There is a heaviness in the atmosphere right now. A thousand elephants in the room. Everything is being destroyed. The lightning speed of information that hits us on a daily basis feels like an unsolicited attack. Watching the news is almost like being in a surreal dystopian disaster movie but the ending is yet to be written. An awful joke that’s constantly being retold with no punchline. No one is laughing. No one can read the room. We’ve slowly become so desensitised. Nothing is shocking anymore. Everything is trivialised… like is this really happening right now?!
I wrote To The Brink to address this feeling that I think we’re all experiencing. This heaviness that we carry and don’t necessarily know how to deal with it. The line between wanting to be proactive and protecting your own inner-peace is really fine. There is a privilege in having the option to unplug your emotional energy from what’s happening because it’s easier when you don’t know what’s going on. For a period of time, I used to demonise myself for being human. It really messed up my headspace for so long. Trying to understand my significance in the world often leaves me perplexed. Sometimes I ask myself if I’m personally doing enough, and a lot of my desires for materialistic things make me feel guilty. I feel like we all have this inner saviour complex within us that wants to evoke change. To make a ground-shifting difference in the world. There is this false idea that all of the world issues should be so simple to resolve.
I do feel a sense of hopefulness by the internet. How it has allowed us to create a sense of community and has enabled safe spaces to evolve into physical, tangible experience. I think through film, documentaries, art, literature and twitter; activism has really shifted culture. It has really changed how we have created an impact on the world. The internet is our power.
When I recorded this song, I knew it had to be the first release from this new cycle. Sonically I felt something shift within me and it really influenced the rest of the album. My vocals on this song are really harsh & at times a bit angry, an emotion I’ve never really explored before in my other work. I feel like it was my responsibility to write about this, a feeling I couldn’t really ignore. Art is my expression, and the way I feel like I can make an impact.
So in this crumbling world where does that leave us? I think it’s about protecting your inner world first. I’ve learned the real activism is changing your own daily practices. There is a power in having control over what you do on a daily basis. The energy you bring into your morning and how it spills out into the rest of your day. Understanding that your daily vote is where you spend your money and what you choose to subscribe to and unsubscribe from. Giving yourself the space to unlearn and learn is the new revolution. Taking responsibility for your own carbon footprint – reverberating your practices in your own community. Protecting your inner world to exist in the outer world. This heaviness isn’t a reason to feel defeated. This feeling we’re having is quite foreshadowing, and it’s amazing what our body communicates to us. That inner moral compass. That human empathy we’ve strayed so far away from. It’s time to acknowledge the elephants in the room and take them outside.
Listen to Denai Moore’s track To The Brink here
