Narcissus

If you don't know who Narcissus is, do some quick Greek Mythology reading and find out. It's an interesting story.

Narcissism is the subject of this song project which J Lawson and Megan Fong created for the Desperado Orchestra. This project was proposed by a graphic designer and while preparing the music they found inspiration in defining a new type of social narcissism.

Derber observed that the social support system in America is relatively weak, and this leads people to compete mightily for attention. In social situations, they tend to steer the conversation away from others and toward themselves. "Conversational narcissism is the key manifestation of the dominant attention-getting psychology in America," he wrote. "It occurs in informal conversations among friends, family and coworkers. The profusion of popular literature about listening and the etiquette of managing those who talk constantly about themselves suggests its pervasiveness in everyday life..."

The "narcissist" as a modern popular American personality became more and more apparent and obvious as Lawson and Fong went about their everyday activities, eaves-dropping on conversations from neighbors in line at the store, listening to associates talk about... well, themselves and even while working in recording sessions and at shows.

These observations lead to the question: Do Americans lack the inner struggle to find personal enlightenment and diversity of thought independent of their own self? And thus, the lyrics of the song developed from quoting people distant and close. The lyrics became a vehicle for listeners to have a chance to hear outside of themselves the different phrases and ranting one would find with a true narcissist.

The music, independent of the lyrical content, became the sonic representation of a struggle between the organic (acoustic) and the artificial (midi-keyboard/electric violin) sounds. They are meant to parallel one another, and create a stream of melody and song. These two parallel melodic generators are meant to work together but to never touch and combine as one voice. This is meant to represent the organic struggle to work and be heard independently within a clutter of artificial sonics. It is the sonic representation of the same social struggle found within individuals striving to exist outside of the social narcissistic web.