Guitarist/vocalist of Andy Mathison of Class Of 86 fills us in on what each track of their latest album Future On Fire means. Check it out below as you stream the album!
Future On Fire will be made available globally in physical form through Paper + Plastick on November 11th.
Track-By-Track
1. Future On Fire
“Future On Fire,” the titular track. Long story short, I feel there was once a sort of spirituality to being human embodied by the infinite stories we tell and have been told about life, death, the universe, nature, on and on. At some point in history a handful of powerful institutions, mostly religious, tried to destroy this way of experiencing everything so that only one story, theirs, remained. Obviously it wasn’t entirely successful and we live in a swell of ideas that is heading towards reversing that assault on thought, creativity, diversity, etc. The storyteller’s seat at the fire’s side will be reclaimed! Also, I think it’s positive to embrace the idea of having this life and nothing else. Kind of gets your engine revving.
2. Phase Change
“Phase Change” kicks off with a line from Kurt Vonnegut about all of us being coincidental. Basically, we are lucky ducks to be here and we often live 180 degrees out of phase with that notion. Hence the need for a phase change or flip or whatever you want to call it. Yeah.
3. Canon Fodder
“Canon Fodder” is a bit of a manifesto on being in a band. I love writing music, jamming with my fuckin’ boys and hopefully creating something meaningful that we can contribute to the punk rock canon. But getting on stage sucks sometimes.
4. mickeymousebullshit
“mickeymousebullshit” is what you say about the trivial things that people piss themselves over. In the USA we have an alarming amount of ignorant, bigoted assholes (WHAT!?) who feel it’s their divine duty to cockblock all sorts of people from living their lives peacefully in their own way or to create a kind of second class status for those who don’t subscribe to their beliefs. Of course, this isn’t a phenomenon isolated to Americans nor is it tied to a certain time, it’s worldwide and spans all of history.
5. House Dream
A few years ago my parent’s house, the house I grew up in, was threatened by a quickly eroding cliff that started calving fifteen feet from their back door. They thought the house might fall over the edge into the river below and when I went to see it firsthand I had a vision of all the time spent in that house being swept away downstream with the physical wood and clay, and that became “House Dream.” Baaaam!
6. Dudes Chillin’, Death Creepin’
“Dudes Chillin’, Death Creepin'” is something we always said as young guns about how we were just doing our thing while the powers that be were going to get us all killed by some stupid means or another. There was talk of moving north to Canada, ditching our rides just outside of the fence to the north. I’m not sure that would’ve had the effect we were hoping for, however. As of now we still live in Minneapolis. So it goes.
7. Casualties of More
“Casualties of More.” Who’s gonna settle for a living wage when (making) a killing is more suited to satisfying their wants? We’re here for more than getting a raise/rise, especially when it’s on the backs of a suffering majority of human beings. That’s that.
8. Son of Samara
In Buddhism, Samsara is the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. I feel like I’ve already run the circuit several times in this one life and I still don’t really know what the hell I’m doing.
9. Give ‘Em Enough Hope
“Give ‘Em Enough Hope” is like a warning not to get too comfortable during the good times. It’s a play on the saying “give ’em enough rope to hang themselves.” Was that obvious?
10. Veni Vidi Vino (I Came, I Saw, I Drank)
“Veni Vidi Vino (I Came, I Saw, I Drank).” Open your mouth and speak your mind. It can be hard to reconcile the flood of bad news we are inundated with on an hourly basis with our overwhelming desire to say “fuck it let’s party…” Somehow we find the courage. So it goes…
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