Artist Statement

With multiple genocides, climate chaos, fascism at home and abroad, and seemingly endless layered oppressions going on, how can one possibly engage with these realities and meanwhile carry on with their daily life, without sacrificing their mental and physical health?

One way is to simply ignore all of it, or otherwise turn and look the other way and forget about it, to the extent that you have the privilege to do so, that is. Or, maybe you could tell yourself that it’s not actually that bad, or that it doesn’t affect you personally, and therefore you can live a “normal” life. Or, maybe things will get better… but how, and when? Ack, that’s too much to think about. Besides, how can one acknowledge all this horror every single day without completely falling apart due to debilitating grief? If someone takes actions that seem inconsistent with their values and worldview, we might call this cognitive dissonance, out of ignorance and/or survival necessity.

Another option is to do everything you can to make the world better in community, acknowledge that you and your comrades are truly doing all you can, and allow yourselves to have some respite and catharsis, so that you have the strength to carry on. Liberation is a marathon, not a sprint, after all. One might call this acknowledging multiple truths. It’s true that the world is burning. It’s true that we all deserve collective joy. It’s also true that, depending on one’s privileges, we all experience different levels and means of access to joy. It’s also true that we have work tomorrow, the laundry needs to be done, we need to go food shopping, our families need to be fed, and then, we need to go the fuck to sleep.

That’s a lot to process, huh?

When and if someone accesses joy, pleasure, or, dare we say, fun, during genocidal times, are they engaging in cognitive dissonance, or are they acknowledging multiple truths? Or, in the most meta sense of all, both?

The song Cognitive Dissonance; Multiple Truths, written by juhkol, is a tool in our revolutionary toolbox that hopefully facilitates us to have joy in the struggle. That’s a bit of a buzz-phrase; what exactly does that mean? Perhaps: wholeheartedly acknowledging oppression in the world; working to end it to the best of our individual and collective capacity; exploring and processing how different aspects of the struggle affect us personally, directly and indirectly; and allowing ourselves and each other grace, rest, joy, pleasure, happiness, and maybe even self- and community-actualization, along the way.

Is this cognitive dissonance, and/or, are there multiple truths here? Let’s collectively decide.

Musicality Notes

Chants

A good chant for this song rhythmically and structurally is: “When ______ is/are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” Fill in the blank with whoever you want to uplift who is under attack. (Of course you can use any other chant besides this one too.)

In the both versions, there are a few instances of what we could call “transitionary” measures, in between 16-measure phrases. Musically, these measures also serve as interruptions to the music we are playing, to demonstrate the idea of having joy despite the struggle (cognitive dissonance, also demonstrated by the “pick random note” glissandos). These measures eventually go away later in the song, to demonstrate having joy in the struggle (multiple truths). We can and should insert short chants (ideally 2-3 syllables) in these measures as well. Some examples could be: “Fuck ICE,” “Gaza,” “Palestine,” “Sudan,” “Congo,” etc.

Style

This is an 8th-note swing song! Please do not play the rhythms of this song straight. 😉

juhkol’s musical inspirations for this song came from second line and house music. We are playing house-style, repetitive-by-nature phrases on different instruments at different times to a second line beat.

Second line music plays into the multiple truths motif of this song because, traditionally, second lines in New Orleans consist of a brass band following a hearse throughout a funeral, for the purpose of celebrating the deceased’s life, in addition to processing the grief caused by their passing. To this end, the brass band might play anything from dirges to upbeat jams in this context.

House music speaks to multiple truths as well. House draws inspiration from disco, funk, electronic dance music, and many other genres evolved primarily from Black and Queer folks experiencing the intersections of racism and queer/transphobia, and wanting to have joy in the struggle together.

Arrangement Sound File

Sheet Music

Why is there both an arrangement and a riff version?

We got this song stylistically in our bodies by playing each part of the riff version together. Now, we are working on the arrangement version, as an example of how this song could be played structurally. Eventually, once we are more comfortable with the song, juhkol envisions it being played as a riff with a conductor. The conductor would point to each section with 1, 2, or 3 fingers, to indicate which part of the riff they want that section to play at that particular time.

Riff Version

Arrangement Version