SENDING OUR DEMONS BACK TO HELL
Hi, I am Karen. STEVER is my last name. You can call me either one.
This is the part where you are supposed to tell your story, list accomplishments or give a title to who you are. That seems complicated. That approach seems a lot like work.
The thing is, I have worked my whole life. I woke up and went to work…and would work until it was time to crash. I haven’t really had the luxury of playing in there and I would be arrogant to think I was the only one stuck in the grind. I watched others play and enjoy their families. I even made sure other people were enjoying life to the fullest at a cost to my own health. This may sound familiar to you.
I have always thought life was some great sacrifice with a sliver of hope that ‘one day’ I would reap the benefits or enjoy the fruits of my labor. The truth is, you can wait an awful long time for that to happen. When I look at my life in a bio format, it has a lot of trash and very little passion.
Know what my favorite accomplishment was? I stopped watching the News. I recognized it was junking up my mind. I bought into the notion that I should be ‘informed’ but the information was colored anyways. My other notable accomplishment was that I quit caring what people thought of me or the art I was working on. What this did was allowed me to be free to explore a creative palette. Once I understood that I could never enjoy life to the fullest until doing this, I experienced a second childhood and a return to the original intention for me which was THE SPIRIT OF PLAY.
While working on the first record, PLAYGROUND ISOLATOR!, I hit a place where I began to have fun with words again on the song, ‘Funeral Mute’. It’s not to say I wasn’t creative during that record, it’s just that creativity was normally spawned from severe hurt and fuelled by a need to get some things off my chest. I was deeply depressed and coming off a bad cycle in my world. ‘Funeral Mute’ was a place where I could shut things out and have some sarcastic fun with my pain.
As it turns out, I was not alone in my agony. There were thousands like me who were drowning in depression. We were misery loving company, but we helped each other SURVIVE.
This is the part where you are supposed to tell your story, list accomplishments or give a title to who you are. That seems complicated. That approach seems a lot like work.
The thing is, I have worked my whole life. I woke up and went to work…and would work until it was time to crash. I haven’t really had the luxury of playing in there and I would be arrogant to think I was the only one stuck in the grind. I watched others play and enjoy their families. I even made sure other people were enjoying life to the fullest at a cost to my own health. This may sound familiar to you.
I have always thought life was some great sacrifice with a sliver of hope that ‘one day’ I would reap the benefits or enjoy the fruits of my labor. The truth is, you can wait an awful long time for that to happen. When I look at my life in a bio format, it has a lot of trash and very little passion.
Know what my favorite accomplishment was? I stopped watching the News. I recognized it was junking up my mind. I bought into the notion that I should be ‘informed’ but the information was colored anyways. My other notable accomplishment was that I quit caring what people thought of me or the art I was working on. What this did was allowed me to be free to explore a creative palette. Once I understood that I could never enjoy life to the fullest until doing this, I experienced a second childhood and a return to the original intention for me which was THE SPIRIT OF PLAY.
While working on the first record, PLAYGROUND ISOLATOR!, I hit a place where I began to have fun with words again on the song, ‘Funeral Mute’. It’s not to say I wasn’t creative during that record, it’s just that creativity was normally spawned from severe hurt and fuelled by a need to get some things off my chest. I was deeply depressed and coming off a bad cycle in my world. ‘Funeral Mute’ was a place where I could shut things out and have some sarcastic fun with my pain.
As it turns out, I was not alone in my agony. There were thousands like me who were drowning in depression. We were misery loving company, but we helped each other SURVIVE.
My hope with ‘Idiot Savant’ is to inspire others to THRIVE. I picked a character who I think most of us can relate to which was a 9 year old boy named Ian. Ian has talent with no outlet. Ian’s childhood was robbed. Ian has a special connection with animals. Ian sees things that others don’t. Ian is a Savant in an ignorant world where they view him as an idiot. He has good mentors and bad teachers. I set it in the 30s because I love that era but believe it set some very bad patterns that are still present today. This makes the title of the record actually timely, not archaic or politically incorrect.
The record was inspired when I heard ‘The Logical Song’ by Supertramp. I realized that the original intention for us was to PLAY. Becoming an adult meant getting a ‘real job’ and being bummed out full-time. Over the course of our lives, we become vegetables like the song suggests.
Co-produced by Frank Gryner, the 12 songs on ‘Idiot Savant’ represent moments from the chapters of the book called KING JUGGERNAUT - NYC. It chronicles this pattern of childhood innocence trying its damnedest to get back to the spirit of play again.
My hope is not to have some trendy viral event, but a solid life-changing experience where we reunite with who we really are and get back to the things we are passionate about.
I absolutely cannot accept that living in Hell was the original intention for us.
Music Heals,
Karen
The record was inspired when I heard ‘The Logical Song’ by Supertramp. I realized that the original intention for us was to PLAY. Becoming an adult meant getting a ‘real job’ and being bummed out full-time. Over the course of our lives, we become vegetables like the song suggests.
Co-produced by Frank Gryner, the 12 songs on ‘Idiot Savant’ represent moments from the chapters of the book called KING JUGGERNAUT - NYC. It chronicles this pattern of childhood innocence trying its damnedest to get back to the spirit of play again.
My hope is not to have some trendy viral event, but a solid life-changing experience where we reunite with who we really are and get back to the things we are passionate about.
I absolutely cannot accept that living in Hell was the original intention for us.
Music Heals,
Karen