I Cut People’s Denial Reminders

Denial Reminders is the fourth installment in a series of cut-ups inspired by our heavily medicated, alienated, overworked, and stress-ridden society. Denial Reminders focuses on our species avoidance in confronting our worst fears such as death and self evaluation. Overall, the structure of Denial Reminders allows the listener to breathe after each cut-up phase. I enjoy this approach since it lessens the amount of times a listener has to hear the album in order to grasp and soak in the ideas that are being presented in such a rapid fast pace.

I’ve always enjoyed raging an assault on my listener’s ears, assuming they could handle thousands of samples in what has been my usual album duration of 30 minutes. So much is lost, mentally, by approaching cut-ups in this fashion. I foresee many listeners turned off because the pace of my cut-ups runs parallel with the speed of our daily lives and routines. It becomes a double negative and yet another unexpected bombardment of information.

The last 5 years of my life have been emotionally charged and incredibly enlightening. These works have allowed me to express many repressed frustrations, ideas, and thoughts in ways I find myself incapable of expressing vocally without receiving a multitude of suspicious eyes.

My hope is that my listeners will encounter some growth in their awareness when finishing the series in its totality. Depression is no doubt in the forefront, but depression is a precursor to individual growth in that it challenges your current way of life. We try and run from it, swallow endless amounts of pills to avoid it (myself included), but why not instead embrace it? This is not meant to be a lecture on medication. Rather, I want it to be a reminder of the human drive to endure and overcome.