Hey!
Let's talk about Hive Mind.
Hive Mind is the first song I released from 'What Did the MUNKEE Say Now??' and it felt like a large departure from the synthy-pop styling that I had set up for myself prior. But thatâs okay!
I came up with the song idea at the start of 2019. I can't remember if I was playing a gig at The Toff in Town or if I was seeing a gig there, but on the way home I saw that Foals had dropped a trailer for their upcoming album(s). I stopped off at the Flinders Street bathrooms to listen to it, which became the music used in "Surf Pt. 1". I can't explain why but it got my creative juices flowing, and it reminded me of early Foals and how I first found music so fascinating. The whole train ride home I kept the idea of the riff for Hive Mind in my head, even whilst I was talking to my friend. It's pretty obvious especially after hearing that but Hive Mind is so directly intertwined with my childhood love for math rock and indie-pop. You'll hear plenty of Foals in there.
I got home that night and wrote the sections and arrangements of the song using an electronic sound palette in about two hours. I felt rather conflicted with where Hive Mind fit in with my music artistry. Do I put it with the very electronic-sounding Orange Orange stuff? Do I place it with some of my other bands? I didn't find the answer to this question for the whole of 2019. I did name the demo I made "Axe 1" as it felt like a piece that could cut through something easily. I was tempted to keep that as the final name.
As 2020 came, I realised this song would be so great if I just put it with Orange and embraced my childhood music dreams of indie-math-rock-pop. I also thought Hive Mind would slot in my live set very well, as my life set hinted at rock elements but never fully fleshed them out. It took about four months of recording guitars and bass until everything sounded the way I wanted it to. Sydney Miller helped record vocals for this song, and she sang the best lyrics in the song 'You know your lemon heart is trapped up on the shelf...' I actually spent a full night or two planning and writing the guitar solo in the song. Throughout playing many different solos and merging the parts that I liked I made this solo that I really do love. It's kinda funny how I blocked out a night or two just to devote my time to a solo. I also tried out screaming and making weird noises in the background with my voice, which was actually insanely fun. I blame King Krule for making me want to include these savage-sounding moments to the final song. I didn't even attempt writing lyrics until 2020 started amidst the large bushfires, because the length of the measures really intimidated me with writing. But, like with anything, giving it a go was the only way to make something I would eventually be proud of. I wrote about some reactionary people I knew, the way ideas and beliefs are shaped online and being a music artist on social media. I was entranced with how information was disseminated by different media outlets (like I always have been) and I also became very interested in how information was formatted to be spread as efficiently as possible on social media, and how the different formats of each social media influenced how this information was created. There are definitely some posts on social media that are chemically engineered to be as eye-catching as possible. My personal favourite from the time I was writing was an image of Australia on fire, as if the fires could be seen from space, but photoshopped to be like⦠glowing red to be so impossibly big and dramatic, with a caption that was like "WE'LL DONATE $1 FOR EVERY SHARE SO SHARE SHARE SHARE" or something to that effect. It's sad that people see things like these as opportunities for exposure, and a progression of career. Maybe I am overthinking things... Most of Hive Mind explores the people who do share these clickbait-style "justices". I find that these people sometimes stop feeling like real people and just feel like parts of a machine. I'd break down the lyrics about this in more detail but it seems pretty clear now, it just bounces off my perceptions on this topic and my perspective of it. I wanna talk about a few lines in the song and what they mean. The line "in this time away we forget what we see and we feel, and only have what weâve heard" was influenced from not physically seeing friends for a long while and only having the content and ideas that they were sharing on social media. It goes hand-in-hand with MONKET, which talks about losing interactions from friends because you don't see them. Now I realise it's especially relevant because of this raging pandemic that we're enduring. The "friendship ainât business" line comes from my experience being a musician on social media. There are some musicians who just randomly like your photos on Instagram or friend request you on Facebook for an opportunity to network, but it seems so dubious because so many times you haven't made any prior connection and don't feel anything for them. So it just feels as if they're interacting with you to get interest, or followers, or streams. The whole thing about showing purity and "you wonât compromise" was talking about how people would take the side of most virtue even if issues were complicated and were not so black and white, but the phrasing did come after reading Watchmen for the first time, from this line said by Roarshach.
Don't you feel a little bit empty waiting for a spear to be thrown, something to hurt you?
Don't you fear the world has turned ugly since you shook the grave when your ego talked? And in this time away, we forget what we see and we feel, and only have what we've heard. I know these pratfalls keep you in your shell, and I keep sinning! I can't help myself. You show me your purity when you won't compromise, 'cause I don't have time for your hive mind. Don't you know that friendship ain't business? You won't chase me, but you'll love me for one night. Did you know it's so hard to be perfect? Keep me out of the lakes of the minds. You know your thousandth post is justice in itself. But you'll be lonely when you get caught yourself. You show me your purity when you won't compromise, 'cause I don't have time for your hive mind. ~ You know your lemon heart is trapped up on the shelf. But you keep winning, you can't help yourself. Show me your purity, you won't compromise. I don't have time for your hive mind. You know your thousandth post is justice in itself. But you'll be lonely when you get caught yourself. You show me your purity when you won't compromise, 'cause I don't have time for your hive mind. (I don't have time for your hive mind) Because I was so hesitant with deciding where Hive Mind sat in my discography, the band didnât start playing it until March 2020, the last show before lockdowns. Let me say, I am a fan of it when it is played live. It's so huge! I hadnât recorded a live drum kit performance for an Orange song before but I felt that Hive Mind sorely needed it when I was crafting together the final stems during the first lockdown in Victoria. So as soon as things started to open up I went to Soren Maryasin to record some kit and let me just say, his drum performance was perfect. It was so tight and punchy and it suited the song perfectly. Iâm not sure if Iâll make a habit of including live drums in my songs, but Iâd be more than happy to do it all again when necessary because damn, it makes a difference. I think that's all I have to say concerning the secrets of this song. Check out this live performance we made when restrictions started opening up. We recorded it in Sunny's back alley. Yeah, it's nice.
Thank you! Here's a quick reminder that I am opening for Soren for his launch of "The Glare" on Wednesday April 7. It's The Gasometer in Melbourne and here's that sweet ticket link.
https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/soren-single-launch/126519 Also I'm excited to announce that new Orange Orange is on the conveyor belt and will be with you soon! See you next week! - R
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February 2023
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