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Concept albums can be tricky things. All artists tell some type of story through music and the individual song, but the difference with a concept album is the story is unified throughout the entire body of the album. Now take that concept and multiply it times three\u2026 not just three discs, but a triptych approach of three albums that tell a story in three different ways. We have the music, the lyrics and the artwork and all three are utilized to convey a story, a story and a message. In order to really pull something of this magnitude off, one would need a subject that you could talk about for three entire discs. The Violet Burning has that subject, or really another focus of three\u2026 the character, the machine and the Creator.<\/p>\n
The Violet Burning, led by Michael Pritzl, has returned after a 5 year stretch where we last heard the band releasing Drop-Dead<\/em>. There was a \u2018live\u2019 album in between, but Drop-Dead<\/em> was the last studio record. The Violets have been laying it down solid for a good 20+ years. With around 13 full length albums to their credit, as well as numerous demo, film and collaboration releases, The Violets have navigated the murky waters of this industry for longer than most.\u00a0 Through the years as the band has grown, Pritzl has honed and earned his stripes in crafting a sound that is uniquely The Violet Burning. Musically The Violets are a spacey, distorted rock band that has their sound, but along the way you can hear influences from The Cure to Leonard Cohen, early Smashing Pumpkins to Pink Floyd, and on this latest release there is a definite Black Sabbath vibe, predominately on the second disc.<\/p>\n I was able to catch up with Pritzl a few weeks back and we had a really long conversation about this newest record that is titled The Story of Our Lives<\/em>. It is epic, expansive and telling. It is revealing, challenging and really left me with a sense of wonder about how this story came to be in his mind and how he was able to really capture what is the star of this release, the concept itself. There are so many layers to this album, there are so many paths that the story takes and that the characters endure, and Pritzl has told this in an amazingly fluid sense of direction and delivery. From the opening sounds and rhythms of The Fantastic Machine<\/em>, to the redemptive and introspective songs on Black as Death<\/em>, and then to the realization and closing on Liebe Uber Alles<\/em>, The Violets have set the bar high and recorded what is surely the defining release of their career. The story found here is one that affects us all, every single living soul on planet earth is in this story, the fun part is discovering the truth behind the reality that we see\u2026 and so we begin.<\/p>\n \u201cthis is where it all begins, clothed in light and wrapped in skin\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n How did the idea, the concept, behind TSOOL come to fruition\u2026 what was the process and progression of ideas that led to the final story?<\/strong><\/p>\n Actually I have been working on the concept over the last seven years, and while we have been in process with everything I was working in a factory which was in actuality a giant machine shop. A few hundred yards of warehouse with 50 or so big old machines that are constantly humming and buzzing and cutting and shaping and pounding sheet metal and various things into airplane parts that were being manufactured for various companies.<\/p>\n That\u2019s good inspiration\u2026 <\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah exactly\u2026 so I have been working on this concept album that I started dreaming about 7 years ago, actually even before we did Drop-Dead<\/em> I had a lot of Fantastic Machine<\/em> written. I read this wonderful book called The Big Switch<\/em> which was authored by this man by the name of Nicholas Carr. To give your readers a little background, basically in The Big Switch<\/em> Carr documents the history of the electrical grid as well as the history of the internet. I guess that book was probably written in 2007, or about there, but it\u2019s fascinating because he starts touching on all the stuff that you and I now see in our culture. We see all the commercials for the Cloud and the iCloud now, but he was talking about these things 4 to 5 years ago. He\u2019s a really smart journalist who documents the trend in technologies, as well as what different scientists and professors see in the world of technology and how it affects us as a culture.<\/p>\n It was interesting having this concept idea after having my mind totally blown by this book The Big Switch<\/em> which is more Orwellian than 1984<\/em>, but the difference is that the author is actually documenting facts and statements. On top of that my friends and I are asked to come in for work and fix these broken systems at this factory, this big machine shop factory that is a manufacturing plant. All of this companies\u00a0 network and computer systems are all based on ideas from the 1980\u2019s, so these people hire us in to work at this company where everything is broken in the way the networks and the systems talk to one another.<\/p>\n Slowly there begins to be this theme as I\u2019m working on this concept album about the broken world that we live in and the lies that come at us, and I\u2019m seeing this parallel while working in this factory for a business that also supports these ideals in humanity like human greed and error. It was really interesting to be working there and listening to the demos of the album I was working on while walking around the factory listening to the buzzing, humming and pounding machines all around me. It was really surreal actually, but God allows me to go down those paths sometimes with the art that I am working on. Here\u2019s the thing too\u2026in the end we discovered that all the roads that were leading to the main programs of the company were all driven by human error, human greed and human deception, and how all those things became parallels to the world you and I live in\u2026 the same world driven by the same things, the human error, greed and deception.<\/p>\n So then the factory and that job were a big inspiration behind The Story of Our Lives<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes and the Nicholas Carr books were a big inspiration as well. As a side note, he has another book out called The Shallows<\/em>, and in a nutshell the idea is that he is just documenting studies that scientists from highly regarded universities are doing explaining how the internet is rewiring the way that we think, and how those of us who actually spend more time on the internet are becoming more distracted, more numbed down, more prone to things like worry and anxiety. It\u2019s that constant barrage of not just information, but advertisement of need and want, and all those things that we get pulled into. When we get away from that we don\u2019t have the ability to quiet our mind or our soul, and spirituality is really based in finding alone time and finding rhythms and quietness away from the barrage of the internet and just the society around us. Think about all the road trips you and your friends have taken and the barrage of billboards and advertising, or if you are driving and listening to the news how the news is built on hype and worry. It really is to capture our minds and our attention so that they can sell stuff to us, and ultimately that is really what The Fantastic Machine<\/em> is about\u2026 that big world around us vying for our attention and trying to grab our affections and steal them away.<\/p>\n \u201cwh3re d0 y0u want t0 g0 t0d^y\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n When you say that it makes me think as well of how people turn to the internet for a connection with whoever or whatever because it\u2019s global, but the reality is how much that really isolates them because they end up sitting in front of a computer screen \u2018connecting\u2019 with somebody or someone else, and the reality is that they have really isolated themselves from the world around them.<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah\u2026 but also think about this\u2026 the internet has allowed people to grow closer as friends\u2026 even though we don\u2019t live in the same city we have found ways to connect with each other through the internet, the phone and even in person, and through those ways you really build friendships. The way that God made us was that He made us to see and feel and smell and to use all of our senses to engage. When I see your face or your expression I can feel the weight of that story or enjoy the humor of that story and all of those things come in to play. But a computer or TV screen leaves us in a place where we\u2019re interpreting things based on how we are feeling in that moment.<\/p>\n If you follow the lyrics of The Fantastic Machine<\/em> and have it kind of lead you in to this bigger picture, we are trying to give away as much as we can and tell a story through the artwork and the lyrics, and not just that, but also through every sound that you are hearing. For example as \u2018Lights Out\u2019 starts to end, you hear this whirring and humming and this kind of pounding in your ears, then you hear these different computer voices start talking\u2026 one voice is saying \u201ccaution\u201d while the other voice starts counting. The only thing I really did was find a machine that I encounter in my life every day and record them whether that was at the bank, the gas station, the crosswalk or the car wash. You name it and they are all around us and they\u2019re talking to us and communicating with us. So I tried to grab that and show that there is this enormous world where we start to go into the machine.<\/p>\n \u201cinto machine we go, O Lord keep us close\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe Machine\u201d appears to be the systems and messages of the world around us. Everything is tailored for a \u201cme\u201d society; bigger, better, faster, global and infiltrating everything around us; a world where we serve ourselves and a world in which we cannot live without the very things that threaten to destroy us. <\/strong><\/p>\n The artwork shows this as well\u2026 then you go on into the machine and this is where we meet what is really the ultimate villain who is \u2018br0th3r\u2019. In the entire big picture he represents the constant need to grab our attention and our affection. Again the artwork here really leads into that as well. If you see in the artwork that we have on our website, there is the screen that is covered in eyes. If you go back into the history and the tradition of angels, and of cherubim specifically, you have this idea that cherubim are these angels that are in place and covered all over with eyes. They have four separate wings, are covered in eyes and have these heads that look in separate directions. There are some traditions that say we have this Holy God, and obviously we are not holy, but God wants to hear our prayers and our praises, our cries and our needs; as these go up to Him they are filtered through the cherubim and brought by these angels into the presence of a Holy God. Obviously there is Jesus Christ, who is in place, but we tried to draw on that ancient idea of the cherubim and that is why in the artwork as well as in other key places in the songs you see these angels kind of guiding the characters through the broken places and things. Then I thought that if br0th3r really wanted to draw our attentions and affections away from the God who made us, then br0th3r would try to sell us on these ideas about other pursuits and ideas. That is why in the artwork you see br0th3r\u2019s screen covered in eyes as his wings are strapped on to him as if he were angelic, but he\u2019s not. He wants to be this angel that gets our affection, but ultimately he is a deceiver and a villain and he is not what we are really made for.<\/p>\n The other thing we did with br0th3r was that we made everything that he says a line from a marketing campaign or a slogan from an advertisement. This is also why The Fantastic Machine<\/em> lyrics are all written with \u2018computer speak\u2019. The first thing he says in this computer generated voice is, \u201cWhere do you want to go today?\u201d <\/em>that was from Microsoft\u2019s first global image campaign and they\u2019ve been doing that since the early eighties. We\u2019re really trying to show this bigger picture and show how all these things in this world try to grab our attentions. Some of us really want to make a difference in this world and we are very concerned with social justice, but then that becomes what we think we are made for; or we get really concerned with being \u2018green\u2019, but that is just another thing they are trying to sell us\u2026 those are not the things we were made for. There are no conspiracy theories in the story of The Fantastic Machine<\/em>, but I really wanted to draw on this idea of a bigger world and things going on around us beyond what we see. Br0th3r is one of those characters that show that constant competition that the large corporations, the\u00a0 media giants, the politicians, the churches, the internet, the billboards or even our cell phone advertisements; there is always something trying to get my attention and my focus. Also contained within that I felt like I had to touch on the churches and the music industry because they are also a part of that the Big Machine\u2026 they are not exclusively what the story is about, if you look closely you can see that this is a really giant picture. Obviously Microsoft has nothing to do with the church, and being \u2018greener\u2019 has nothing to do with the church, though the church will follow the culture around rather than lead the culture. So whatever culture is selling is what the church takes interest in as well, and it\u2019s the same with musical trends as it relates to the church. We had to touch on some of those things, so in the track \u2018br0th3r part one\u2019 you\u2019ll see where we touch on that aspect of the church in a small way, but if you look at the bigger picture you will see that the story begins way before \u2018br0th3r part one\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cchurch is entertaining me, in place of theology\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In talking about \u2018br0th3r part one\u2019, I think some of the most profound lyrics of the entire disc are found there where you say, \u201cchurch is entertaining me, in place of theology.\u201d<\/u><\/em>\u00a0 It just conjured up this picture in my mind of the mega churches, and the production that is put on where we want to be entertained and we want to feel good, and how that really in a sense just numbs and dumbs us down even more. It really was a powerful statement, we don\u2019t want to be challenged anymore, and we just want to be just entertained.<\/strong><\/p>\n It is kind of interesting because I really love the church and I think that God really loves the church. I grew up as a Catholic and in watching the church for the last 20 years I have seen so many of the evangelical churches follow the culture around in their attempt to be relevant. It\u2019s a little different for me, my perception of going to a worship service is that I am quieting myself and preparing myself to honor God. I prepare myself to read the scriptures and there are these ancient traditions that the church has practiced for hundreds of years. Those practices really help me in my faith because I\u2019m not perfect, I am broken and I do need Jesus. I need spiritual formation, I need my soul to be formed by rhythms and by these practices that form and shape me, so that as I sow to these types of practices then the fruit of the Spirit is evident in my life.<\/p>\n When you point out that lyric it makes me remember back in early 2000, and there was an entire generation that shifted within the period of a year. It went from generation X to generation Y within a year\u2026 anyone should understand that a generation is a 40 year movement, but there was the need to create a new buzzword. Then we went into postmodern and then it was emergent and that train went off to wherever. Meanwhile, some churches (not all) seemed to have started to focus on a presentation for Sunday. So Sunday morning became a presentation for these people, and that\u2019s fine really because I realize that some people in our culture need that. I think for me though, in my spirit and in my soul I need something that is deeper and more powerful than a Sunday morning presentation. As I\u2019ve grown older I\u2019ve returned more to my Anglo-Catholic roots and I currently attend an Anglican church where our Archbishop is in Rwanda\u2026 they send their missionaries here while most Evangelical churches send their missionaries over there (laughter).<\/p>\n To bring it back now as it relates to the church, br0th3r represents the world that is trying to get our attention with these false empty promises and with the false sense of belonging. To be accurate I had to touch on things that we all know and we are all aware of in this Western world and that would include the church. Even TV shows that you and I grew up on like Seinfeld or South Park make fun of the church because that is just part of the culture, it\u2019s not THE culture, it\u2019s just a part of culture.<\/p>\n \u201cw3 ^re ev3rywh3re y0u w^nt to b3, y0u b3l0ng h3re, mak1ng t0m0rrow bett3r\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In addition I picked up on how br0th3r also masquerades as truth and life, it masquerades as what will save us while ultimately it will destroy us. There is no motivation in a soulless machine, except to continue to build upon itself, to become more streamlined, more efficient and ultimately replace everything else.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you pay close attention to the words that br0th3r speaks you realize that he\u2019s the replacement, he\u2019s the villain, he\u2019s ultimately the figurehead for the current Orwellian system that we live in. He\u2019s not a Christian brother, that\u2019s why actually every word that br0th3r speaks is actually a phrase from a major media corporation or an advertisement agency. The whole script that I had of computer speak was basically from about 30 minutes of flipping channels on the TV and listening to the major advertising slogans just so I could find a way to propose the bigger picture so that it would be clear to people. If you really pay attention to what is happening, even though I point out stuff inside the church, there is a much bigger picture happening. Br0th3r is speaking in the language of the world system.<\/p>\n Another layer that I find in the story is how evident the pursuit of self-gratification has become, where everything is about the individual.<\/strong><\/p>\n We find that in the world today through the technological advances where it has become all about me, me, me\u2026 the \u2018i\u2019Pad, the \u2018i\u2019Phone, \u2018you\u2019tube, etc. Obviously I am not saying that these things are inherently evil by any means, but the pursuit of ease and self-gratification is evident in how these advances are really catering to the individual pleasure and pursuit of \u201cme.\u201d<\/p>\n This was another juncture in the trilogy where I found how well the art conveyed the story as well\u2026 On Machine Beat Sabbatha<\/em> it appears that Machine is unleashed\u2026 we see slogans appearing on the TV screens which are not just metaphors really because our TV tells us what to do and believe. The person being plugged in with zeros and ones behind her as technology fills her from the inside out; the children all were sitting in a row being programmed by Machine. The art here is brilliant and a beautiful testament to the deeper meaning.<\/strong><\/p>\n We really raised the bar when it came to the artwork. We had real artists, who designed the pictures, and real photographers who took the pictures, people who were actually trained in their field. The artwork really contains the message as well, and I love that you brought up \u201cMachine Beat Sababatha\u201d which is one of my favorite tracks. For me that song is just this crying out from the realization of how messed up this world really is, and then the realization that I am not made for this world. I\u2019m not made by this world, and I certainly don\u2019t belong in it. The God who made me made the thunder and the rain, and that is far more powerful then the internet or some simulation from the internet. He is the one true and living God; yet still we flirt with these things that in the end ultimately mean nothing.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got electric light I\u2019m staring at, coaxing mediocrity\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Br0ther part two \u2013 perhaps the definitive song of this disc \u2013 Br0ther knows what we need, he sees what we see, internet and marketing gimmicks testify to this, telephone and computer apps for everything we could possibly need or want\u2026 a system where we no longer have to think, where we no longer have to feel, can you elaborate on this track a little?<\/strong><\/p>\n That track speaks to this whole notion of mediocrity that just permeates our entire culture. These days everyone is a web designer, or if you have an iPhone you\u2019re a photographer. Even the commercials promote this where they say, \u201cIf you have an iPad and you are a musician, it\u2019s inspiring.\u201d That\u2019s not inspiring, a Rhodes piano is inspiring\u2026 there is this constant push of mediocrity in culture.<\/p>\n In the church we complained about mediocrity for decades, and now we\u2019re just going to follow culture into this mediocrity? As an artist I just feel myself rebelling against it, rebelling against this electric light I\u2019m staring at whether it\u2019s on my laptop, my iPad, my blackberry or my television. Whatever it may be, we are always staring into electric light. In this age everything that we type or text is being tracked so they will know just how to advertise specifically to me. That is a reference to how the machines are always watching us and tracking us, Facebook ads, ads or coupons from the grocery store where I belong and they track my spending habits. Every keystroke on my computer is watched and I let them do that every time I say \u201cyes, I agree to the conditions.\u201d You know, we think it\u2019s not really that big of a deal, but it is.<\/p>\n You and I will get different search results pulled up on Google because we are different people and have different interests. There is a reference to the online dating explosion in the lyric \u201cbr0th3r will make sure that she is the right girl for you.\u201d\u00a0 You fill out a profile where you like Black Sabbath and The Cure, or you like jogging and swimming; and they pick a compatible match for you. So the computer finds the right person for you and you don\u2019t actually have to spend time getting to know them, it will all be done through the electric light. By the way, that is also a tipping of the hat to Pink Floyd\u2019s The Wall<\/em>. It\u2019s a different world now, where Floyd sang \u201cMother\u2019s gonna make sure that she is the right girl for you\u201d, now it\u2019s br0th3r that does that through this Orwellian system of tracking and watching us and everything that we do through the computers and the cameras. So there are all these media giants just waiting to sell us something new to capture our attentions and affections and take our loneliness away.<\/p>\n This is the era of self-proclamation; it\u2019s all about me, me, me. There are kids now in high school and college who think it\u2019s more awesome to be on YouTube than to get good grades. It\u2019s all about me and how I feel; if it feels good do it, or whatever you want to do as long as it doesn\u2019t hurt anyone else. That is our culture today. These kids don\u2019t realize that when they want to do something like buy a house, or get a car, the bank doesn\u2019t take YouTube hits as payment, it doesn\u2019t matter how many Facebook friends you have, or how many followers you have on Twitter. That whole concept of self-proclamation is subtly evil and deceitful and I know that in this day and age it isn\u2019t cool to talk about \u2018evil\u2019 because everything is permitted and acceptable now. I know everything is not okay, I\u2019ve lived my life and I have seen how choices I make affect people and have hurt others, it\u2019s not just okay because it feels good. That\u2019s not what is taught in scripture\u2026 you know, in scripture it talks about dying to yourself and what you want. Sin was passed into each of us and we needed this new Adam, this Adam again, this Savior, this God that became a man. That is the truth, but we live in a world where truth and beauty has been relegated to \u201ctext number 5 to this number to vote for your favorite American Idol,\u201d and that is just not truth or beauty. Winning a popularity contest doesn\u2019t make something true; it doesn\u2019t make an artist a great artist. It is a strange culture we live in.<\/p>\n Where it gets dangerous for me is when they start saying, \u201cDid God really say that? It stems from the first question that was asked in the Bible. Do you know what that was\u2026? It was where Satan asked Eve in the garden \u201cIs that really what God said?\u201d Isn\u2019t it interesting that that is the very same thing that is used today? Every year or two there\u2019s a new author or a new \u2018buzz\u2019 word or subject talked about, and usually it is by someone who has been hurt by the church, or wounded by the church or hurt by the evangelicals. I mean if you spend a day with me you could see all my faults, it is quite easy to find what\u2019s wrong with the church, that is very easy. Where it gets dangerous for me is when they start saying, \u201cDid God really say that? Is that what He said?\u201d I mean, who was the first guy that asked that question?<\/p>\n It is really weird to put it in this perspective because this is how this generation has grown up and what they see as normal. There is such a leap between this generation and the last one, it really is eye opening.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I really empathize with this generation, really anyone between the ages of 25 to 45 is looking for something, they really want to accomplish things and there is just so much distraction. There are kids who have 30 minutes of homework, but it takes them 4 hours to do it because they have to text or to Facebook, tweet or check their email.<\/p>\n Yeah, this is something Joe Taylor and I have talked about as well when it comes to music. Can you really prove that it exists? Without an audio device can you actually measure it? How is it that if you hear a song it transports you back to a season of your life? How does it have that power to get into our souls and touch us in the way that it does? On an even more powerful level, what really happens when we sing along? Like Pascal said, \u201cThe heart has reasons for which the mind doesn\u2019t understand.\u201d There is no rational thinking that can even explain this\u2026 but the heart knows. For me, if I pray something\u2026 take for instance the track \u2018Made for You\u2019; the song says, \u201cLord of all creation, I was made for you.\u201d\u00a0 If I just say those words it is powerful because of the truth it holds, but if I sing it, it becomes even more powerful. There is something about the way that we\u2019re made that when we sing, it really transforms us. It doesn\u2019t matter if you have a good voice or not, singing changes you. There\u2019s something about humans singing that is special and changes us as beings.<\/p>\n The music on this record was us really wanting to raise the bar. The emotions of the drums on some of these songs are just so powerful. The way the media is selling us albums right now is that there are so many studio musicians on the recordings. So, we thought, \u201cHow can we really raise the bar musically?\u201d We just dove in and really went for it, and there are these great songs, these \u2018journey\u2019 songs\u2026 this journey that is taking place.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I turned my back and walked away\u2026 there must be some way out of this place\u2026 I was hoping you would meet me here\u2026 in the desert of my despair\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Over and over we see the character meeting God on the road during different places. The music has this incredible chaotic precision\u2026 and through death we see this re-birth. Part of the brokenness of this life is really what makes us beautiful as people; to embrace the things that aren\u2019t quite right with each of us is what really makes us beautiful. This is the journey of rebirth. In the end there is love, it is what the character has sought all along. There are so many great songs on here and part of the beauty is that now the journey is happening outside of the chaos of the internet, outside of the chaos of our TV\u2019s, our cell phones, our movie screens, etc. In the end the story is kind of summed up by the truth that is the one thing I am sure of, is that this current Orwellian thing that is being sold to all of us is not what I\u2019m made by and not what I\u2019m made for. Love is the one true spiritual gift, it is the meaning behind it all, it is why we were created and it covers a multitude of sins.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a driving rain pouring down on me, through a broken life You have carried me, when there are no lights You are all I see, all I want is you\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/downthelinezine.com\/archives\/files\/2022\/03\/VioletBurning2.jpg\")
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In \u201cSung\u201d, \u201cIn Ruin\u201d and \u201cLacuna\u201d the story finds the character crawling back out of the depths\u2026 rediscovering the love of his youth and laying claim to that. In my opinion I think these three tracks are the most redemptive and also speak the loudest of Creator\u2019s heart towards the character. I found it interesting that the most redemptive record of the three was titled Black as Death<\/em>. It was also on this disc where I found the music itself spoke in such powerful tones. The music speaks on a completely different level.<\/strong><\/p>\n
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