We would like to extend a special thanks for our friends at Rock Era Magazine one more time for an amazing interview!
Mena Ezzat
May 5, 2024
The band’s name, National Security Band, naturally piques interest and invites listeners to explore their music. Listening to their latest album, “Critical Sound Theory,” as well as their earlier releases, intrigued me enough to engage in a conversation with the trio. I was eager to delve deeper into their political rock concept and uncover more about their narrative and insights into the hidden society theory.
Let’s begin with how you all first met.
(Andy) Believe it or not, we are all related. Craig is my older brother who I have obviously known since birth and Greg is a cousin who moved across the country when I was young. Later in life, Greg and I reconnected and decided to start jamming out periodically. It didn’t take long to realize that we had some sort of unspoken bond and connection through music where we are able to subconsciously communicate. Writing the first few songs felt natural and we decided to officially form our band. Heading into our third album, “Critical Sound Theory” we realized that we needed to add depth to our sound and recruited Craig to play bass guitar and become our third member. This was a natural fit for us and it works, we all get along great and know how to work with each other.
(Greg) If you listen to our band, you get a sense of a naturally injected auditory trance that only intensifies as the album tells its story. Our music offers debts of sound, from ritualistic and atmospheric monotones that stimulate self awareness and thinking to heavy rock riffs that provoke energy and action.
Choosing “National Security” as a band name is quite bold and unique – what inspired this choice?
(Craig) The origin of the band name, along with the first album title comes from a now defunct U.S. government program called “Total Information Awareness,” which was run by the Information Awareness Office, created by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and part of the original Patriot Act where the National Security State was born. Its seal was a sinister, eerie, and ominous transmogrification of the All-seeing Eye of Providence on the back of the dollar bill, with a piercing beam of light flashing out, surveilling all of America. It was at this historical moment that the National Security State cemented its grip on power and launched the forever war known as the War on Terror. The three party slogans in George Orwell’s 1984 became a reality: War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, and Freedom is Slavery. This is the origin of the cancer that has metastasized over the past twenty years into today’s terminal stages. This is what our music reflects and why we call ourselves National Security Band.
(Greg) We are a bold band. National Security seemed fitting for the band because we believe that awareness, questioning of government narratives and freedom of thought is paramount to the security and of a free society.
In your website’s About section, you mention a Secret Society, the Illuminati, and Big Brother watching. Can you provide more insight into this?
(Andy): That is an awesome question, and a lot of it goes back to the thoughts behind our band name. It’s no secret that a small minority of our population controls a majority of the wealth in this world. There was a Wizard of Id cartoon from the 60’s that redefined the Golden Rule with a quote, “Whoever has the gold, makes the rules!” Largely, these people influence our government through lobbyists, control the media through advertising spend, the banks that lend us and store our money, and control a majority of the products that we have availability to purchase in the store. There are most definitely secret societies and we occasionally get glimpses of their activities online or periodically on the news-but if you notice, many of these stories get scrubbed very quickly and seem to disappear without any sort of disposition.
(Craig) In my opinion, I would say that the secret societies are out in the open. It’s obvious if your eyes aren’t closed. It’s an elite club.
Is it fair to say that political issues and secret societies inspire your music?
(Andy) That is a fair statement, without a doubt. We all make conscious efforts to stay informed of what is going on in this world and how it could impact our families or society as a whole. But here’s the important thing, I encourage people to develop their own opinions based on facts-not opinions of influencers, celebrities, “news” anchors, friends, or families. Our music and lyrics do bring some issues into the spotlight to toe the line, but we do not necessarily broadcast our opinions. We describe ourselves as an apolitical rock band.
An example would be “Twelve Below” from our first album, “Total Information Awareness”-this song is obviously about climate change. However, if you read the lyrics you would have no idea what my opinion or thoughts are on the subject and that is intentional. It’s a challenge for interested listeners to dive into the rabbit hole and see what they uncover.
Do you plan to explore other lyrical themes in the future?
(Andy) Most definitely. We have explored a ton of ideas from serious to more ordinary. Some of the interesting themes that enter our catalog are the Denver airport conspiracy, remote drone strikes, technology, UFOs, mirrors and reflections, AI, government corruption, and astral planing. The themes of our albums are largely shaped on what is going on in the world and what is going on in my mind at the time. Luckily, the internet and the news gives me plenty of inspiration to draw from.
(Craig) I would like to explore more ideas someday when things in this world stop being so Fucked up.
(Greg) Music is my way to continue to hope and dream, to express myself in a more abstract manner, and to offer audiences a sound that is not typical in the current rock scene. I have heard our music is like taking a drug. It relaxes people and takes them to a less stressful, different place in reality.
Were you concerned about potential negative reactions to your band’s music due to these themes?
(Craig) No.
(Andy) I’m conscious of that, that’s why as I said before I am always careful not to interject my opinions. Let’s be honest, any opinion we have on any subject is going to offend someone. For some reason, people listen less these days and are more confrontational. If you read our lyrics, I don’t think there’s much that that could be offensive to anyone. We do dish out some serious issues that are heavy for some people however.
But in my mind I keep going back to the music. If the music sounds good, people will jive to it. There’s been a lot of successful political bands that have been championed by a wide variety of people such as Rage Against the Machine, Bob Dylan, NWA, U2, Pearl Jam, and The Clash-and many many more. There’s room for National Security Band in the music scene-we have no doubts.
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“Critical Sound Theory” is a remarkable album. How does it differ from your previous work, “Biomimicry”?
(Andy) Thank you. We feel like we leveled up with “Critical Sound Theory”, this album is a big deal for us as a band. Most importantly, we added Craig on bass guitar to fill out the low end and this was an obvious gap we had with our previous two albums. The added dimension of that instrument allows me to use less delay and Greg to not rely as heavily on his cymbals to fill the sound void. Musically, we would have never been able to write “Agastopia” or “The Reversion” with only two people.
I noticed there are no music videos yet for your latest album. Are there any plans to create one soon?
(Andy) Oh yes. We had the opportunity to record our official videos in an abandoned warehouse which was the former headquarters of American Electric Power in Canton, Ohio earlier this year. The building is absolutely stunning and is one of the most structurally sound and charismatic industrial buildings I’ve been in. You will notice the theme of our videos taking a directional turn for this album where they are mostly live performances. We wanted the walls of the building to “speak for themselves”. Videos will be released throughout the upcoming weeks to correspond with the individual releases of our singles on Spotify.
With the advancement of AI in the music industry, do you see it as a threat to musicians and the industry as a whole?
(Andy) It’s going to change the music industry as well as almost every conceivable industry across the entire world. If you look at what the internet has done in a short period of 25 years once it was truly launched, it’s remarkable. AI is going to make exponential impacts on the world when compared to the internet. We will all be affected soon if we haven’t been impacted already. There will always be a demand for humans to perform music live, AI Has No Soul and cannot deliver the raw emotion that we can. Humans crave that connection and that is where AI is going to struggle for a while.
(Greg) This project is about the demise of human intelligence and independent thinking and the rise of oppression and AI. It ranges in subjects from human sheep to value in soul. Our project attempts to capture the value in humanity, the anger of a nation, the control of a government, the expression of an endangered human species, and provide a path forward through free thinking, expression, and mind expansion.
Lastly, could you reveal your aspirations for 2024?
(Andy) In 2024, National Security Band’s primary goals are to reach a wide audience and make a significant impact in the music industry. We aim to achieve this by getting a significant number of streams for our music, attracting new fans from all corners of the globe, and ensuring that our music is widely accessible and recognized. Our overarching aspiration is to solidify our presence in the music scene and make a name for ourselves as a pioneering force in rock music. By achieving these goals, we strive to leave a lasting legacy and inspire change through our music.
(Craig) We are having our launch party in Greenville, South Carolina on May 17th and will be doing some shows this fall. Stay tuned and in the meantime, check our website!
(Greg) It is my hope that fans take away the understanding that free thinking and action is the path forward. Mindless marches and blind obediences will only lead to predictable results of human enslavement, feeding the power and greed of only a select few who hold the reigns of control. It is never too late to rise as individuals and as a people to seize our individuality, our destinations, to shut down censorship and to win the war against the machine.