Article by Matthew Putman

This was written in October 2009 by our producer and friend Matthew Putman.

Article by Matthew Putman

I have known the four musicians who make up the group Wake Up! for just over 1 year, and during that time they have indeed woke me up. Still, when I saw the name of their band, and the description as social music, I wasn’t sure exactly what they were going for. Daniel Carter certainly is well known as an intellectual and creative free spirit, who brings his own highly radical, but beautifully romantic views on democracy to the forefront of every conversation musically and otherwise. Federico Ughi has created a recorde label, 577 that has the profound ideal of bringing the music of free thought, and free form to the public, even with such little support. David Moss has trained with histories best, like Ornette Coleman, to discover where his own vision fits in the tradition, while finding originality amongst genius. Demien Richardson has been a constant background of perfection on the trumpet, in streets, bars, and recordings. He has followed his unique vision and talent to mental places that are dark, and torturous for him, while letting his audience steal a piece of freedom from him. So perhaps Wake Up! is a call towards a new, more honest form a democracy. When I listen to the music, or am lucky enough to play with them, I find that Wake Up! may have a subconscious implication, which is far more personal.

There is an old urban myth about the brain, that we use only about 10% of it’s capabilities. This is a myth, because there are actual synapses occurring throughout most of the brain during much of the time. By a synapse I am referring to any signal that is chemically sent from one neuron to another. There are over 1 trillion of these occurring in the brain. What is truer however than the 10% myth, is that most of the time these synapses tend to take the path of least resistance. They don’t bridge areas of the brain that are not immediately available to it. So when people say we are not using are brains fully, they are right. In fact the times when are brain is most efficient in areas we don’t generally use, are times of crisis. The brain of an animal being pursued, or of one hunting, which experiences synaptical explosions that we are not experiencing during the underwhelming general anxiety of existence. This response is termed instinctual, but when we, as highly evolved, but highly unnatural beings, use this instinct so little, it tends to atrophy, like a muscle that has not been exercised. This is much different than the common perception of the problems with modern society. It is not all intellect in terms of reading, and mathematical manipulation that we are missing, it is a more basic connection with the nature of survival.

This is what happens when you fully engage with Wake Up! You are in a state of timelessness like the gazelle being chased by the tiger. You are more alive and more awake physiologically than you were before. This may have larger implications. It may mean that you do embrace new political ideas. It may be that you accept more people. It may be, however that unlike the rest of you day, you are living the life your brain has undergone millennia of evolving to become. You are no longer a part of the past or future, but the present, in the brutal forest of survival.