..but from the perspective of those in power, they have their sites on Mars.
Brother Wolf’s latest track, “Worthless Billionaire,” goes beyond being just a song; it serves as a powerful statement. There are moments when it’s essential to address issues directly. Brother Wolf does it with heavy guitars, stripped-down songwriting, sharp lyrics and an addictive 4 notes riff. Read our discussion below!
Describe your sound in 3 words
Dark, Epic and Intentional
Can you share the inspiration and thought process behind creating ‘Worthless Billionaire?
This concept song immerses the listener in the mindset of an indifferent billionaire, callous to the destructive consequences of their greed on society. I was doing laundry and contemplating the implications of the deluge of unchecked misinformation that would result from Musk’s takeover of Twitter last fall. A melody structure came to me with a cynical personification of the narcissistic and dismissive intentions of Musk. This led me to hit the studio heads down for a week to flesh out the very intentional push and pull of the arrangement, with a goal of creating tension for the listener.
‘Worthless Billionaire’ provides a stark commentary on the excesses of wealth and power. Can you discuss the significance of addressing these themes, especially in the context of today’s societal challenges?
We are living in a fascinating time of great hope, where more people than ever on earth are able to experience a quality of life through technology, infrastructure, medicine, and awareness of self. We enter this dawn of self actualization in ways which humans have never experienced en masse. That being stated, this way of life is being challenged by a rise in autocratic thought, populism, and challenges to systems of compromise and personal freedom. These challenges are being driven by men who lust for control. Their divisive intentions set the stage for their dismissal of earth and its inhabitants, and points to their longing – to walk away from the beauty we have here to colonize a planet of dust without the rest of us.
Your most honest and personal lyric?
“You can keep your world, I have a ticket out of here. Sheep and their shepards know whom to bite, but spacemen don’t care.”
Are we on a slippery slope towards dystopia?
Apathy will indeed bring about a dystopian future and we see this with the prevailing disconnect and fragmentation of culture by way of our addiction to scrolling the drivel of sound bite media. These tiny bites of nothing are dissociating us from reality on the daily. Now more than every we need storytellers, poets and cynics to challenge these distractions with moving pieces of art that call into question the path we are heading down. The slippery slope toward dystopia exists, but we are meaning making creatures, and owning our meaning will be our salvation if we are to have greener pastures.
Artists and people that have influenced you?
Over the course of my life I have had many great influences ranging from musicians, to writers, to artists in a variety of mediums. Musically I celebrate so many genres ranging from baroque rock and glam rock of the early seventies, to proto-punk, noise, and 90s alternative from the likes of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, and Bjork to name a few. I also have a deep love of golden era hip hop from a production standpoint as well as the lyrical wordplay and metaphorical superiority those artists (Rakim, KRS-One, GZA, and Guru) have over contemporary rap. In total, I would say that I am “aesthetically promiscuous,” a term I borrowed from my most revered artist and super human, David Bowie. Philosophically and intellectually, I owe much of my development to the writings of Marshall McLuhan, Kurt Vonnegut, Carl Sagan, and Ramm Das. Honestly I could go on and on about my love of the practitioners of the abstract, but that perhaps is for a whole other conversation.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
In my formative years, I rode against the grain, I was a punk rock kid with much angst for all that was wrong with the world. My attitude was definitely combative and I always had something to prove the world. Perhaps I was feeling things more, and looking at things more critically than many of my contemporaries and that at times could come off as defiant in my approach to others. As I approach mid-life, I have gotten out of the way of myself and put much effort into being present, with myself and in relationships with others. If I could take a ride back in time to speak with my former self, I would encourage gratitude, patience, and indifference for that which I have no control over. Having a better grasp on these concepts would have definitely aided in navigating the challenges of life more fluidly with less drastic ups and downs.
What isn’t a crime but should be?
In my mind, if there is no victim, there is no crime. Perhaps to better answer your question, I’d like to flip the script. Much damage is done to society due to punitive responses to acts or behaviors that have no victim. In addition, by and large our legal framework supports punitive measures for certain behaviors rather than social services and protections. The war on drugs is a scam and millions die each year due to the resulting conflicts of prohibition and lack of prioritized harm reduction for addicts. The liberation of sex workers by means of protections to work autonomously without threat of violence or shame would benefit so many victims of abuse, I was reading the other day that over 6 Million people are forced into commercial sexual exploitation. Ending human trafficking and the prohibition of drugs require our attention, but from the perspective of those in power, they have their sites on Mars.
Thank you!
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