towards a period where 40 MILLION people may struggle to eat because one man thinks he’s king. That’s political. We can help, and we can contribute, but the thoughts and feelings of other people are outside of our control. So we can only do what we can only do. We can only control ourselves, our thoughts, and our actions.
So we will create. We’ll write songs and record them. We’ll take a picture or commission an artist to draw a cover. We’ll release it and play shows. Some of you will hear it and some won’t. Some of you will see our shows and some won’t. And all of that is ok. We’re creating because it’s what we do. We’ll share it with you once it’s done. Until then, take care of your mental health, your bodies, your souls.
In spite of it all
Life is beautiful
-idles
Cheers,
Matt