The Strongest Survives

Welcome back to my blog.

It has been a while, a long while of silence from a person who once had a lot to say. I have been gone from the scene, from the country for so long, but now, I've got my third eye, I've got another voice to use to connect me with ongoing issues that still live within the KL music scene - issues that a lot of people bring up but never do anything about it. Perhaps somehow, someday, my words are being read and discussed and made to fix what's now dying in the scene.

When it all comes down to one thing, that's the fact that people now fear.

People now fear to go to gigs, because they fear getting bored of the same bands, getting sick of the rude, inconsiderate crowd, getting scared of going into the moshpit because it is now a platform to "impress", no longer to express. People who once showed their faces every weekend at One Cafe, Noisy Studio and the long gone haunts of the scene, have now resorted to YouTube videos and once in a while shows because the good bands have all hidden away, paled out and replaced with a hundred mini-Bring Me the Horizons.

Where is the scene leading us down now?

Rarely now we find gigs that hold a different mix of music. Hardcore bands only play hardcore gigs. Metalcore bands only play metalcore gigs. So on and so forth. The unity within the crowds and musicians have dissipated into the throngs of judgmental opinions and non-constructive criticisms. All the new kids in the scene go to gigs to follow trends, not to go purely for the music. They think that making a band that sounds 100% like another famous band is creative. How many more bands with the same genre and same styles will he needed? Music where songs are not written to pass a message, but just for making a song with no particular emotion attached to it.

And I must say I am disappointed in the members of bands I once looked up to and looked forward to watching. Maybe some of them have moved on with life. Maybe some of them are too busy with other things. But the ones that have died down and stayed silent because they no longer can be bothered with the scene... what happened to the spirit and the soul of making a difference? If the scene's now shit, why not make a community that still puts out gigs worth going to and music worth listening to?

It's so hard now to go to a gig and find a band actually worth staying in the crowd for. How long has it been since you've seen a gig flyer and gone "Oh my gosh, I want to catch these bands!" rather than "Let's go to this gig just because it's a gig and there's nothing else to do."?

And on the subject of crowds? What happened to expression and enjoyment? Now, the pure moshers stay out of the moshpit because all the kids think moshing is to show who's the strongest, the most violent, the most obnoxious. Ten points if you shove a person, twenty if you kick somebody in the shoulder, fifty points in the face. When somebody falls in the pit, nobody now gives a shit, they trample over them, ignore them, no more friendship and unity of picking the person up, laughing at the fact that you shoved him by accident, and cheer on the band on stage. Gone are those days of pure bliss.

Sorry kids, but if you think being the way you are is contributing to making the scene a better place for everybody, take a walk down the streets, put on your headphones and beat up a random bloke, it would be similar.

With Love,
KL Mosher

Left wing, right wing, you can stuff the lot

It may be true that actions speak louder than words, but people forget nowadays that the real influences come from what we say. Lyrics, quotes from famous/favourite people, quotes from films. Jokes, riddles, stories, rumours... all these words that stick to our heads and stay because they left an impression on us. How many people have used, re-used, changed and edited the quote "To be or not to be", for example?
Words. Nothing more, nothing less. I do not care how many people read my lyrics, my poems, my prose on things that matter to me, but as long as I know I've managed to express myself, that's enough. Isn't it?

Violence? Forthright actions? What do you gain from it, except hurt, anger and enemies?
Many say they want to fight the oppression and injustice of the right wing, political, racist violence by fighting back with their own,
but hey, doesn't that make you the same as them?
You're lining yourself up in the same boundaries as the ones you hate and that makes you no better.
It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, when you act the way your enemies do, you're equal to them.
You call yourself a leader but you're just another carbon copy of the ones you despise,
because your actions speak no louder than the ones you victimize,
I'm not saying we should pity the ones who cause us all this headache,
I'm not saying we should listen to the politically minded who try to change our ways.

Sometimes it's true that anger takes a toll and you can't help yourself, but if you can't help yourself, do you think anyone else can? Do you think you can change?

When you read the news, you shake your head, but then you go and do something just the same,
and you're always the one pointing fingers,
like you do not dare to blame yourself for your own actions.
So who is the coward, you or them?

When you act with violence, you show a weak mind, and with a weak mind comes a loss of respect and pride from those by your side, and you end up standing alone with nobody to turn to.
Of course I believe in standing your own ground, but I won't want to stand my own ground if I did things I'm ashamed of.

All I am saying is if they fight us with control,
we fight them with restraint.

No use shouting profanity and ruining what they own,
when we can silently compile our thoughts and make a movement grow,
through speeches, through ideas we can rise against
not through violence, not through threats, not through physical provocation.

I believe strongly in determination, and if we are determined to change things, we can do it, but there is no need for all the hatred and all the angry actions that you will look back on and regret. We should start a sort of weekly gathering, where we can share our own ideas on an individual topic, and come up with ways to make it better. Without a rash mind, without irritation, just pure, civilized, sophisticated discussions.
We don't need to be part of a group, part of a class, part of anything materialistic and tangible to share our ideas, we just need to have the same minds, the same passion, the same determination.

Propagandas, zines, banners, poems, placards, flyers, blogs, websites, lyrics... all these form of expression we can use to get our words out there to the world, to the ones we want to attack, without physically attacking them.

As they aimlessly opress us, we stand and sing,
then we'll see in the end who's side will win.

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With Love,
KL Mosher