This was completed in a couple of sessions, Friday night for the music and Sunday for the lyric writing/vocals.
It was written on uke bass and we experimented with adding guitar but it felt that a less is more approach was better for the song, to forefront the vocals. We used various synth pads, giving the song texture and depth, focusing on atonal elements.
The theme of the song is a possible solution to the Fermi paradox - despite the size and age of the universe there is, as yet, no evidence of other technologically developed civilisations. So this song investigates one possible explanation for why that may be.
When civilisations become significantly technologically developed, they may create virtual realities of such fidelity that the experience of these becomes intimately preferential to the hum drum of base reality.
As an aside, If this idea has any credence to it, even expressing this as a fear for our future will seem cutely naïve. Win win/lose lose. Who would turn down paradise?
So, an east task to set ourselves to write words to express this after a long conversation about this!
The narrative is from the perspective of someone caught in the transition into the submission of the meta verse. They start as a creator, having experiences that can be exported for medical purposes. They are very successful and retreat further and further into the created reality.
Part of the lyric gives examples of the sort of experiences available for those connecting with Machine (the AI) as part of the social platform known as New Utopia.
Eventually, the choice is made to submit to the algorithm and switch off any anxiety/guilt/fear associated in returning to normal life or as the Droolers (the people hooked up to the machine) call it The Mediocre.
Another fun song to listen to while in the bath… or however you choose to spend your time
The horn melody at the end of the song is the sound logo of the New Utopia platform, heard upon entry and exit. Basically we’ve patented this and if it happens we are gonna be rich!
Reality's over
Started off as a game and became an uploader
New Utopia™
Made my name giving life to those lost in a coma
We're dancing at the Alhambra
And Walking into the sea
Freedom is paradise
Seen through closed eyes
A strange Heaven is sold by the slice
Gilded cage is the device
CHORUS
wrap yourself in dreams
it’s ok
wrap ourselves in dreams
it’s over
when we wrap ourselves in dreams
V2
Machine™, she’s taken over
My thoughts are caught in a debt I sought not to owe her
Believe that I’m still sober
I had my doubts clicking out so I quit Mediocre™
Hunting on the Savannah
Or Playing God on demand
Freedom is paradise
Seen through closed eyes
A strange Heaven is sold by the slice
Gilded cage is the device
CHORUS
wrap yourself in dreams
it’s ok
Wrap ourselves in dreams
it’s over
when we wrap ourselves in dreams
***END***
@thedutchwidows Mar 2022
This is some high-fallutin philosophising going on here - my immediately post-February is struggling with the concept a little!
I very much like the song though. Feels kinda fractured and shattered somehow; like you're looking through a broken kaleidoscope. I love what I think is a synth making sort of brass-y noises - the bit right at the end in particular is just lovely.
@kahlo2013 Feb 2022
Wonderfully buzzy bottom to set the stage for such an awesome grove. I like the heady feel this creates - fits the lyrics so well! Great hook! Love your vocals on this too.
@chrismyth02 Feb 2022
This is so trippy, and poignant. Heaven sold by the slice, very nice. I explored the idea of becoming enmeshed in the meta in a tune with @wearedinosaurs last FAWM - great territory for exploring musical ideas. Cool song!
@vomvorton Feb 2022
Unusual, interesting arrangements! Really like the synth pads you've used here, a good match for the intriguing sci-fi concept.
@nadine Feb 2022
Some songs need more sessions and that's totally fine. You created a great fuzzy and mysterious soundscape. Interesting topic you chose. We will never know if there's somebody out there, if we are on a ship of other people or if everything us just simulation. Have you read Otherworld?
@regis Feb 2022
Lucky me, listening to this right before going to bed - can't wait to see what dreams this one wraps me in. I'd say the minimalist approach works well here, with the pads anchored by the bassline. "It's ok/it's over" is terrifyingly comforting.