http://www.musicsubmit.com/bandmusicfiles/31581-waiting_for_the_countdown.mp3
eben brooks
biography:
my name is eben brooks. i am primarily a musician, a singer/songwriter. you are probably expecting to see my rsum of musical accomplishments, along with a statement about what i hope to accomplish in the near future. after all, its what an artists biography should contain, right?
except that this is not my biography. its my mission statement. and my mission is very simply stated:
to save the world.
seems a pretty big task for one singer/songwriter, doesnt it? why would i attempt to take on such a thing? the answer is: because if i dont . . . who will?
we all know that the world is a miserable place. crime, poverty, hate, war, sickness, bigotry, the haves lording it over the have-nots, unrestrained greed, indifference to suffering. to put it succinctly, the world is sick.
and so my music serves causes, bringing attention to the things that are important to accomplish if we want the human race to survive. chief on my list of things to eliminate, or at least reduce to the minimum necessary, is war.
ive written a trilogy of war protest songs, two of which are recorded: pawns in the game on just me and my guitar, and waiting for the countdown on mirrors. they are both written from the perspective of the soldiers, the ones who are out there obeying orders and carrying out missions. for each of these songs, i asked a question: what would happen if the soldiers really knew? these two songs are my answer to that question.
but as terrible as war is, its just a symptom of the overall ill health of the world at large. and that ill health is not just social or political, its physical. the number of cases of cancer, for instance, is much higher per capita than it was fifty years ago. cancer touches many more lives now than it used to, and its touched mine. in 2001, my mother died of breast cancer, and it was a terrible time for me. out of that pain came the song black train on mirrors.
yes, the world is sick. but it is my pledge to heal it. one person at a time, one thing at a time, over my lifetimeand to teach others to carry on the healing after i'm gone. this is not hyperbole. this is not martyrdom. this is not pie-in-the-sky.
this is necessary.
can i do it by myself? no. the world needs all the help it can get. but that's why i make music: to educate, to illuminate, to pull back the illusions. to get others to see what's happening.
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