“Live Forever” by The Fold, Sunday, March 28, 2021

We all have to pay the bills, and musicians are certainly no exception. Randy Torres formerly of Project 86 works in sound design. Dan Koch of Sherwood writes music for adverting. Stephen Christian is a music pastor. All of these examples, though, have kept the band separate. The Fold released two records on Tooth & Nail, but never achieved the greatness of their label-mates, save a Grammy nomination for the packaging of their sophomore record. Though having a smaller fanbase than other Tooth & Nail bands, The Fold started partnering with brands, writing theme songs, most notably Lego's Ninjago, for which they performed exclusively for seven years. 

I SPENT A LONG TIME BUILDING LADDERS TO THE STARS. The songs this weekend are whimsical stories. Yesterday, the canon story, and today climbing to the stars, meeting a "friendly meteor beside the moon" who tells the speaker to "be yourself and watch the stars come to you." This fun pop-punk song along with the album art reminding me of Charon sculling his boat on the river Styx, but not in a depressing way. Who wants to live forever? Who wants to outlive their peers? For much of human existence, early death was a reality. Thirty-five was once considered old, but yet we're living long and longer these days. And now there's talk of trans-humanism, scientific advancement that will allow us, or the most wealthy of us, to upload our consciousness to the cloud and download it onto a younger body. If this ever happens, people will have to grapple with problems eighty years often cut short.

THESE BONES DON'T STAND A CHANCE. Being someone who has used the pandemic as a time to catch up, I fear the future every day. I fear poverty. I fear losing my loved ones as I get older. I don't think a teenager ever thinks they will wake up in a thirty-three year old body, but I'm fearing how fast the calendar pages are turning. I've heard people say they think life is long. I don't remember the last time I was bored. It seems there's always something to fill up my time. And yet, I wonder, does there come a point when you say, I've lived a good life; I'm ready for it to end? On my darkest days when I think I'd rather be dead than face what's up next, but on the way to work I almost step in front of a bus and I start fighting for my life. Perhaps it's our mind that wants to live forever, but our bodies protest in the end. 

Read “Live Forever” by The Fold on Genius