Rob Taxpayer Talks Anxiety Cat, The End Of Reality & How To Not Lose Hope | Anxiety Cat Interview
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Check out our interview with the creative powerhouse behind Anxiety Cat - Rob Taxpayer. We discuss the project, what inspired it and how it becomes more vital with every passing day.
Listen out Anxiety Cat: https://anxietycat.bandcamp.com/
Find out more about the project: https://youtu.be/VGB1IXnLt1M
Check out Rob's other projects: https://www.hairpond.org/
Useful links, please donate if you can:
https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/
https://www.innocenceproject.org/
https://www.islaimmigration.org/
A little about Anxiety Cat from Rob & Pip:
When I began working on this record, I had hoped to make sense of our new unreality by tracing the threads back to their symptoms and their starting points; a kind of song-journal made up of new, strange digital songs to fit the new, strange digital frontier. A post-Trump cyberpunk repurposing of propaganda and a meditation on the tools of control.
The project grew as new events unfolded. But instead of expanding the album to encompass the entirety of this new world, I set a limit for myself - under 10 songs, all including at least one of the following: audio excerpts, digital instrumentation, or phrase-echoes (a Matryoshka doll of echo chambers within echo chambers).
In researching events for these songs, it slowly dawned on me that I myself had been...if not lied to, then at least pushed in a certain direction by my choice of media, and that my understanding of many world events were limited by the sources of my information outlets. It seemed, despite the reporting I had been consuming, that Muammar Gaddafi was a more complex figure than I had been led to believe, that Vladimir Putin and Alexei Navalny had more in common than I had thought, and that digital surveillance was far more widespread than I had realized. The purpose behind the chaos was not in achieving specific goals, but rather, simply, in maintaining power and wealth. The problems were the same as they have always been, just with a new hat. It was, in some ways, comforting.
And so, the trillion dollar question has become: What can we do about it?
The well of stability may be poisoned beyond repair, but our human connections - while frayed and fragile - have not. The first thing to do in a world where global power leaves individuals powerless, is to strengthen our human connections. Call our loved ones. Bring gifts to our neighbors. Take our kids fishing. The next thing, I think, is to begin creating sub-societies within this larger one, where the supply chain is local and not dependent on corporations and governments. As my friend Adrian in Mexico City recently told me, “The first step is to grow your own food.” Beyond that, mutual support. Beyond that, education.
Beyond that, the world is ours.
I wish you luck in this new non-reality. When the sheer overwhelming nature of it all gets you down, unplug, take a deep breath, and go for a walk. Look at all the bugs and the birds and the stray cats and the trees being born out of cracks in the concrete:
It is all still there.
Yours in confusion and determination,
Rob and Pip
#anxietycat #robtaxpayer #interview
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