There’s a Mighty Judgement coming
Well friends, our new song ‘Mighty Judgement’ is out today. I have mixed feelings about singles as they can seem like an inconsequential unit of music, but I do like the idea of striking while the iron is hot and releasing songs soon after their genesis. There is something to be said for speaking to the collective subconscious, especially in an age where you can make and release music around the world without leaving your desk.
This song was recorded live in our drummer George’s studio as a bit of an experiment in what we could get out of that space. I think George did an incredible job of making it work, especially capturing a live vocal and acoustic guitar right next to a drum kit. In the past we have recorded at some truly wonderful studios with the best rooms and equipment, but with the way streaming (and then the pandemic) has changed the landscape I believe it’s important to adapt our methods. This is the first result of that adjustment, hopefully the first of many.
This song is a diatribe, a list of grievances, a pressure valve released. It began to form early in the pandemic as the political opportunism of that moment was dawning. It was apparent then, that the least of us would shoulder the greatest burden of this time while the usual suspects would exploit it for profit and political advantage. Later, beset by images of war, floods, smug politicians, profiteers and plutocrats (and as we in Australia approached a do-or-die federal election) the song was vitrified and recorded live in the studio.
In some ways it is a recount of the last few years, in some ways a picture of things as they are. I suppose most obviously it is a reminder that actions (and inactions) in time will be judged. It feels like we’re at a tipping point where our very planet is crushed beneath the ballooning bulk of insatiable, irrational greed and an ever more perversely distorted balance of wealth and power. The yesteryear manifestations of this are present dysfunction and disparity.
Music has a great capacity to unify, evoke compassion and enable us to imagine a better way, so this song is like a tiny grain of sand which I hope will draw us together - gravitationally - in a polarised time and get under the skin of wealth and power. May we consider love, compassion, egalitarianism paramount and reject their antithesis and may history look upon this moment as a turning-point towards reason instead of a point of no return.
