With a new studio coming soon, new software and several musical projects taking shape, this month’s Featured Song almost chose itself.
“Change Is the Rule,”, from our album Oxy’s Morons, released earlier this year, is written from the perspective of an old-school songwriter trying to protect his craft while the musical world changes around him.
He prefers worn wooden desks, pencils and paper to digital tools, effort to convenience and heart over design. He hears countless new voices but worries they are beginning to sound the same: “all sizzle, no steak, flash without fire.” To him, songwriting is supposed to involve effort, frustration and the willingness to wrestle with an idea until it becomes something meaningful.
But he also recognizes an uncomfortable truth:
“Change is the rule, and the rules they keep changing
That contradiction makes the song a natural fit for Oxy’s Morons, an album built around the conflicting truths and everyday absurdities of modern life. The narrator resists change while knowing that refusing to adapt may leave him behind.
We certainly understand that tension.
This fall, we’re preparing to upgrade the software at the centre of our studios. Sly is planning an entirely new creative space. I’m using new technology to breathe new life into recordings made more than 40 years ago, while going old school to finish one album and beginning another.
The tools keep changing. Studios change. Creative processes change. Even the way musicians work together can change.
Some of that is exciting. Some of it is frustrating. Occasionally, it’s a pain in the ass.
“Change Is the Rule” doesn’t tell us which changes to embrace or where the line should be drawn. Those are personal decisions, and different musicians can arrive at very different answers.
The song simply reminds us that change keeps coming—and each of us has to decide how to respond.