Mr President, We​’​re In Trouble

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

Today marks not only the 2012 US election but also the release of our single Mr President, We’re In Trouble (ft. Jimmy Carter). This is, as you may have guessed, no coincidence.

Obama’s 2008 campaign hinged on the slogan ‘Change we can believe in.’ People bought into that for a reason: many wanted things to change and they still do. Things have changed as they always do, although perhaps not entirely in the way that people buying into Obama’s slogan wanted it to.

Is this Obama’s fault in particular? I don’t think so. Nobody can take full ownership of the problems of a country, let alone the world. To expect them to do so is foolish.

We released Mr President on election day in the hope that anybody listening would take a step back and try to look at this day from a broader perspective than the immediately apparent two party contest. The problems of our nation and indeed our world are deeper than economic recession and energy supply shortages as Jimmy Carter suggested in 1979. Our record reflects on the fact that for whatever reason within the fabric of our society we have collectively allowed the things that matter most to us as human beings – particularly those innate qualities of love and community – to become subordinate to the profit motive and accumulation of personal wealth. This is a sad state of affairs and we believe that most people find it fundamentally unacceptable.

We think that it is neither fair nor productive to blame any person or group of people for this. If we want things to truly change we must each accept our own responsibility in allowing the world to be the way it is and start to both think and act differently. We do need our leaders to set an example but each of us must do the same and lead by example within our own lives – within our own families, circles of friends, jobs and wider communities.

We made a conscious decision to release this record independently without seeking the help of a label, promoters or any form of management. We have done it all ourselves relying on the openness and forward thinking of those bloggers, radio stations and reviewers who have been receptive to our submissions. The main reason we did this is because records like this do not get pushed to the forefront of the music business.

Having worked long enough in the music industry myself I know that our chosen A side would probably never have been classed as a single by any label. It would’ve likely been considered too slow, not radio friendly, uncommercial, controversial or too political and may well have ended up as album filler.

It seems that the only way to get a record like this on the musical radar is to put it there yourself so that’s what we’ve done. We have been both surprised and overwhelmed by the positive responses. What has come to light is what we hoped would be the case which is that people do want to hear artists speak out on these matters and give our collective consciousness a voice – as John Lennon said that is what artists are meant to be: a reflection of us all.

Above all we hope you enjoy the music. Thank you all so much for listening (and may the best man win 😉).

"Instro-loop/sample laden 7" which take an Orb like approach to laid-back compositions and mixes up some deep spoken word samples (from Jimmy Carter and Mike Ruppert no less) with some of that blissful beat backing...It all makes a strong musical point! Recommended!"
Jumbo Records, Leeds

“What Fold does with speech recordings is very cool. They’re able to twist the speeches, reflect on world problems, and make it all sound cohesive and pleasant at the same time.”
Nancy Hoang, Hopeless Thunder

Mr President, We're In Trouble (ft. Jimmy Carter) was nominated for an Independent Music Award in the category of Spoken Word (with music accompaniment).