Twelfth song off "Calendar", out on December 31st!
Artwork by Eli Wengrin
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Luca recently pointed out that I write a lot in the first person. He said that it can sound narcissistic. Realistically I probably am a narcissist; I have always lived in a world that promotes narcissism.

Almost every line of “Never Bored,” begins with the word I. The only points of view besides my own inner dialogue are lyrics by Ian Brown and Nina Persson. These quotes aren’t advice from understanding friends, they’re fragments of culture that I’ve taken out of context and applied to my own life. Everything is speaking about me.

The song is full of anxious thoughts, which stem from the dark side of narcissism, isolation. If you are only thinking of yourself, there’s no relief when your thoughts turn against you.

Individualism is clearly flawed, so we should start thinking collectively. Anxiety and depression are not isolated events. Rates of depression are on the rise especially among young people, which would suggest that there is some organizational aspect in society that is detrimental to our mental health.

While there is certainly not a single driving force, one of the most convincing explanations for this phenomenon looks to the commodification of our interpersonal relationships. Tech companies make money when we use social media, and their business thrives when they can steal parts of the market from their competition. In this particular case, the competition is our friendships.

Pointing out collective isolation doesn’t make us feel any less alone, because our problem isn’t a lack of information but a lack of communication. Narcissistically, I wrote this song because I wanted to communicate how I’m feeling to anyone who will listen. From the collectivist point of view, the only way to understand our situation is if we communicate our experiences to each other.

Deleuze and Guattari wrote a bunch of shit I can’t understand, but they also wrote, “There are no individual statements, there never are. Every statement is the product… of collective agents of enunciation.” My personal experience doesn’t stem from myself, but is a reflection of the world around me. I can’t speak for other people, but whenever one of us speaks we all speak.