John Maus (Philosophy) References?

[MausterofDisguise]

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[KinkadianAmour]

Welcome to the forums, KinkadianAmour. Glad to see some detailed philosophical discussion here once again. Glad to have you aboard!

Thank you! I've been checking in here for a couple years now, but I think this was the first time I felt like I had any valid input to give, so it was a good excuse to join.

No worries, I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks so, but the biggest draw to John for me is how his work ties into philosophy, and the theories he employs behind the music.

I have almost zero understanding of the philosophical ideas he speaks of in interviews. I remember in one interview he mentioned that his philosophical ideas aren't on his mind as he's composing. But then again, he's said several times that Badiou's theses kept him going for years, so who knows. Most of his lyrics are so repetitive and bare that I haven't read much into them. I figured lyrics were a necessary evil for him ("The worst thing to happen to music is words") and the focus was on composition. Where are these references to Pessoa etc. that you mention? I'm interested in all of this but I'm afraid it's way over most listeners' heads. Wikipedia isn't enough, John!

I can see that - John's writing tends to have a sort of unconsciously calculated but consciously stream-of-consciousness feeling to it, so I have to imagine his musical process works the same way. But, at least with my engagement in philosophy (especially in creating music), it's so fundamentally altered the way I process things, its almost an impossibility to think or create without channeling those influences in some major form or another. It's like a consenting procedural brainwashing, or maybe more akin to consensual alien brain probing. Either way, it seeps into the most fundamental aspects of music creation. Every decision becomes made in the face of its ability to authenticate and bear witness to its own creative precipitation.

I agree with lyrics being a necessary evil for him, but I get the feeling he (I?) doesn't see them as being irreparably evil, at least theoretically. Yes lyrics can and do absolutely function as a tool to authenticate the power of language's spectacular failure and enforce its subservient reanimation by the Situation. But my impression is that one of the goals of his music is to find some kind of emancipatory potential within language's failure, not despite it. His claim that we shouldn't try to get out of the closet, but go deeper into it applies to this well, I think. Within the vapidity of the "mantra", there is perhaps a reflection of true humanity, some near-imperceptible glimmer of what appears to be a man beating his fists raw and screaming to be truly heard. We don't need a semiotic revolution or linguistic liberation to hear that man, we just need to know how to listen.

As for Pessoa, I remember him quoting him once or twice in his emails to the girl from Bennington, and I seem to remember a direct reference to him in relation to Badiou in one of his interviews, but I can't remember which one exactly. Perhaps it was the Smetnjak interview. I haven't formally delved into Pessoa, but from what I have read, I get similar feelings to John's lyrics.

I am the escaped one,
After I was born
They locked me up inside me
But I left.
My soul seeks me,
Through hills and valley,
I hope my soul
Never finds me.

Sung in a baroque baritone drenched with digital reverb and delay and you've got some authentic Maus lyrics.