Crash Midnight are back with another new single, this time aiming their sights at corporate media with “Toxic Propaganda”. The single follows their previous release, “Dead Aces”, issued this past May. A lyric video for "Toxic Propaganda" is available below. Stream the single on Spotify.
Vocalist Shaun Soho caught up with BraveWords’ Nick Balazs to talk about the inspiration behind the song and what’s coming up in the band’s future.
BraveWords: “Toxic Propaganda” – please explain the meaning behind the title and song.
Shaun Soho: I've had the idea for the song title for quite a while now, but the lyrical content really came together over the last several years as we've seen that veneer of impartiality of all these legacy media outlets really getting ripped off. We're trying to draw attention to, or really expose, the captured corporate media as the shills they are. "News with an agenda" is a real problem. So much of the news that people consume is hopelessly sensationalized and it seems like everybody always thinks "yeah, but not my side" and we're like "yes, your fucking side too jackass."
BraveWords: Crash Midnight usually doesn’t touch these type of subjects, what drove the inspiration behind writing this type of song?
Shaun Soho: As a band, we focus our stuff mostly on social commentary - whether it's something that's directly affected us or a situation we've been in as a result of what's going on around us. "Toxic Propaganda" isn't really a political song per se because frankly we're not really what you'd call "joiners," especially of either of those teams, but seeing the legacy media so willing to spin for corporate interests, big pharma, and the war machine - at some point, that all comes home, you know?
You see things reported and go 'that's horrible, I can't believe they did that,' but then you actually look up what really happened (because it just seems so unbelievable) and find out these outlets have completely manipulated and twisted reality to serve some greater agenda. I don't fucking like being lied to and I don't like watching rigged games. It's not a left or right thing because both sides are being wildly lied to and sensationalized. Until we, as a country, can agree on reality, we're going to keep spiraling out of control, but I'm hopeful that this all may come to a head soon and maybe the more we get the message out there to question whatever propaganda you're guzzling from your preferred side, the better chance we all make it out of this alive and come back together.
BraveWords: The lyric video drives home the message of the media’s divisive tactics, talk about the theme and idea behind the video.
Shaun Soho: This is the first lyric video we've ever done. We really thought it was fitting to focus the video for a song like this on the actual lyrical content rather than anything else. We cover the Rolling Stones song "Gimme Shelter" often as an encore song and "Toxic Propaganda" is, in some part, a take-off on that. It's like a "Rome is Burning" commentary on what's happening all around us here. There's actually a cool lyric video for "Gimme Shelter" and we gave a little nod to that with the general black, white, and red color scheme we used.
BraveWords: What do you hope listeners take out of the song?
Shaun Soho: I hope it makes people think more about what they've been watching - what echo chamber they've siloed themselves into - and start questioning whether they've been propagandized by these media outlets. It's a sort of thing that once you see it, you can't unsee it and too many people just unquestioningly believe whatever media they religiously consume. But so many of these stations are straight up lying to you. They misreport things, intentionally take stuff way out of context to twist their audience’s opinions, or flat out refuse to report on something to keep their viewers in the dark and keep them in line with the agenda. Anyone that needs to manipulate you that much doesn't have your best interests in mind and certainly is not on your side. The credibility of legacy media is crumbling by the day and hopefully something like this can help blow it apart for good.
BraveWords: What are the upcoming plans for the band? More singles or shows?
Shaun Soho: We have a big Las Vegas show coming up at Sand Dollar Downtown in the Plaza Hotel & Casino November 16. We've also been working on a ton of new material - like five or six new songs I think it is now. We used to have these "rhythm section" practices where we'd invite some friends to come hang for the rehearsal and play some new stuff for them to get feedback. Well we're going to start doing that at the original Sand Dollar Lounge location once a month now sponsored by our friends at kromeit.com so that's something we're psyched to get rolling this month. These aren't really Crash Midnight concerts, more of a jam night where we try out some new songs too. We've got lots of friends jumping up to join us on songs and a bunch of stuff like that so we'll be playing these nights under the name "Shattered Star" which is the title of one of those new songs we're working on now.
