Born and raised in the southwest, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and multi-instrumentalist Lucid Aisle (Brent Joel Jones) encourages us to put our phones down in a new and hazy single, "Digital Wasteland."
Brent Joel Jones felt an inner need to embark on his solo career with help from the blazing sounds of rock while focusing on experimenting with various techniques and recording methods. After forming Lucid Aisle, he began to delve into elements of psychedelia, pop, and folk, thanks to like-minded musicians who helped bring the sound to life.
Hitting us with a powerful concept is Lucid Aisle's latest single, "Digital Wasteland." After our first listen, we were taken aback by Lucid Aisle's production and overall psychedelic vibes; it not only keeps us locked in and engaged but focussed on his hefty lyrical content at hand.
Expanding on the single, "Digital Wasteland," the venture begins with a plucky acoustic guitar and a broad instrumental breakdown with incredibly soulful drum breaks and hazy electric guitars. As Lucid Aisle begins to serenade us with his grunge-like stylings, he fades into the song with incredible poise, encouraging us to focus our attention on his meaningful lyricism.
Lucid Aisle shines a needed light on how society continues to stroke narcissistic egos via social media while also reminding us of how much valuable time we waste when scrolling through our pages and gawking at the facades that will never match up to raw and direct experiences. It's an understatement to say that we adore this song, as Lucid Aisle's natural angst and energy lets us experience the song on a more personal note.
Allow Lucid Aisle to remind you to put your phone down with his latest single, "Digital Wasteland," now available on all digital streaming platforms.
Thank you for joining us at BuzzMusic Lucid Aisle. We highly appreciate such an honest and powerful single like "Digital Wasteland." What inspired you to write a song based on society's ego-stroking, vain, and online ways?
Thank you! And thanks for taking the time. The lyrics were inspired by a topic that was surfacing for a while and that kept coming up in conversation with people and friends. Getting on social media-like platforms it’s clear the online world has become more and more saturated with a plethora of content that does not carry any real value and gets millions of views. Like people filming themselves grossly eating food alone at a table or someone popping their own zits as entertainment. People pay to see this. The smoke and mirrors, false information, scams, cyberbullying, excessive attention-seeking, and endless streams of opinions washing over facts and truth. It's everywhere. A few months ago a friend said the words “digital wasteland” referring to the internet and social media. I found it pretty funny and clever. Since the topic was brewing into a song at the time it made sense to use that as the title. In a nutshell, the lyrics are a rough summary of the current indulgences and interactions that continue to drill into the collective human psyche with this digital space we’ve become so reliant on.
How did you create your instrumental atmosphere to enhance your powerful lyrical message in "Digital Wasteland?" What vibe or overall feeling did you want the instrumentals to offer?
The main rhythm guitar part came first on my acoustic this last Spring. After getting musically inspired while watching this music documentary about Danny Fields, I hit pause and grabbed my acoustic. Started strumming a few chords. So the music and vocal melody formed first. A few weeks later I started tracking, including bass and drums then decided for certain that is what the song will be about…sat down and started writing. The chorus was already repeating in my head and figured I’d fit some of these topics into the verses. My first intention of the overall vibe was at the first strum wanting the rhythm to be something you can groove and dance to. From there I kept giving it attention. The chaotic guitar slide at the end does kind of give off an audio representation of the crazy circus the internet can be. I guess I should give some credit to that documentary I was watching at the time. The song may have never existed otherwise.
How did you want to make the listener feel after experiencing your single "Digital Wasteland?" Did you want to evoke a sort of realization surrounding how much time we waste on our phones?
There was no intention to evoke but rather just write down what I'm feeling, what's been on the mind and what I've been seeing. An idea will be laying around to eventually grow to the point that it's staring at me in the face. So I turn it into art or write about it. Being in public places looking around and noticing a great percentage of people are on their phones. Who knows what they're looking at but stepping out of the box for a sec, looking in, it’s kind of like some weird twilight zone, black mirror sh#%. I mean I’ve gotten on my phone while cooking or writing to do a quick task like set an alarm and instead find myself under some hypnosis aimlessly scrolling down a social media timeline for no reason and realize… “I just wasted like 5 to 10 minutes of my time" And it interrupted this productive flow I had going. It was a distraction, an intrusion to the attention span. It wasn’t like this in the pre-internet world. We didn’t have televisions and cameras in our pockets. This song is like a painting on the wall. Art is always open to interpretation through the "painting" is pretty straightforward, saying in a sort of upbeat and satirical tone to take a few minutes and interpret the context in this picture as a whole". If the song ends up setting an inspirational tone to leave the digital devices at home and go smell the roses… that's cool!
Do you normally create songs with such meaningful and powerful lyrical content, similar to "Digital Wasteland?" What themes does your music often deliver?
Each song takes shape the way it does base on what I’m feeling at the time. Songs about growth or enlightenment, love, romance, heartbreak, a psychedelic experience or the chaotic state of the world, etc...There have been some cases I write the music, then go through old poems, find the right poem or lyrics that stand out, and match it with the music. There are some songs I wrote years before, bring them back, give them a makeover and they feel like a new song again ready to record. Some songs can go deep enough that there can be multiple interpretations and may have an abstract and more poetic feel. Others are simpler and straightforward. Like this song we're mixing now called ‘Pedal to the Floor’ which is basically about moving forward, making the reality I choose, buying that one-way ticket, and taking the ride.
What's next for you?
Currently working on a full-length record. Most of the tracking is done now and the mixing is taking shape as we speak. As that is moving along I’m planning on doing some moving around and traveling starting mainly on the west coast for now. Station in Portland for a bit this Fall while backing on drums and guitar for a great friend of mine, singer/songwriter, Cassandra Lewis. She is also releasing a full length soon. As I get my record wrapped up with the mastering and release, I plan on continuing to write, play shows, and road travel.
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