Mappe of “Happiness in the Singularity”
Americana Highways is hosting this premiere of Mappe Of’s song “Happiness in the Singularity” form their forthcoming album Afterglades. Afterglades was produced by Tom Meikle and Will Crann; mixed and engineered by All Crann with additional engineering by Tom Meikle; and mastered by Kristian Montano.
Musicians on “Happiness in the Singularity” are songwriter Tom Meikle on lead vocals, classical guitar, electric guitar, ukulele, piano, synths, sampling, and programming; Amelia Fraser on vocals; Dermott Shepard on piano; Jason Brum on synths; Jill Sauerteig on cello and string arrangement; Zach Cockburn on drums and percussions; Kory Ross on sampling; Will Lamoureux on violin; Will Crann on percussion, bass synth, and programming; Devon Savas on fretless bass guitar; and Joshua Van Tassel on drums, percussion, and synths.
We had a chance to chat briefly with Tom Meikle about the song. The premiere appears just beneath the interview.
Americana Highways: What’s the core meaning of “Happiness in the Singularity”?
Tom Meikle: This track represents a reflection on legacy. I had been thinking a lot about the idea of legacy, particularly the way it evolves as technology captures so much of who we are. Our digital legacy is now hard to distinguish from the tangible impact we make on the earth and the people around us. There’s also this middle period of technological history, with physical media like VHS tapes, where if they’re not preserved by other means, they’ll degrade and eventually be lost to time. We’re in this strange moment in history where we’ve witnessed the beginning of a feasibly infinite legacy, where hundreds of years from now, someone could download our digital records and get a decent idea of who we were as people. Comparing that to hundreds of years prior, we really know very little about these historical figures we hold in such high regard, in terms of their actual personalities, the way they carried themselves, the subtleties that define us. I often find myself feeling like our collective obsession with legacy is meaningless, once we’re gone, we’re gone, but at the same time, there is something beautiful in the preservation of the idea of people.
AH: “Happiness In The Singularity” seems to have a unique balance of danceable energy and introspective melancholy. How did you approach blending these two contrasting moods in the track?
TM: This track came out as a result of a bunch of electronic experiments I was doing. I had this vague idea of the track beforehand, in that I knew I wanted it to have a distinctly hyper-digital identity with some kind of odd time signature rhythmic element to serve as the foundation of the song, something that was just slightly strange but still consistent and hypnotic enough to carry the track, as a representation of the subject matter about reconciling with technology. The melancholic aspect arose mainly from that central piano progression, which is something that happened sort of separately to the electronic experiments on an upright piano in my house. Before that it was just sort of this chaotic electronic track with a bunch of bleeps and bloops that sounded cool but didn’t really go anywhere. I feel like that’s what the track needed to ground it in a more identifiable emotional space.
AH: Are there any specific influences, whether musical or personal, that inspired this release?
This track is very sci-fi influenced, obviously aesthetically with all of the synthetic elements but also thematically, as a sort of personal diary about trying to figure out how to co-exist with advancements in technology and this impending idea of the ‘singularity’ in artificial intelligence. These advancements look terrifying on the surface, and may be, but if we take their existence as a given, how do we cope with that? How do we leverage them for good? How do we maintain our humanity?
Musically there’s some Thom Yorke energy there, definitely some Oneohtrix Point Never and Ryuichi Sakamoto (particularly ‘async’ and the records with Alva Noto), a bit of old krautrock, 70’s folk, and the ‘Enjoy Your Rabbit’ record by Sufjan.
AH: What do you hope listeners will connect with most on this new release?
TM: I tend to lean toward letting people find their own way into a piece of music, but the themes on this one do feel specific and particularly pertinent to our current technological state as a society. As we all know, we are fed infinite sources of doom and gloom every day. It’s not sustainable. It’s important to be conscious, but we need to be given some reason to continue to venture forth. ‘Happiness’ may be an abstract idea, and it’s not sustainable either, but we need to know that it can exist, regardless of our state of being. We need to know that we are capable of happiness, even in moments of despair. I just want people to find some hope in it.
Thanks very much for chatting with us Tom. Enjoy the video just below. This is a deeply connective sonic dance about the idea of happiness in the singularity – it delves into the infinite expanse of the human soul. It’s all wrapped up in the bittersweet recognition of mortality, wishing profoundly to matter, and the ecstatic beauty of the whole universe. All presented gently amidst a twinkling arrangement.
Tripping through the flashbacks
Watching old tapes by the staircase
Sifting through the salt bath
Finding open wounds to bathe in
You can stream the music here: https://stream.mappeof.com/
