MAR 30, 2012 – One of the freethinking musicians that will be playing at the Rock Beyond Belief event tomorrow March 31 at Fort Bragg, NC is Spoonboy, and JTMP got a chance to catch up with him and get his thoughts on the event. Below is the interview, and at the end there is a video of his song "What You Want" promoting Rock Beyond Belief. (Photo courtesy of Spoonboy)
JTMP: David thanks for doing the interview, we are Justice Through Music Project and musical activism is very important to us. Has activism always played a role in your music?
Spoonboy: I got into playing music around the same time as I became interested in activism. A lot of the bands I grew up on were political bands, and being exposed to music through the DC punk scene in the early 2000's meant necessarily being exposed to politics. All things in life have a political element. There are politics in how you choose to write and distribute your music. There are politics in what you choose to say with your music. So I try to acknowledge that in my music, while also always trying to write from a personal place, because I think politics should always come from a personal place as well.
Click READ MORE for rest of interview…
JTMP: How did you get involved with freethinking and what are your thoughts on
that?
Spoonboy: I grew up surrounded by Judaism, even though I had stopped believing God at a very young age. I think there are a lot of wonderful things that
people can get out of religion, but I don't think they are things that you
can't find elsewhere. Conversely, I think that growing up entrenched in
religious dogma really stifles people's sense of possibility in life.
Being told that there is any one specific way to live is one of the
saddest things I can imagine. Life is full of possibilities. And those
religious visions of life are often entrenched in patriarchal, homophobic,
absolutist values that I think are some of the most destructive things in
the world. Belief in an absolute right is possibly the most poisonous
idea ever invented, and killing in the name of God, the most terrifying.
JTMP: Can you tell me how you got involved with Rock Beyond Belief?
Spoonboy: Justin Griffith asked me to play the festival when it was scheduled for
April 2011, and I was excited to do it, and even made some YouTube videos
promoting the event. I found out later the military didn't feel there was
sufficient evidence that I was actually coming to play, which was one of
their reasons for pulling funding in 2011. I'm glad it's finally
happening!
JTMP: What do you hope the event will accomplish?
Spoonboy: I hope that it will prove that like LGBT people, non-theists are
everywhere, including within the military, and shouldn't be discriminated
against. I hope it provides a counter-point to the evangelical Christian
events that have been held at Fort Bragg, and hopefully it will open some
people's minds.
JTMP: Finally, what do you think is the future for freethinkers?
Spoonboy: The same as anyone, I suppose. Freethinkers aren't one homogenous group, and for all people everywhere the future is wide open.
Watch "What You Want" below, and connect with Spoonboy on Facebook here, and check out his website here:
http://iloveyouthisisarobbery.com/
