raid

Just as we opened the box in the beginning, it is now time to close it. This track does not mark the end, just rounds up the album and the period of my life when I made it. I've been a turntablist for over 15 years, but I've only been composing and playing the piano for a mere third of that period. With this, I close the beginner's phase of my musical creation. For years I've been collaborating with many musicians, composing music and recording scratches, and it gave me a sense of accomplishment. But it is now, with the completion of this album, that I feel well rounded and finally free to move on, not only musically, but also in life. We all need closure, we need a point in our lives where we face our mistakes, realize what we want from our future and turn a new page and go.

Closure

We live in a generic era. Food chains makes us eat the same stuff no matter where we are. Society makes us believe that we have to behave and dress in certain ways and try to achieve rather shallow goals to fit in and to be accepted. As life becomes more and more generic, the same happens with music. Copy paste chord progressions, song structures and lyrics that are suited for generic emotions. This becomes painfully obvious when the radio is on and same songs keep playing over again; radio stations with a rotation of maximum 400 songs. Songs with the same "hit pattern", made with the ambition of raking in vast amounts of cash, offering nothing in either artistic or aesthetic terms. Pure kitsch, music that will, in time, turn its consumers into people devoid of personality and will continue to engulf any remaining beauty to the point where it is no longer important whether we are playing a radio station or just radio static.

First track on the album and a symbolic opening of the box. I've chosen this track to open the album as, while making it, I've finally managed to let go of the worries and fears that have inhibited me until then. Anyone who is involved in a creative process is bound to be riddled with doubt, insecurity, even hatred towards one's own work. I am quite susceptible to all of it, at times to the extent that they deny me any enjoyment in the process of creation. I've realized that a song, from the very second it comes out, belongs to everyone. Everyone is free to love it, hate it, criticize it or ignore it. All I can do is accept that as a fact. Through my music, I open the door wide open for everyone to see what I feel as a person and what I know as a musician. Though intimidating at times, it still withdraws in the face of the overwhelming urge to create.

Opening

Human relationships can be very complicated. We love a person who lies to us, we hate someone who tells us the truth, just because the truth hurts. We tend to forgive people who've hurt us five times over, only if the sixth time they show some semblance of loyalty and some illusion of friendship, yet some people we begrudge the tiniest mistake. I'd always rather build bridges, than burn them, but in time we have to learn to tell who really is deserving of the effort and who is not. For some of my people I'd single-handedly build bridges many miles long, whereas others are not worth the push of the button to blow them up. I am very lucky to have people in my life who love and support me truly and unconditionally. This song is dedicated to them.

raid

goli