I've been working on this album for almost two years. When I started I had no idea what I was looking to create but I knew it had to have deep meaning, and one thing I'm well versed with, in life, is my own madness.

Madness is a part of life. Each of us teeters on the edge of a perceived madness and sanity every day. Sometimes we like to stare in one direction for longer on one day, and then another direction the next. Often we don't know which direction we are looking until we look the other. The mind is a curious creature.

This song helped me conceptualize this project in a way that was most comfortable to me: a dialogue, an argument, a fight between the mind and the brain. The brain often is seen as being one with the mind, but to me the brain is the captor of the mind. The mind eventually learns to live in harmony with the brain, as the brain tricks and essentially forces the mind into behaving in certain learned patterns in thought and behaviour, regardless of what the mind thinks or believes.

The easiest way to explain this is through the seemingly dark magic of substance addiction. When the brain is subjected to a rewarding experience, it quickly finds a way to rewire itself, through neuroplasticity, to seek to achieve that same reward. This is exactly as the brain has always worked, and on the surface, there is nothing wrong with this. What that means, though, is when certain substances provide the brain and mind the relief and reward they typically do, the brain starts to focus in on the actions that lead to that reward and/or relief. In extreme cases, the brain can become so focused that the conscious mind can be screaming at itself to "not take something" while their arms are preparing a dose. This is the essence of "Striatum".

The (corpus) striatum is the piece of our common neuro-puzzle that inputs extrasensory data and turns it into focus, intent, and "voluntary" movement. It's what makes us crave fries after seeing that fast food commercial, or to keep grabbing and looking at our phones in anticipation of something - even if you're not expecting a message or communication - because in some circumstance sometime somewhere, a car drove by and you got a message that made you feel important... So now, as each car drives by, you think there may be a possibility that you could feel important again, only to check your device to see that that same reward hasn't yet come.

This song in particular, is about the division of the brain and mind/psyche in addictions and other habits. I hope it brings some sort of comfort or understanding to someone somewhere that is dealing with the question "Why the fuck do I do this?", whether it's jumping in the car to get fries at 1am after seeing a TV commercial, or lining up that next dose of rewarding chemical encouragement. It's not just you, you aren't alone.

Our brains are holding us all hostage, in many, many different ways.