‘Two Songs’ by Chicks on Speed | “Art can be a powerful tool for counter propaganda”
Exclusive track premiere ‘Two Songs’ by art project Chicks on Speed featuring Jeremiah Day.
Chicks on Speed are a duo consisting of Melissa E. Logan and Alex Murray-Leslie who met in Munich, Germany while studying at The Academy of Fine Art, Munich. The duo cross lines and build new groups and are direct descendants of Bauhaus, Fluxus, SI and created Electroclash in the last millennia. When they take a break they sleep in a lab and record their dreams which are sonified into the endless songs
Melissa E. Logan is a Berlin and Brussels based artist whose work spans and hybridises electronic music, performance and installation. She gathers groups of artists, thinkers, technologists to connect themes of fiscal, digital rights. In the tradition of avant-garde her works oscillate between authenticity and the subaltern, touch on theory with a detour into artificial exaggeration.
Logan studied painting at the Academy of Arts in Munich, where she founded Chicks on Speed (CoS) collective with her colleagues there. Over the 25 years of its evolution, CoS has developed a collaborative system of rotating members who develop sound devices, install their exhibitions, and teach seminars.
‘Two Songs’
Jeremiah Day: One morning in Albi, France, before our performance, I called Fred Dewey, late at night LA time, and said I was going to write a song for Assange. Fred said “better make it two. One might not be enough.”
Yes there is a lot to say about the complex case of “murder the messenger” type of mistreatment to the case of torturing a man to death. The veneer of freedom and equality is splattered and tainted with much blood, pain and false information called lies. Chicks on Speed have sent the song titled ‘Two Songs’ out into the work as a spark to decompress the grip. We are inviting others to join and offer the stems of the song for people to remix and write more songs, three four eleven 65 songs. We urge you to request a link phone@chicksonspeed.com
How many songs will we need to sing to free Julian Assange? Let’s open the flood gates of activism not just for a select few in the know, but for all because this is about us all. Assange is being instrumentalized as an example of what happens to people stepping out into the world and creating a safe platform for information distribution. We can be the example when a human is illegally mistreated with no regard to the laws of human rights, THIS is what happens. From all areas we deliver music and power to the empathetic, intelligent and true leaders this world needs.
‘Two Songs’ is a continuation to being blown away by Wikileaks – this absolutely amazing power that has put the mainstream media to shame. We are saddened by the forced submission of our publishing houses to militarized industry driven governments and the international so called humanitarian NGO’s.
Chicks on Speed released a song ‘God’ with Julian on their 2018 ‘Artstravaganza’ release. A recording Angela Richter made in the embassy, an interview which was part of her research for theater plays. This became a growing friendship with Assange and with the gained knowledge Angela Richter has become an expert and journalist, publishing in mainstream media outlets who take on the risk of not following the media blackout prevalent following the character assaination tabloid style reporting of the publisher and founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange.
Angela Richter made a meeting and listening session possible for Chicks on Speed with Assange while he was in the Ecuadorian Embassy. On this long evening we discussed his pet bees, the power of art and even smoked a cigar out the backroom window – observing the security guards who were observing us.
Melissa E. Logan: Dear Angela, remember the dinner ticket you purchased in order to support WikiLeaks, are you still in contact with other guests who were there?
Angela Richter: It was a four course lunch actually, we were 8 guests, 5 women and 3 men, who won a seat on eBay. Just last month I received a message from a Serbian-Austrian woman. I have been in touch with her sporadically. As well as a woman from Berlin, who was there too and came to see my first Wikileaks play “Assassinate Assange,” but I have never heard from her since. I stayed in contact with Slavoj Zizek over the years, he was always an ardent supporter of Julian and visited him often in the embassy as well. The last play I staged before the lockdowns was Zizek’s first play “The three lives of Antigone” at the national theater in Zagreb, that is when I personally met him the last time. I included the famous Video of Julian’s arrest, it fitted well in the context.
Melissa E. Logan: You have been to the embassy interviewing and visiting Julian over 200 times, gathering material for theater plays, and for writing articles in leading newspapers, what has been your feedback from your productions, articles and interviews?
Angela Richter: I think that art can be a powerful tool for counter propaganda. I used it to draw attention to his case and the blatant injustice that he faced for years. Also, I brought many artists as guests to the embassy over the years, like you guys, the photographers Elfie Semotan and Martin Schoeller. Sarah Lucas accompanied me a few years ago. We went together to Whole Foods, she thought he needed some healthy stuff to eat. Sarah is still supporting him to this day. Considering his situation the art support never seemed enough, so subsequently I started writing about his case, I always criticised the press, first for ruining his reputation, Julian called it “character assassination,” this inspired the title of my first play about him. Later when the media were proven wrong, instead of apologizing and making amends, they mostly wrapped themselves in silence, they only reported the minimum, in order to not lose face completely. If they did their job in the first place, there would not be a reason for WikiLeaks to exist. After being on a panel after my play Jakob Augstein offered me to write about Julian’s case for “Der Freitag”, that’s how my journalistic work started. I reported live from court for Freitag and Welt. But at the end of the day, I feel very desperate about his situation. Me and many others fought this fight for over a decade, and while surrendering is no option, it is just devastating to see him imprisoned in Belmarsh for publishing war crimes, while the war criminals were never taken to court. To loosely quote Bob Dylan:
They are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise While Julian sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell,
An innocent man in a living hell.
Alex Murray-Leslie: You post on the Orwell and brave new world as a parallel to the situation now, could you expand on this in relation to Julian’s situation and human rights and freedom of speech?
Angela Richter: George Orwell’s 1984 was THE book that Julian was quoting all the time, to explain our political situation. I must admit, that as much as I believed him, ten years ago I thought it might be a bit of an exaggeration. I still felt “free enough” to do art etc. Today I think very differently about it. I underestimated the brave new world aspect. The western world isn’t as dark and sinister as the one Orwell described in 1984, we led a comfortable life and were free to choose our private “lifestyle” as long as we didn’t speak truth to power, which Julian did. Speaking of Orwell: what I really experienced in the decade I knew Julian was the phenomenon of “Doublethink”: I knew that the Julian that I met was very different than the picture that was painted in the media, but as I was reading everything about him that was published, there was a second Julian in my brain, that came to life by reading repetitive lies about him. Of course, I knew they were lies and yet this second abstract person came to life in my mind. That’s how powerful constant lies are. You start believing them, even if you know better: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” I think today, we are very much faced with this reality. Besides Julian’s case, reality is distorted more and more to serve ideologies, other interests. It is actually very frightening.
Julian was constantly warning me about this. He really predicted many things which have now taken place. I wish he was wrong, but he was prophetic on many issues we face today. If human rights don’t apply to defend a journalist who spoke truth about power, what are these laws for (?) other than to embellish politician popularity? If the human rights don’t exist for Julian, they don’t exist at all.
Alex Murry Lesley: Angela, I think about Julian saying “artists have the last free voice” when we were all in the embassy. Do you still believe the work of artists can make a difference?
Angela Richter: Yes, I remember that Julian said that we as artists have the last free voice. It is unfortunate many artists do not use it. The fiscally successful ones were too busy with their narcissism. The others were busy surviving. Now that we face this huge cultural backlash through lockdowns and Corona, we have to stand up and fight even more. It is not too late yet. The First thing is honesty and facing reality, even if it might not fit one’s own ideology. It takes courage as I believe Cancel Culture, Character Assassination is real. We have to free ourselves of this method of demonizing rather than listening, it is the new religion. Art should be about truth and not serving some ideological narrative or being submissive to power structures. Let’s buckle up and face the truth. Julian always said: Courage is contagious!
Press text by Melissa E. Logan, special thanks to Angela Richter for the interview. Supported by RTAI real-time telematic improvisation grant, Norwegian Artistic Research Council & Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, Norwegian University of Science and technology’
‘Two Songs’ Lyrics:
Two Songs For Julian Assange because the nights in Belmarsh Prison have got to be too long I’ve got one song for dead journalists who are Iraques
Another song for their ghost haunting me
I’ve got one song for the helicopter which killed them being called an Apache Another song for the cheating of the DNC
Another song for the silence about that by Burnie
One song for the tears of my mom Another song her reading about the things we done wrong
Two Songs For Julian Assange because the nights in Belmarsh Prison have got to be too long 2x
Compact, Think Think, The Views, We need to hear truth, the temperature, Doublespeak, small
quarters, The Double think, the smells, secrets, of the elites, lights, the sounds, we need to look behind, -the birds, what gets made up by the media, The Stars, Again, Again, Again, Fresh Air, Again, Again, Again, The sheets, Clean Water, If you look back at the writings of George Orwell, Warmth, the Doublethink, Cover up, the Birds, the Doublethink the Newspeak,
Two Songs for Julian Assange because the nights in Belmarsh Prison have got to be too long 2x
Two songs, three, four songs, five, six, seven songs, nine, ten, eleven, twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen songs for Julian Assange Because the nights in Belmarsh Prison have got to be too long. Four Songs,
I’ve got one song for dead journalists who are Iraques Another song for their ghost haunting me
One song for the helicopter which killed them being called an Apache,
One song for the tears of my mom, another song for the things we’ve done so wrong,
Two songs, thee songs, four Songs, five songs, Six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen sixteen twenty five songs,
For Julian Assange, For Julian Assange, we need you.
Written by Jeremiah Day with Alex-Murray-Leslie, Melissa E. Logan 2012-22
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