The debut album by Los Angeles industrial rock album, The Bull, which features a recontextualized cover of Danzig's "Mother," came out on Tuesday, and that's reason enough for us to invite the band's frontman Stacey Quinealty to write us a guest blog.
Considering the unchained, hedonistic vibe of the album, we expected something about rocking, partying and getting arrested. Instead, Quinealty checked in with a thoughtful essay about the struggle between man and machine that grows worse with the advancement of technology. Click "more" to read the guest blog and stream the full album.
As I sit here contemplating the growing success of our band, Carbon 9, many thoughts spring to mind. I question who am I and how I got to this point in my life? Where am I really headed and what can I do to control my own fate? I do not believe there is a direct pre-programmed path in life. I think it's more like there's a hallway with many doors that we are given the option to walk in, peek in, or simply skip over. There is one thing that I have always made a point to express in C9, and is the backbone to all of our live shows.
I ask one simple question, "Are we human, or are we machines?" This is a very valid question, indeed. Sure, we are all functioning in a living, breathing, human body, yet I feel as if we are constantly being programmed by many entities to collectively operate as a single machine -- whether those forces are the media, our educational system, religious affairs, politics, corporate conglomerates, people on the street or my very own laptop computer. People in villages use to have their own culture, language, taste of food, style of dress, etc… Eventually, the differences between neighboring villages grew into similarities, and those regions became territories then cities, then empires, and now global parts of the planet. You can bet everything that there will be a "One World Order, the New World Order". For this is a given.
In regards to our own modern society, communication is at an all-time high with the use of mobile technology and the internet. And although these are magnificent times, I ask what is happening to the simple form of the human? There seems to be an inverse relationship between the advancement of technology and the decline of humanity. As technology speedily increases, humanity decreases at the same alarming rate. There is no compassion for life as a whole, but only towards the single individual and this is decreasing as well. It is so easy to text someone or shoot over an email, but we are losing the "face to face" human touch.
There is such a thing called energy that is transferred as we share with others in person. This energy is becoming stagnant and remains locked up inside of each individual. The transfer of this energy is what shapes us and gives us the wisdom to know which doors to open as we make our way down this hallway of life. We must not get caught up in technology, which, by the way, is only at its birth stage, and lose sight of what really matters in life. It is up to us as a whole to change the way we are being programmed. We actually don't need 97 percent of the things we are told that we must have. You need your heart, your soul, and the drive to make a difference. The sum of these three things will equate to your own creativity. There are only two root elements that exist in life. It is not good or evil, hot or cold, black or white. It is LOVE and FEAR.
Now, this may seem like a load of crap, but the reason I question all of this is because I sit here on my couch with my laptop via Wi-Fi in my networked home with my iPhone and four computers all running and interacting. I can barely remember how to make music without advanced technology, and if a disaster were to strike, the first thing I would grab would be my hard drives. Little good they would do if we were nuked. So, I do understand the dependence and necessity of technology. However, as I sit here contemplating which door I will open next, I feel as if should close a few others first.
It is time to hang out with the people you enjoy, it is time to write that story, it is time to paint that picture, it is time to create that song, it is time to dance that dance, or maybe it is time to learn something completely new. Whatever the case, it is time to create that moment in time! Dreams are dreams, but goals are realities. There is no virtual reality to advance you, there is only one reality and that is to experience the heartache, the pleasure, the pain, the joy, and the fortitude to lunge yourself forward. It is time to look deeper within ourselves as a collective society and break the programming that is controlling us. It doesn’t take a village anymore, it takes a planet, so get out and experience the world.
There are no limits anymore. Give your creative space permission to express itself and enter the doors in your hallway that may lead to something great. For me and many of you, music is our saving grace. The time has come to respect each other and appreciate the talents and gifts of every artist. As Darwin always says, "Stay true."
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