Alternative/experimental artist Faron Sage recently released his single/music video, “No Alternative,” a socially conscious and free-thinking single showcasing Sage’s multi-genre fusion and unique sound.
Sage explains, “‘No Alternative’ is built over an infectious, jazz-inspired beat that’s been going round my head for years. It’s a bit of a relief to get it out there, to be honest! Likewise, there are many alternatives to our current capitalist system that I feel really need to be aired more widely so we can all discuss and explore them. Our future depends on it…”
Stylistically, “No Alternative” is a real mash-up of styles, combining a range of diverse musical elements including punk jazz, progressive rap, and electro-swing. By bringing these disparate genres together and melding them together with his distinctive style, Faron Sage further emphasizes the message behind the single: that we don’t have to fit into the same old pre-decided boxes and the world would be a richer place if we all embraced our unique gifts whilst in service to a unified yet diversified whole.
Unconcerned with fame, Sage prefers to maintain an anonymity that eschews live performance and prioritizes unique modern production that serves the major questions at the heart of 21st-century life.
Intrigued, Tattoo.com spoke with Faron Sage to discuss the inspiration for “No Alternative,” the meaning of the song, and the evolution of his sound.
What inspired your latest single/music video, “No Alternative?”
All my songs are commentaries on different aspects of the societies that we’re living in and the current state of the world as I see it. ‘No Alternative’ is a response to the widely held belief that our present capitalist system is the only viable way of organizing humankind. It kind of plays on Margaret Thatcher’s famous decree from the 1980s that ‘there is no alternative.’ The thing is, that was 40 years ago, and yet the mainstream narrative is still trying to push the same message, mainly because there are powerful forces invested in perpetuating the status quo. But we now know that there are countless alternatives. Plus, we’re in the information age where everyone can access this information at the click of a button. So, it’s common knowledge that ‘there are many alternatives’ which makes the establishment’s insistence on the old story sound increasingly hollow and ridiculous. I’ve tried to reflect some of that farcical insanity in the production of the track.
“No Alternative” isn’t a protest song. To me, it’s more of a proposal, asking listeners to consider other options. How would you describe it?
Yes, agreed. It’s certainly critiquing the current system and observing that it’s not working for us in its current form. But the primary message of the song is: why are we not questioning the system and actively exploring the alternatives? There’s always a risk of becoming a bit ‘preachy’ with the themes of my songs so I try to maintain a broad perspective and present the ideas in a way that encourages people to engage with the issues on their own terms rather than telling them how they should be living their lives. Of course, there’s an angle and I have my own opinions but I’m also acutely aware that there are a lot of different points of view out there, all with their own arguments and elements of validity. The world is already so divided, and it feels like the powers that be are actively invested in stoking that division and keeping the wider population from uniting. And yet, I think that most people are more aligned with one another than they think. If we could just step back, see the bigger picture, and realize our common ground then I believe that things could very quickly shift into a much more harmonious, cooperative, and compassionate state. My hope is that we’re now nearing a tipping point where enough people wake up to this reality and we suddenly break through into a new paradigm, leaving the old system to fall away.
If you were in control, how would you organize society?
My initial inclination would be that our systems need to move towards being more decentralized, local, egalitarian, and mindful of all members of society and the inhabitants of the wider world that we live in (human and non-human). However, what has become abundantly clear to me as I’ve researched the multitude of possible social frameworks that have been conceived by all sorts of people, is that how a system works in practice will be very different from how it is projected to do so in theory. There are loads of systems that look very convincing on paper, including capitalism, and there are also many extremely persuasive people who can put forward compelling arguments to support any of the potential avenues that we could take. But we’re talking about highly complex systems that we can’t possibly model to accurately predict what’s going to happen, even with the most advanced artificial intelligence. There’s a depth of intelligence and complexity to the design of the universe that we’re still a million miles away from comprehending. So, I’d say that the best way to proceed would be to recognize that we don’t know it all and start to build a new world organically from the bottom up. We need to be trying out different systems at all sorts of levels of society and seeing what works and what doesn’t in different situations. The exciting thing is that this is already happening but it’s very much under the radar so far. I’d love to see us lift the lid off and liberate everyone’s creativity. Just imagine what an exhilarating world that would be! Yes, it could be scary at first for those who are still steeped in the old paradigm of control, but I think that once everyone let go of that, they would realize that they were not truly living before, and the new way would give everybody a newfound sense of fulfillment and purpose. I’d predict a massive fall in mental health issues for a start.
How did you get started in music?
I’ve always had music around me and it’s always felt completely natural to express myself through music. I come from a musical family and was exposed to a wide variety of recorded and live music from a young age, ranging from classical and jazz to rock and pop to all sorts of world and folk music.
Did your sound evolve naturally, or did you deliberately push it in a certain direction?
It really evolved by itself and continues to do so! I have a lot of bubbling influences that I’ve internalized so any of these can surface at any time. I think I may have tried to push my music in certain directions in the past but since I’ve started this project I’ve really enjoyed going where it takes me and revelling in what gets thrown up. I’ve always had a love of jazz/funk/hip-hop and I’d say that those genres are probably the bedrock of the Faron Sage sound, but from there, I’m always pleasantly surprised where each track goes. So far, it’s sometimes been more spoken word, other times punk or electronica or prog rock and then there are all sorts of additional elements that flavor the sound, including classical, avant-garde, and world music influences.
What inspires your writing? Do you draw inspiration from poems, music, or other media?
I’d say that I take inspiration for the subject matter of each song from the world around me – I’ve always got a queue of potential songs waiting to be written on all sorts of themes. Musically, I feel like I absorb a lot of ideas from everything that I listen to and then these tend to surface again, often in a slightly alchemized form, when the time comes to bring a piece of music into fruition. That’s one of my favorite parts of the writing process – I love seeing what comes out and the different elements, often from contrasting sources, that come forward to interact with one another and create something new.
What can you share about your writing process?
I like to plan ahead so I’ve usually got a list of upcoming songs that I’m going to write, often with an overall theme or title and the first kernels of musical ideas. These will be going around my head in their nascent form for months or even years before I manage to start properly putting the song together. At this point, I’ll probably sit down at the piano and flesh out the musical ideas and I also like to get the lyrics written before I start the production process. Then it’s into production and I’ll try and lay down a basic version and produce a rough mix that I can send to the guy that creates my music videos so he can get to work. From there, he puts the video together and I work up the mix and we usually finish at about the same time and put it all together.
Which artists in your opinion are killing it right now?
I actually don’t particularly follow the latest artists out there so I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer this question! I’d say that I’m constantly discovering music, but it could be from any musician from any era. Perhaps that’s a sign of the times. There’s so much out there already and thousands of new songs appear every single day. So, there’s a massive library of material to explore. And why should we only focus on the new stuff? It’s always struck me as a bit of a shame that pieces of music will have a brief moment in the limelight and then most of them fade away into obscurity.
How do you define success?
That’s a really interesting question and one that I’m actively engaging with at the moment. I think I used to measure success in the way that we’re all encouraged to do so – how much is your music being played, how many followers and fans do you have, how many people are engaging with it, how much money is it generating? This is a way of evaluating success that persuades us that our worth as an artist is reflected by how many people we reach rather than the quality of engagement that someone might have with our music. It’s a very left-brained, intellectual, and masculine perspective that focuses on statistics and is easily monetized – the more time and money you spend on ‘promotion,’ the more people you will reach and therefore the more successful you will be. Furthermore, if you get too swayed by this approach, you start to produce work that tailors more to what you think people are likely to engage with and less to your true artistic instincts and vision. It’s perfect for the current capitalist system but I’m trying to explore an alternative interpretation of success (of course!). I’ve been finding the above approach increasingly empty and unrewarding and I will get so much more from a genuine, authentic interaction with a single person than I will from thousands of views, likes, and plays. So, I’d say that success is authentically expressing your own creative vision and then using that creation to positively affect others regardless of whether you reach one person or millions.
What can your fans look forward to over the next six months? Music videos? Live gigs?
I reckon I’ve got another couple of years before I complete this current project so that will mean a new single and music video every 4-6 months probably and then I’m going to have to decide whether to pull the whole thing into an album and how that might look.
