2025.7.27
until just a few months ago, i didn't have any ideas for what to make music about. but after deciding to cut back on my time spent using mainstream media apps, i had nothing else to do but devote my time entirely to self-education, debate, and music. studying politics, religion and philosophy freely and on my own terms brought me peace and strength that i just didn't feel when consuming endless amounts of biased media which had been selected FOR me, not BY me. the short video "television delivers people" by richard serra was a big inspiration for this switch, and i reccomend checking it out. the contents of the essay therein have held up very well over the years and are still applicable today. throughout my research, i really only took away a surface-level understanding of many of the things i was curious about. i noticed, however, a central shared realization beginning to emerge: i seem to be inherently opposed to social hierarchy, and much prefer to freely associate, learn and think without the interference of any form of coercive guiding hand. after learning about the general principles behind things like capitalism and authoritarianism, i felt deeply compelled to pinpoint their shortcomings and demonstrate that a society based on these systems would prove to be generally unfavorable - just as we're seeing right now here in the united states. naturally, i soon became set on finding the best alternative. i found that i resonate deeply with the political philosophy of anarchism, which proposes a world without rule and an increased reliance on community and free associations as well as an increase in involved decision-making. i also began to see that while both capitalism and communism are both deeply flawed systems, they each have their benefits which can be mixed and melded together to create a more ideal economic system. although there is no social or economic system capable of working perfectly every time for every person, i advocate strongly for a world free from social hierarchy and economic exploitation, and aim everyday to embed deeply those virtues into my life. during this time when i was learning much about politics and myself, i suddenly began realizing natural propensities towards seemingly random concepts, only later to understand WHY i was interested in them. quakerism was one of the first to come up, which i quickly realized was the perfect spiritual outlet for a person wanting to search for the truth in a free and unimpeded way. i also began to recognize parallels between my personal philosophy and jazz. i've been a fan of jazz for over a year now, and i've been familiar with the evolution and various subgenres of jazz for quite some time. however, my understanding of authority and hierarchy in jazz was greatly broadened through my studies, and i began to realize through reading about jazz history and comparing jazz subgenres that it is the perfect way for me to musically describe my relationship to and understanding of everything. i cut corporate, non-free softwares from my everyday life as much as possible, realizing that i much favor the alternative free (open-source) softwares - linux rather than windows, GIMP rather than photoshop, and libreoffice rather than microsoft office. i replaced large, corporate-feeling softwares with alternative plaforms which are more focused on security, customization and actual user experience - google became duckduckgo, chrome became vivaldi. i also began investing more time into community-based projects like wikipedia and reddit. i find that using these softwares and platforms gives me a certain satisfaction which i just don't feel using closed-source or corporate softwares, and it makes me feel that my donations, feedback and community engagement are truly making making change to these platforms - and i also have peace of mind knowing that i have total freedom to choose what is and isn't on my computer and the web. now that i know what i feel strongly about, i also know some of the things that i want to say. i want music as my vessel and my mission to be the contents of said music. i am a person who appreciates simpliticy and directness, especially when i can make simple words or ideas come together in such a fashion that their individual meanings are not lost, but instead work equally for the portrayal of the message i'm trying to create. i want my music, in absolutely every aspect, to communicate only love and compassion - the final goal of all my ambitions, philosophies and beliefs. and to make this music real is my greatest objective as a musician.