Thoughts from a bomb crater.

Feeling strange and remote. My thoughts are spilling out like foul milk. Mother always said don't cry over spilled milk.

Inspiration is meted out with swift justice to those ready and receptive. How are you feeling? Are you inspired? Ready? Receptive? Sometimes that's what it takes to live. To really live at your best. Allowing that inspiration to course through your veins like the harshest of liquors. Or, for the glass half full crew, like the purest of country wines.

It comes and goes doesn't it? Almost at will. I've beaten my head against the wall countless thousands of times trying to force it to surface, to get a glimpse of its light through hard, black curtains.

Yet when it comes it's not usually a sordid petite tumble of raindrops. No, it's a torrent of unfulfilled desires ready to be awakened and harnessed as brutal energies, whipped up into a frenzy for the taking. A waterfall of creativity. And so, if you're ready and strong, you can take that energy and create something out of it.

They say that if you only followed through on 0.1 % of the ideas that come into your head on a daily basis you could really change everything.

Operating on 0.03% right now. Right now! At this moment! How many ideas have i dreamed and let go? Too many. It's a total crime. I should be locked up in the prison of the unmotivated - a shallow little shack on the dirt floor of a crater somewhere in Iraq.

All right I'm warmed up. Are you?

Getting into the swing of things.

So I posted a completely new track. "Treason" is about a girl who falls in love with a guy who ends up turning her in because she is out of a job. See, in the story of the album, the song preceding this one is called "The Factory", which is about this very same girl (named Marie) who gets fired by the factory owner because she is too human, and thus inefficient.

We're being compared to robots in our work places. Even expected to behave like robots. God help you if you show feeling or emotion, caring, sensitivity or, that most ghastly of human traits - weakness! We are to be models of efficiency.

Now, it's funny that we are responsible for this system. In a way, we are like foul wandering hungry dogs feeding on each other, desperate for that next piece of meat, that shiny nickel of freedom known as monetary wealth.

You taste like chicken.

Nickel and dimed to death.

The shoe factories. The sweatshops. Your office. Batteries in the matrix.

So. Am I putting food on my table? Fuck it, I made it at home and I am selling it from home. What better way to live. There is no Miller Beer banner atop this stage! I can say and do as I please (for now!).

So back to the song.

What you hear is how it sits, finished and complete, though out of context based on the concept of the album, and missing the end segue. This track serves as the final emotional pinnacle of the record, a climax of tragedy born from a system bent on total control. Sound familiar?

I think you've guessed that "The Orwellian Night" is a parody of today. A simple narration and comment on the drivel of the corporate line, the corporate life. God help us all. Can we control this beast of burden that we created? WHat is the end result of this line of evolution?

With love,

-Sever
TRIBAL MACHINE

So the album has been released. Some thoughts + review

First off I just want to say how deeply grateful I am to the many of you that support this project. It has taken me many years to get to this stage. For the first time, I feel I can let the music do the talking for me. But beyond that, it is you that is doing the talking.

Let me explain.

Years ago I set this project up to have success through a traditional platform - record label support, touring, etc. The music industry has changed though. Some may argue for the better, some for the worse. But one thing has become real to me. This doesn't need any platform other than the one we create together.

I built it to withstand any medium at any level. I am prepared to tour intensely and for long periods and achieve the highest levels of success that the music business has to give. But I am also prepared to quietly work on this at home, play the occasional show, and let it spread organically. Right now, that is the path it is seemingly taking. The path of least resistance. It feels right, and I am shining with joy doing it.

In either case, on a public level, this project will live and die by support from you. You are its backbone. And I am happy about that. Because TM does not have a record label per se (LDP is my own label) I feel I can write freely and take my time on the projects.

With your support, this is all possible. An artist can do this from home, work at the highest caliber level, and release it from home directly back to you. You are the funding behind this work. Thus, you are part of it. You are shaping it as much as I am.

What a time we live in. I feel anything is possible, and I fear nothing.

Who knows though, perhaps one day I'll find a business guy that I can work with and we can together take this project to a whole new level. Or a team of people. A record label? Maybe. Maybe not. I am unconcerned. I am having a blast.

Right now it's day by day, order by order, personal note by personal note..

I am grateful for your support. In a way i feel like we're in this together. My work isn't squandered. It has a purpose and direction. It has listeners who enjoy it. And it has a story to tell. That's one thing about this album. I insured it wasn't about me. it was about the story I was writing, a story begun by my predecessors.

My job is to make the highest possible quality music. To think it through with maximum resolution and vigor. Quality. That is my job. To hit it out of the park. And I will always endeavor to hit it out of the park.

I feel with this record, The Orwellian Night, I have done that. I can sleep at night knowing I did the best damn job I could have done with this album. I can smile. And what gives me pleasure is you listening to it and feeling the same joy of creation I felt making it.

Let me direct your attention now to a review of the album posted this morning. You can find it HERE.

And for those of you that have been asking where you can order the album, it is only available for purchase HERE. You won't find it in a store =)

I'll be posting a new track at some point today. It may be on myspace or it may be on the homepage www.tribalmachine.com

With love and gratitude,

-Sever
TRIBAL MACHINE


Photo by Darshan Photography.

P.S. Did you want to be part of the street team? Let me know and I'll send you the access link =)