This goes out to all of the social media and conventional media pundits and “influencers” who have made our lives feel like we’re going through Hell by employing endless “psyops” for the last decade or so.
This song was written, performed, produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered, all in-house by Quixotic Media and Nathan Walker (me), and will be released under the name “James Younger” as a tribute to my former band and bandmates.
Those gentlemen were there for me in very meaningful and personal ways during some of the most wandering and dark years of my life.
Unfortunately for all of us, I still had a lot of growing up to do, and a lot of life lessons (and industry lessons) to learn before any of this could ever have been possible. The last time we saw each other was in Illinois in 2013, just before I started touring as a sound engineer and “tour manager” for another group of friends in a band called Another Lost Year - a very fitting name for the last year of my life.
Reflecting
I also wanted a way to publicly thank those people and others for making this possible through their endless patience — The James-Younger Gang, Another Lost Year, 3 Years Hollow, Dustin, Jory, Alex, Kyle G., Kyle With a K (R.I.P. my twin bro), Lee, KPS, Clinton, Adam, Chorney, Jason, David, Chance, Luke, Pete, Jose, Farley, Dustin-Jen-and-Jill (for some serious convos that really changed my life) Diana, Freak, Betsy, Nick Huffman (R.I.P., my enlightened friend), Kyle F. at Thermal, Q (not the internet thing), and also apologize for it taking me so long to come around and figure out how to do this in a proactive and productive way. Danni, I missed. Jenni, you’re almost always wrong and always were, especially about me. Brittany - let’s see you get your hands on any more rufies while you’re in prison.
Also, obviously thank you to Mom, Dad, Grandma, Scooter, G-man & fam, and everyone else who I thought gave up on me.
I regret staying so long in being reactive, always playing catch up and trying in sometimes self-protecting ways to make ends meet for people who relied on me.
I lived for ten years in “survival mode,” navigating a ceaseless stream of mid-life crises (in my 20’s and 30’s). I hope you all will forgive me some day for being an ignorant kid trapped in an adult’s body, making excuses to take easy ways out when everything was “all crashing down”.
The worst is passed, and I can’t do anything except aiming at the right things in the right way anymore.
Backstory to “Can You Hear Me Now”
The main guitar riff was the first thing I recorded myself playing on guitar through the first (serious) guitar I ever bought, recorded on the first serious recording rig I ever owned and bought with my own earned money, made entirely possible by my work for True The Vote during the Konnech investigations.
I also want to thank Catherine and Gregg for giving me that opportunity. I’ll honestly cherish that period of my life for being able to do real work that affected the world in real ways. I’ve always been desperate for meaning and you guys gave me that, even if just for a short while.
Also a special, non-personal “thank you” to Steve Bannon and Dan Bongino for making it “cool” and acceptable to care about the world around us - and for teaching us the weaponry of propaganda.
I’ve chosen to use my own propaganda outlet to motivate others to become involved, or at the least, to WANT TO pay attention to the world around them.
When I wrote the main riff at the beginning of the song, I immediately thought of how it was so very reminiscent of the vision I had for The James-Younger Gang, my first “serious”-ish band from Charlotte.
The breakdown toward the middle of the song was actually the riff that inspired me to put the pen to paper and actually write a song around something. If you missed this video I’ve posted here before, this is actually the same riff, all dressed up:
Moving Forward
I hope this is only the first of many more songs I write, and I hope this will serve as a catalyst and a statement that I am here, I am serious, and I am ready to take anyone else’s music to the next level with what I learned from the music industry over the years.
The lyric video is still under construction and moving along, but as I’ve shared on X before, I have some very serious family life priorities that always come first, and especially so right now.
The lyric video - I hope - will memorialize some of my more epic threads and posts that collectively garnered MILLIONS of views to my ten thousand followers on X. The work is not gone, and will hopefully once again become of use in the future.
If my venting and sharing my personal life and gratitude for those people bothers my readers or the world - SUCK IT. <insert goofy face emoji>
I really share all this to say:
“The hope’s not running out. We’ve still got something to pray now. We’re still standing here and I’ll be right next to you.”
I see you, Trapt…
…And good luck topping this one, “Milky.”
Lyrics:
Verse 1:
Takin’ pieces of the lies that you told
…closin’ your eyes. Openin’ their eyes…
…eats you alive, and this body’s getting cold
In war your words don’t mean anything
I’m wrong but is it right
Running toward the fight?
The wrong medication while
We’re bleeding desperation
Pre-Chorus 1:
Even though
The fear’s not runnin’ out
We still got somethin’ to say now
We’re still standing here
And I’ll be right next to you
And we know
The hope’s not runnin’ out
I still got somethin’ to pray now
We’re still standing here
And I’ll be right next to you
Chorus 1:
Cuz
I’ve been screamin’ so hard
But no nobody’s there to listen
You’re a liar and a LARP
So go on, throw me in prison
Verse 2:
This tickin’ world turning
Left the world sick and burning
All day outrage but the rent’s late
Nothing to gain from a game
That you lose before you play
In the nameless, faceless space
Only one more silent WARRR!!!
Lost shadows in a forgotten world
…again
Pre-Chorus 2:
Even though
The fear’s not runnin’ out
We still got somethin’ to say now
We’re still standing here
And I’ll be right next to you
And we know
The hope’s not runnin’ out
I still got somethin’ to pray now
We’re still standing here
And I’ll be right next to you
Chorus 2:
Cuz
I’ve been screamin’ so hard
But no nobody’s there to listen
You’re a liar, you’re a LARP
And an evil, fugly person
A coward, a thief
You soured the sweetest part of me
Everything’s all crashing down
We shattered ceilings
Can you hear me now?
Breakdown:
Throw me in prison
I’ve grown indifferent
Give me a reason
To carry you with me to Hell
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