Mayflies – Story Behind the Song

Mayfly usually lives only for a day after hatching. Some of us humans, on the other hand, think they are immortal, or at least their fame will be. They try and force their way to celebrity by all means necessary. Celebrity is for them the end in itself; it’s not something that comes as a byproduct of achieving something real. Nowadays, in a time of ‘reality TV’ and social media, it’s quite easy to become celebrity. Your reputation might be questionable but for some people it’s “all publicity is good publicity”. So, as long as you remain topical, it doesn’t matter if you embarrass yourself on TV, post dirt on the social media, or waffle futilities on YouTube (though on YouTube there are many very professional content creators).

Reality TV, in my opinion, is the praise of stupidity. It’s everything but real. It’s scripted junk, the purpose of which I don’t understand. Of course there are some exceptions in this genre, too, but mainly it just shows people who want to become famous without offering anything in return – unless you take into account embarrassing yourself or bullying others. Reality TV makes entertainment out of malice. Social media mainly lives out of malice. It’s quite easy to spread malice and hatred on YouTube, too. Why do we want to be mean to each other and even brag publicly about it?

‘Mayflies’ differs quite a lot from other songs I’ve written. It’s the first I’ve purposely written for someone else to sing. For the first time I tried to step in someone else’s shoes as a singer and a human being. For this reason I was very unsure of myself during the writing process of ‘Mayflies’. Is it good enough, Is the pitch correct, Is the theme of the song appropriate, etc. When I played the demo first time to Soila, her reaction confused me. I wasn’t sure whether she liked it or loathed it. Fortunately for me, she liked it. Her rendition of it is incredibly fantastic so I guess I managed to capture in the song something that resonates with her personality.

Hewey – Fragile Dream

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Lockout (White & Blue) – Story Behind the Song

White & Blue are the colours in the flag of my home country, Finland. Lockout, in turn, is a means of an employer to pressure their employees during an industrial action. They literally lock their employees out. In the context of Lockout (White & Blue), the state is the employer and the citizens are the employees. Democracy is our work. During the previous government in Finland (2015-19), I began increasingly to feel that some groups of people were being locked out of the society. Some parties want to weaken working conditions and social security in a way that nearly would bring back the slavery. Some other parties want to define Finnishness and who can be Finnish. For them the end justifies the means, which include conspiracy theories and fake news, etc. Old, already healed wounds of the Finnish civil war were being ripped open and the dividing lines were being created again. Their purpose is to demonize the ‘enemy’ so it would be easier to face them as inhuman creatures, rather than compatriots. Home, religion and fatherland would be the ‘holy trinity’ defining the nation. To exaggerate by generalizing: in their opinion, women’s place should be between fist and stove, gays (and other ‘non-straight’) should be in the closet or in the concentration camp, and non-Christians (= non-protestants in this case) should be out of the country or in the concentration camp, too. This is not my Finland, though. This is a Nazi dystopia. Finland has been at the forefront of the fight for equality for most of its independence. This is why for me white and blue have always represented freedom, equality, solidarity and empathy. And I want them to remain this way. This is also why I didn’t want to make Lockout sound too gloomy; instead I wanted it to musically confront the topics it deals with. So you can even dance against hate and injustice, for equality and tolerance if you want.

Hewey – Fragile Dream

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Standing at the End of the World – Story Behind the Song

This song was born out of my awakening to the ongoing climate catastrophe and increasing pollution. The year was 2004. I realised the greed of humankind has caused all these problems and we haven’t even reached the pinnacle of overspending yet. Multinational corporations grind profit at the expense of our globe, and at an ever-increasing pace. They control the consumption habits of the masses, make us want products we don’t even need. “I consume, thus I am” seems to be the motto. At the same time – while millions live in extreme poverty and misery – the owners of these giant corporations amass their wealth even though they couldn’t use it all should they live forever. These grim thoughts mixed in my head with images of “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”, 2nd book in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” trilogy in five parts, written by Douglas Adams. In the book, the cream of the universe gathers to watch the end of the universe to the restaurant which is permanently anchored in time just before the zero hour. While watching the end of everything from the safe distance, they are served delicacies from around the galaxy.

In the song, the narrator watches as the super-rich flying in the bubble of superabundance have gathered to feast above the dead Earth. They can’t go outside because the air is too poisonous. Somewhere down on the surface they see some neon lights still flickering, maybe Las Vegas or something similar, who knows. This is the end product of all end products: the dead planet. But fate has its say on the matter: the bubble crashes to the ground, breaking to pieces. There is no longer any use for money as there are no one left able to fix the bubble. Eventually, the rich have the same fate as the others. There are no oceans anymore but they drown in the ocean of greed which they themselves created.

We all must do our part if we are going to save our environment, our FUTURE. But responsibility cannot be imposed on a bunch of activists; it must be on those who have the real power. They must act now and provide us with conditions to operate on a sustainable basis. There is no economy on a dead planet.

Hewey – Fragile Dream

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The First Blood of War – Biisin tarina

The First Blood of War - Story

Suomeksi

”Truth is the first casualty of war” oli lause, joka inspiroi minua kirjoittamaan “The First Blood of War”:n. En ole varma, kuka tuon lauseen on keksinyt, mutta ainakin antiikin kreikan näytelmäkirjailija Aiskhylokselle ja yhdysvaltalaiselle senaattori Hiram Johnsonile on annettu krediitit. Eikä sillä oikeastaan ole väliä, kuka tuon on ensiksi lausunut, vaan sillä, että se on hyvin oivallettu! Sodassa on myös kyse oikeudesta määritellä totuus. Osapuolet pyrkivät luomaan omalla propagandallaan oikeutusta asialleen, muuttamaan sen todeksi. Käymme tälläkin hetkellä sotaa, vaikkei perinteisiä aseita välttämättä olekaan käytössä. Nyt aseina ovat eri sosiaalisen median alustat ja tekniikat, joilla voimme muokata tekstiä, ääntä sekä liikkuvaa että liikkumatonta kuvaa haluamaamme muotoon. Elämässä on tietenkin myös muita alueita kuin sodankäynti, missä totuuden manipulointia tapahtuu. Jotkut haluavat esittää hirmutyönsä ”rakkaudentekoina” (esim. uskonnolliset kultit) ja toiset taas vierittää syyn toisten harteille ja esittää viatonta uhria, jne. Kyse on silti aina totuuden konfliktista. Meidän pitäisikin pystyä aina näkemään esitetyn totuuden ”tuolle puolen” ja nähdä mahdolliset motiivit, jotka ohjailevat tämän ’informaatioperformanssin’ tekijää, ja vasta sen jälkeen päättää, uskoako vai ei. Mutta se on yhä vaikeampaa, koska näkymä sumenee jatkuvasti. Medialukutaidon opettaminen on kuitenkin yksi hyvä keino saada ihmiset pohtimaan enemmän, onko käsillä oleva totuus informaatiota vai disinformaatiota.

Sävelsin ensimmäisen version biisistä jo 2000-luvun alussa. Silloin suurinta osaa sosiaalisesta mediasta ei vielä ollut olemassa. Mutta sosiaalinen media onkin vain (post)moderni versio juoruista ja huhupuheista. Nekin sisältävät usein murusia totuudesta, niitä murusia, jotka sopivat kertojan narratiiviin. Tähän uuteen versioon muutin sanoja jonkin verran, sekä sovitimme bändin kanssa biisiä hieman uuteen muottiin. Sanoma pysyy silti samana, totuus on sodan ensimmäinen uhri.

Hewey – Fragile Dream

Biisi Spotifyssä

The First Blood of War – Story behind the song

The First Blood of War - Story

English version

“Truth is the first casualty of war“was the phrase which inspired me to write “The First Blood of War”. I’m not sure who coined it; it has been attributed at least to ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus and U.S. senator Hiram Johnson. However, it doesn’t matter who said it first; it matters that it’s a brilliant realisation! War is also about the right to define truth. All parties try to justify their cause by propaganda, to make it true. Even at this very moment we are at war, although we don’t necessarily use any traditional weaponry. We now use different social media platforms, and techniques which allow us to alter text, sound, and both moving and still picture as we like. Of course, there also are other aspects of life where the manipulation of truth takes place. Some want to portray their atrocities as an ‘act of love ’ (e.g. religious cults); some want to shift the blame and play the innocent victim, etc. It’s still always about the conflict of truth. This is why It would be good for us to be able to see beyond the presented truth, and see the possible motives that guide the author of this ‘information performance’ and only then decide whether to believe or not. It’s difficult, though, because the vision is becoming more and more blurred. However, teaching media literacy is one good way to make people more aware of the nature of truth available to them; is it information or disinformation?

I wrote the first version of the song in the beginning of 2000’s. Most of the social media didn’t exist back then. But social media are basically just a (post)modern version of gossip and rumours. They, too, have some crumbles of truth in them: the crumbles which fit the narrative. For this new version on the album, I altered the lyrics a bit, and the band rearranged the song a bit. But the message stays the same: truth is the first casualty of war.

Hewey – Fragile Dream

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