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This is a throwback to my angst-ridden youth. To my days in bands like Gargamel's Revenge, The Dawn's Eclipse, Emergency Exit and of course: The Shades Of None. Back in the days when I was angry at the world. When I first discovered nihilism & existentialism. When I began to see how the systems we've built to maintain society are like a prison. A prison of our own making. How most people happily go about their lives trying to live "The American Dream" as if that is the be-all and end-all of existence. Happily going to work, their occupation (I've always LOVED that word!), as happy, productive members of society who don't ask the right questions.

It makes me want to scream.

I'm Generation X, I lived with an angst-ridden view of the world in my teens & early twenties. It defined who I am as a person, as a philosopher and as an artist. Some of that time in my youth was dark, riddled with depression & hopelessness. But I've matured since then. I still see the shackles that bind us everywhere I look. I've done very little to change that. In fact, I bought into the "dream" and signed my own Social Contract. I'm bound by it as much as I give it authority over my soul. Which I do every single day - because I tell myself this is what life is supposed to be like. This is what will make me happy. That is what I have been taught to believe by society, the education system, my friends & my family.

The true lie that we all tell ourselves everyday.

My whole generation with their angst and anger - with their drive to change the world, well - we failed. We didn't change the world very much. We just inherited it & continued on its oppressive ways. We the occupied (again, there's that word!). Now perhaps the karmatic fruits of our inaction are starting to haunt us.

This song is a war cry. A call to arms. We need to stop bowing down to social expectations. We need to chart a new course. There's still time, if we act now. We can still change the world - all of us of every generation. We just need the will to take the first steps. I have hope for the future - no matter how dark things seem to be. There is still hope. We just need to fight for it.

Technically, this song is pretty bare bones. It came together while I was doing a bit of post-production on Robot Genesis (funny, I just realized that song & this one are sort of me reliving my youth in a strange way…). I was sitting at my laptop waiting for stuff to render out, strumming idly on my son's Ephiphone SG when I looked at the words I had written last week (Feb 4th - at work on a scrap of paper, that same M.O. that has served me well this FAWM). This song came together quickly. As soon as I was done with the post on Robot Genesis, I plugged the SG into my recording setup, did a few practice takes as well as a few failed recorded takes - and then recorded this. There's still some mistakes in it (ex: 2nd verse: "I see the truth in front of me" - perhaps a Freudian Slip?), but I need to move on. I can't dwell on my angst. I know the dark path of depression it has led me down in the past. So I offer this up as is. Not pretty, but raw. In true Candle fashion: a moment captured in time that will never be again.

I hope it speaks to your soul.