Original copy below for a feature in papermag.com
At the most crucial time for humxnity to be considering our collective future, I released an 11-track record “Shortcut To World Peace” on 01.01, to help us manifest freedom, peace and the future that we deserve…
… but what is the shortcut you might ask? In simple terms, it’s “love energy”, self-realisation and making conscious decisions with intention at every moment, to help us all move forward towards a utopian dimension of peace.
It can take a lot of time, research and invested shadow work to go through the various processes of understanding what “love” really means, so I made these songs over the last three years to help amplify and speed up that process by sharing my knowledge through the medium of pop, so that it’s something to enjoy, channel universal energy with, and cerebrally advance us as a species.
My sonic inspirations are really broad and this is definitely a genre-bending record, traversing a multitude of soundscapes, fusing ancient knowledge with a futuristic vibe, with the common thread being ethereal and emotionally charged (self) love songs for peace, with the intention to heal.
A lot of my spiritual inspiration comes from ancestral Indian / Vedic philosophies of peace, but as I was born and grew up in London, colonial Britain, I have somewhat of a unique perspective on decoding violence and the binaries of reality, which I have subsequently put into this record.
You will start to notice the frequency of synchronicities within the NEO 10Y universe, my name being one of them, which really shows that the intention of this project from the universe is way bigger than me, and being an independent artist has allowed me to execute this record and visual hyperreality in the most authentic way possible.
With love, here’s a track-by-track breakdown:
“Shortcut To World Peace”
Opening with an “aum” (aka the vibration of the universe), I wrote and performed Shortcut To World Peace on the piano with a very clear intention to frame this body of work. The lyrics and delivery begin pretty intimately with “my best friend is a pornstar” and then the track evolves into an electric stadium-filling anthem with a powerful middle-8 decoding the literal solution to world peace through love and oneness. The song was produced with S.B.O, who is my talented Buddhist friend and long time collaborator, and we switch it up once again for the outro, which is sexy, loud and arpeggiated, opening up the record to the rest of the songs which traverse the binaries of reality.
“The Camera (Clone Me)”
Once we start synching up more with the universe, we start to realise that everything is being recorded and documented celestially. The Camera (Clone Me) came about from the realisation that when someone pulls out a camera, we tend to be on our best behaviour, playing the good citizen. The idea is to amplify that concept into every moment of our lives. The universe is documenting everything and “the camera’s always on you”. The track is electronic, sexy buy fast-paced and tongue-in-cheek, and has a pretty epic rap verse and trippy middle-8.
“Dopamine”
As my most streamed song on digital streaming platforms, Dopamine is a fan favourite. It has a subversive and luscious guitar-driven production with Sebastian Bartz, and is about connecting with ourselves and cerebral happiness. From the perspective of world peace, the bridge of the song explains, “I am full of hope and all I’m longing for is peace / So please give me that my friend”. It’s the idea of finding peace within oneself, so that we can find peace together. References to technology within the track are for “body technology” i.e yoga / kundalini / kung fu which are all ways to raise your frequency and love energy within our vessels. The track is 3.33 in length, so that’s why it is the third track on the record.
“ILY”
Honing directly into the frequency of love, ILY is my most ancestral song sonically, with beautiful sitar from Tommy Khosla and tabla production from Teddy Jackson. I originally wrote ILY on the piano with the intention of us better understanding the cosmic shift that is taking place into a higher dimension, and acknowledging post materialism as a key factor as we move forward. “Don’t take it back to midnight” is to encourage us not to regress, and the outro references honesty with oneself and the collective, how God aka The Universe flows through all of us and how we are one.
“Lunatic”
As a Cancer Moon, I am really connected to lunar cycles and always felt that the word “Lunatic” had a bad reputation and negative connotations, so wanted to reclaim it with the chorus “Oh, I think about the moon all the time, and I can see the light in your eyes, yeah, I’m a lunatic, Imma, Imma lunatic, you’ll find, I’m trippin through space and time and you know that world peace is a vibe…” The super immersive production on this very ethereal and atmospheric track is thanks to Teddy Jackson. I am particularly fond of the spoken middle-8 and the overall juxtaposition of the sensual production with the concept of rebranding the word “Lunatic”. A real love song for stans of the moon.
“Reality Check”
Taking us into a more grunge-rock curiousity zone, Reality Check is a conversation between us and the universe / our higher selves, and also the patriarchy. It is also a “pay me” anthem. I wanted to write a money manifestation song for us all so that we can all live in peace on this planet. It would be great if in the future we can collectively provide for every humxn that needs base level support. Paper also premiered the video for Reality Check. It’s track 6 on the record because in numerology 6 and 666 are heavily associated with money.
“Y”
Building on the concept of curiosity as a solution based way to navigate reality, Y was released last year to a lot of industry and playlist acclaim, including being COLORS song of the day. It’s an ethereal curiosity banger to help us ask the right questions to navigate reality, manifest freedom, open our third eyes and decode the system. For the video, it was shot last year in that part of lockdown when we couldn’t work at all. It is the 10th episode in my hyperreality music video series and features all original footage, but revisits characters and references from each of the nine previous videos to this, including my semi-viral Trump film.
“Feedback Loop”
Produced by the insanely talented 327 (fka hiide), Feedback Loop is a super connected plea to the universe to save us with love, truth and good vibrations. It was released on 11.11 and taps into my personal humxn design where key themes are frustration (unsurprising considering my purpose) and being a manifesting generator. It also documents my spiritual awakening and DNA shift from shifting to non-violent consumption. The electronic, future-bass driven production flows super well with the message of breaking away from bad habits in order to be more at one with the universe. From a numerology perspective, a feedback loop is infinity, so it had to be track 8 on the record.
“Unrelatable Autosexual”
The spoken world opening of Unrelatable Autosexual actually uses lawyers’ statements from early 2019 when someone literally tried to sue me for being too sexy, so obviously I had to find a way to incorporate this into a song. Unrelatable is a heavy yet ethereal grunge-trap number which is 3.33 in length, hence being track number 9. On the surface, it’s a moody and tongue in cheek, but on a deeper listen, it’s an uber-amplified self-love song with the intention of raising the collective vibration. It also references plant medicine ’420’ in the middle-8 which I am very passionate about for healing our community. At the core, the message is oneness amped up – for world peace. I am obsessed with the guitar on this track by Sebastian Bartz and the visual is a sexy, astral trip.
“Stan Yourself”
One of my best-known and critically revered tracks is Stan Yourself (produced with S.B.O), which had to be in at number 10 on the CD. The intention of the song is to take us from dystopia to utopia. It’s a conceptual reference in a post-Internet era reclaiming “stan” with a positive meaning. We spend so much time idolising other people, if only we focussed that energy on ourselves, we’d be in a better state collectively. I wrote it because I am always thinking about how we can optimise ourselves as a species, and I think it’s part of my process and purpose as an artist to be questioning reality and reconstructing that which doesn’t serve us anymore. I appreciate the idea of loving yourself to death, and embracing the entire path that the universe has to offer us. Once we stop fearing death, I think the journey is more enjoyable. The video is partly shot between London and LA and features the stan wall that I built that Summer, which is also in the single art.
“Crackhead Angel”
The angel numbered finale to the record that we deserve is one of my most lyrically cerebral tracks. I wrote Crackhead Angel on the guitar during our first lockdown, and it references a time as kid when I blacked out from cracking my head open, and then another series of blackouts in 2016/2017. The song is about traversing the polarities and binaries of reality; decoding and embracing the ones and zeros and understanding of self. The process of self-realisation has been heavily documented in this whole record and I wanted Crackhead Angel to be the finale as it leaves the record open to a new era with the final lyrics being “looks like we’re gonna…” The video was also premiered by the legends at Paper and the two characters in the film are versions of me, my ‘poles’ per se, ‘Crackhead’ and ‘Angel’, breaking out of the prison of their mind to reconnect with the Universe.
The single and CD artwork was made with Fernando Monroy and the main idea is of the universe flowing through us, the idea of multidimensionality, the tree of life, consciousness and celestial energy. The jellyfish / shores symbolise energetic flow, entanglement and Reiki energy to heal (as well as plant medicine / psilocybin). The idea of flowing with the universe but being conscious of energetic attachments and entanglements pushing us forward at the same time as holding us back. Two moons for bipolarity, acknowledging the illusion and ancient earth.
As much as the record is about amplifying love and universal energy flowing through us, there is also a clear theme in lyrics and videos about accepting and embracing death and the astral realm, because death is just the beginning. I hope you stan, and share it for world peace.
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You can stream NEO 10Y on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and all other streaming platforms, watch their music videos on YouTube, follow them on Instagram, Twitter and Clubhouse and buy ‘Shortcut To World Peace’ the physical album via NEO10Y.SPACE
Photo credits: NEO 10Y by Azazel