The most life-changing moments for me have always come by accident, it seems. When I was 15, I told a lie that ended up committing me to buying a drumset and started me on the path to becoming a musician. When I was 30, another flap of my big fat mouth put me in the gym and it’s kept me there, more or less, for the last 7 years. This bout of happenstance, however, was not my doing, at least, not directly, but it came about through my acquaintance with Michael W. Dean.
Michael and I met online at ConservativePunk.com, where our common love for music and passion of political discourse made us friends, at least online friends. When he was writing the first Right Arm of Wyoming album, I offered to send him some drum loops I had created in a program I have. Being a drummer for so long, I tend to try and make programmed drums sound as real as possible. Alas, I had no way of uploading the files to him, as none of the upload sites worked, but all of this was discussed openly on ConPunk.
After the RAW CD Cling to Our Guns was released, Michael would post reviews and comments on ConPunk, both positive and negative. One such post was a review posted on the Bridge Nine forums. The post, titled Fox News- The Band, was a scathing criticism of RAW’s music and themes. One user, however, seemed to have some inside knowledge, which could only have come from them being a lurker on ConPunk. They claimed that I was the drummer for RAW and that I was a “homosexual right-wing Odinist”. Sadly, the post has long since scrolled off the boards, but it did make me call out the person who posted such wrong information about me and RAW on the B9 boards. I also became a poster there as well.
It was shortly thereafter that I saw a post about organizing a compilation CD titled Enough is Enough, to benefit Freedom to Marry, an organization dedicated to promoting marriage equality and fighting anti-gay ballot initiatives. I contacted the organizer, Paul Blest, and offered a Frost Giant song, but none of the existing songs at the time fit topically except for Relic, which was just too long at 9 minutes to be included. So, I decided to record fresh. Initially, the plan was to do a 7 Seconds song called Regress No Way, which was arguably one of the first anti-homophobia songs out there, but the compilation started gaining ground, and soon, a lot of bigger names in punk & hardcore started signing on. I knew then that as much as I love that band, I couldn’t go out there with a 7 Seconds cover. I wanted to make my mark, so I decided to write a new song. It took me a long time to get a song in my head, as I do not do too well when I am forced up against a deadline, but soon enough I had something to work with and I went to my drum program and my trusty Les Paul and wrote it out. What came out of it was something I never imagined.
The song Not While I Draw Breath is probably the most angriest, pissed off, intense and in-your-face Frost Giant song to date. The lyrics deal with standing up to oppression and tyranny, of not caving in and backing down, and with being willing to hurt, suffer, and even die for the sake of your principles. It speaks of defending yourself and not going out meekly without a fight. On one hand, it could refer to the fight for marriage equality and is thus in line with the message of the compilation, but it’s written to be far more universal than that. Complacency, apathy, and willful ignorance abound in music and in pop culture in general. We are easily distracted by trivial things and made to focus on those as if they were important while we’re taken for a ride on the things that really matter. I intend this song to be a wake-up call to anyone that will hear it, but I leave it to the listener to apply it to their own lives however they see fit. I will not tell you what to think or what you should stand for, only that you should think, and that you should stand for something.
Not While I Draw Breath
by Matt Frost, January 2010. All rights reserved.
Will you stand with me
Fight and die if need be
Hold against the hordes until
The last man falls
Will you sacrifice all
You have gained in life
Reject your comfort
For a greater end
Stand together
And never waver
Brave in the face of
Overwhelming odds
For our future,
And our freedom
We unite in
Liberty or death
The evil stirs from its sleep
And no one will be safe from its reach
For we shall fight to be free
And never will we bend our knee
Forever clawing
Fight like a demon
Taking it to
The very bitter end
Swords are drawing
Battle lines forming
Storm clouds are churning
Soon there will be war
The earth will be fed
With blood
And the skies will weep
Unto the dead
Never give up,
Never back down,
We unite in
Liberty or death
Tonight, we lay down our lives
In the path of those who would oppress
And enslave us to their god
And trod us under until we are no more
Not while I draw breath
Will I submit, will I accept
Not while I draw breath
Will I bow down, nor will I live
With empty regrets
Now feel the sting of a thousand swords
Vanquish the hordes drive them away
To the darkness from whence they came
Obliterate they are no more
Overrun them all
Take what is ours.
Crush the wretched enemy
Bring victory
To our hearth and home
***************************************
Check the song out on the Frost Giant myspace. Let me know what you think.
~Matti F.
Last Sunday, I was working around 3 PM, delivering food, when a bolt of inspiration struck me. I heard a melody in my head and I couldn’t get it out, but I knew if I didn’t do something I’d forget it eventually. I’ve lost so many ideas that way. So, I wrote down the first half of the first verse of what would become a new song in less than 24 hours’ time.
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