So, part one of Ascension’s Constraint is finally out! I’m excited to keep doing this each month. Although it’s going to be a lot of work, nothing worth doing is easy. Regardless of how it’s received, I’ve always been in the ars gratia artis camp. I’ve always felt a strong desire to create, and this will more than fulfill that outlet. I’m excited to keep doing these releases monthly.
So what on Earth inspired me to do something like this? I think it’s multifactorial. I’ve always wanted to do a concept album, and I wanted to do something that no one else was really doing. Sure, concept records are not a new concept (pardon the pun), but they’ve always sort of been a loose storyline. I thought it would be cool to flesh something out a little bit more. Also, I decided to take more of an active role in production and mixing. I think that this was a necessary step, because that way I have more control over my deadlines. Admittedly, the mix for “Cleanse You” could be better. It’s a risk to do things this way since Lu and Joe Rickard did such an awesome job producing and mixing Prescription Fiction, but I need to take the next step at some point. Besides, I plan on releasing all the songs as a full album at some point, and I’ll be able to remix whatever I need to. That’s the beauty of doing it this way. I think the next song I mixed, “If I Were Better,” is much closer to where I want to be.
As far as the book goes, we’ve met our hero, Alex Hobbes, and our villain, Leopold Karpus. Karpus has someone pulling his strings, as we’ve seen, but I think he’d be doing whatever it is he’s doing, regardless. To me, he’s capitalism at its worst. I believe in incentive and hard work, but I think things have gone to far. I think it’s starting to become clear (at least to me) that the government is meant to serve corporate interests, and the people are meant to fund it with their tax dollars. I think the worst part of it all is the inflation. Wages are stagnant, and our money is worth less and less each day. That’s the beauty of a debt-based economy based on fiat currency, I guess.
I saw a lot of what’s going on, and I just sort of thought about where we would be in fifty or so years. Ascension’s Constraint is just one possible timeline. As far as the plot, I’m just trying to write a fun story in that setting. I’ve got a lot of cool ideas to incorporate, so we’ll see how things play out.
Before I close, I just want to take a moment to say that I am not politically motivated. I’m not a member of a political party. I see politics these days as being divisive, and that is absolutely not what I am after. I want to be as inclusive as I possibly can. I clearly have my opinions, to be sure, but you are free to disagree with me. These opinions are simply my own, and my intention is not to preach, but simply to start a conversation. As the book progresses, and we hopefully get more readers/listeners, I envision this site to be a safe place for everyone to debate these topics.
That said, we need to talk about Alex some, so we’ll do that next time. Until next time.