Latin For Truth's sophomore full-length, Youth Crew Blues, is now officially out, and today we're bringing you the second and final part of the album track-by-track guide. Make sure to grab the album, available on iTunes, Bandcamp, and Amazon! Part 1 of the guide can also be found here.
Charles: Let me start this out by saying the decision to sing in French on the record, specifically in this song/interlude, was in no way an attempt to be pretentious and exclusive. The line translates to God is dead for me and every woman I've ever touched, writing this in French and saying something that could not really be taken literal unless we were Gorgoroth or some other crazy fucked black metal band, both decisions play off one another cause they're under the same umbrella of attitude. The things we feel deeply and deal with are foreign even to us sometimes. With the English lyrics after the initial vocal part, I'm releasing three questions that weigh me down on a regular basis. One being why if someone or something is in control of everything, there's someone to blame for friends dying, parents leaving, and misery being perpetuated around the world, why does it all still happen? I'm releasing that vast and endless succession of whys. Two is the questions you start asking yourself at the end of romantic relationship, was it me? Am I inadequate as a human being? All those questions stemming from inadequacy and the low self-esteem that broods and breeds in that first couple of months of single life. Three is the question of love, what is it? Is it this formless, shapeless entity that finds itself in our lives, scattered throughout, waiting to be plucked out of thin air by the first look of the right partner. In this short interlude on the record, I tried my hand in addressing those three questions that bug the piss out of me. This record is mostly notes to me, a way I've found to keep myself in line. Once it's on the record, I can't go back. So I took a strong stance with this set of lyrics while I felt sure of the answers, in my weakest moments of insecurities I can't sway from the answers. Here are the answers, my personal answers to those questions: One, no one is to blame. We're all players on a stage built by us in our heads. It's narcissistic to think we would ever know or that someone or something is in control. It stems from our need to not feel insignificant, if we're aware of a creator or controller then control of the endless possibilities is tangible, which is why people pray. We need to know that control is possible even if we're not worthy of that control. We'd rather create a fictional character for control then be thrown into the infinite universe, alone and cold with only each other to bullshit our time away. Two, life unravels at an alarming rate, this includes relationships. I've had countless friends just fall off the map for no reason other than life carrying us in opposite directions and that's fine. This existence is a glorious temporal mess and our personal journeys don't always include one another, not to mention throwing in the fact that we're all selfish in some way in our personal relationships. Again no one to blame or hate, life unfolds. Three, love is waste. It's a beautiful way to waste your time, poetic in the sense that it decays most the time like our bodies and this time we have allotted to us. If you have it, even for a brief bit, then it's wonderful and gorgeous to all the senses. The warmth of humanity lives beneath the word assigned to that feeling. But at this stage in my life, the answer to the definition is love, love is waste and you have to be aware of that to fully enjoy it when you have it.
Charles: This is one of the more straight forward songs on the record. Pretty much everything I wanted to address is in the lyrics, plainly written. As I stated before, the religious environment here was always silently hostile. Different ideas were conflicting ideas, a very tight lipped, you-against-me attitude towards simple questions. This is the second song on the record about relatively the same subject, though this song is more about fanatics specifically Westboro Baptist. I don’t believe there should be a war between intellect and spirituality, in a sane world, they coexist. To me, Jesus, Nikola Tesla, Jack Kerouac, and kind hearts across the world are in the same basket of interest. I say, use your logic and reasoning to support your beliefs and humanity. I’m not religious in any context of my life with the exception of art and human grace. I rely on those two things. Creation is a combination of prayer and meditation for me. I recite compassion mantras when I’m having a rough day, but I’m aware saying Om Mani Padme Hum is not a cure for life belittling my advancements. In the song, there are specific questions I’ve had since I was young lad. This isn’t an answer song like a few of the others, there’s no resolution to this song, just another series of statements of spiritual reluctance. I can’t base my life off something with so many loose ends. It’s like looking at purchasing a house for your soul; I could buy the house that is in a perpetual state of fixing up, live in that one spot for the rest of my life, never knowing what the world had to offer besides this constant rebuilding on a foundation of sand or I could live in a tent, travel where ever, and constantly feel the hard ground beneath my body and the climate change. I prefer travel. I prefer change. I prefer the marvel of humanity.
Charles: Destruction is the theme, destructive relationships to be exact. All around, the meaning behind this track is in the title, being in love with someone who’s in love with a drug, alcohol, or themselves more so than they are in love with you and living beneath that umbrella of circumstance. Let me share some wisdom I found through those types of relationships: 1. You can’t love or respect someone who doesn’t love or respect themselves. I’ll say a piece about the music on this song and vocal arrangements. It’s delivered in a one tone, angry growl on my part throughout with the exception of the chorus because I felt the lyrics needed heavy delivery. Not sure how many of you out there have tried communication when it’s dead at the bottom of the lake but there’s a point where all you have left is animosity towards someone for the way they did you. It’s a hateful descent but this strange reminisce of love still exists. The mood is hard to describe in a destructive relationship, which is why the music supports the idea as well. The colors created by the opening chords, the progressive bits in strange time signatures, and the structure of the song swells into the final thought of the track, “All love and art turns, so turn or be turned.” And the song doesn’t have a real ending. It’s to emphasize that tension that never goes away in your chest. A great undertaking of emotional output has adverse side effects. You can’t take something that serious, have it fall apart, then walk away clean. But, just like the chorus suggests, growth comes out of the trashiest mates. The pain and bullshit only helps you bloom, just like manure being spread across a garden, filth helps the process sometimes. Also, stoked to find a way to reference Toulouse-Lautrec, one of the few visual artists I enjoy.
Charles: This song is LFT's dead horse. We drag it from record to record, the stay positive rant. This one however is different, mostly focusing on the idea of ideals and reality coexisting. The jaded kids, compassion mantras, blow jobs, bodhisattvas, the holy, sex, drugs, Punk Rock, death, Youth Crew Hardcore, Eock 'n' Roll, Blues, PMA and the never ending list of things we let define and motivate us, all living and mingling together, that pleasant place where the practical meets the metaphysical and gorgeous folly of our imaginations. Personal experience, friends and acquaintances experiences I've seen or heard as well, seems to show life as time spent chasing comforts, running from our neurotic behavior, or dulling the roar of boredom caused by our own habits and apathy. Well outside of our actions, IDEALLY… I say life is about getting weird. It's about getting personal. It's about moving forward through the muck and finding brilliance in the ugliest moments. It's about perpetuating beauty and chasing ideas. Life is beautiful. The duality of our intent and execution is personal identity and the distance between the two is where we all live. There's no black or white, just a strange collection of hues, formless and shapeless. Everything I personally wanted to say through the song is in the song. It's weird I kept the lyrics personal and the explanation broad. My final statement on the subject is the way life lends itself to our perception, things can seem dim and narrow in possibilities but it's only because we can’t comprehend its brilliance or the grand scope of everything working together in complete harmony.
Charles: I guess this is an apology for everything penned about god on the record. I explained it to someone earlier today. I wanted to be honest on the record, whether it was hostile and short-sighted or not. We’re all ignorant in some sense. Like in therapy where you speak openly about the way you feel without fear of judgment, this band is my way of tying loose ends. I don’t have family really, just a metric shit ton of liked minded people across the U.S. and a few friends across the world that I call my friends. I write how I would speak to them in a conversation, so I can be offensive to small groups. Punk Rock is not a popularity contest, that’s why I’m here. I’ve never won one of those. I’ve never won anything actually. I wasn’t built to compete. I’m only wired to speak and live freely. The only terms in which I censored myself was aimless offensiveness. I had no malicious intent throughout writing the record, no one to stick it to or hurt, just a lashing out after years of taking it all in. You can’t serve your spirituality without serving yourself. You have to find time to center yourself, rest, and move forward. Balance is the key to happiness. So the final themes for the record are learning to forgive, hate only hurts those carrying the animosity; and make sure you have an active role in your own life, don’t let the world take you somewhere you don’t won’t to be. Stay positive, keep empathy in mind, give before you get, move forward, and if you’re ever in a place where something is restricting your progress, then obviously, it’s not for you, change must happen. That last part includes genres, Punk Rock, religion, personal relationships, and your country. Don’t be afraid to truly live free. Thanks for listening, thanks for reading.    |
