Ep. 9: Dominance & Control (2 of 3)

In the second installment of this series, Andrew Reed goes over the second leg of his album Dominance & Control, talking about "World, I Have Won!", "Triumph", and "King of Things, Lord of More". Reed goes over his early prog rock roots, discusses the theatrical studio sessions and talks about the journey of “Rock Star Caesar,” our main character. This episode unpacks how consumerism, excess, and ego blur our ability to be present and fulfilled. A must-listen for artists, seekers, and anyone reflecting on the cycles of power, achievement, and desire.

Chapter Markers

(00:00) Opening & Studio Reflections

(01:05) Creating "World I Have Won"

(04:12) Song Inspirations: Rush, Thin Lizzy & Beyond

(5:17) SONG: "World, I Have Won!"

(10:50) Rock Star Caesar: A Metaphor for Triumph

(12:14) The Album’s Origins: High School Prog Rock

(14:07) Studio Theatrics

(15:50) SONG: "Triumph"

(21:34) King of Things, Lord of More: A Commentary on Consumerism

(23:00) Modern Advertising and the Void

(24:28) SONG: "King of Things, Lord of More"

Song: Twisted World - andrew reed & the liberation

Album: As a Bird of the Air… (Trilogy I Album 1)

Song: World, I Have Won! - andrew reed & the liberation

Album: Dominance & Control (Trilogy I Album 2)

Song: Triumph - andrew reed & the liberation

Album: Dominance & Control (Trilogy I Album 2)

Song: King of Things, Lord of More - andrew reed & the liberation

Album: Dominance & Control (Trilogy I Album 2)

Distributed by Universal/Virgin Music Groups

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“We think that if we strive and after the great victory, then we’ll be happy. So a lot of people are actually postponing their happiness.”

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
What are you willing to throw your life away on? With
Andrew Reed and The Liberation.It's a serious question, one
worth pondering. Am I living thelife I want, an intelligent
life, or something else? How canI have a better experience of
life?
These are some of the questionsexplored in this series of

(00:34):
messages without the brag andthe advertisement. Getting
beyond even human institutionsand society into the wilderness,
nature, the reality of how lifeactually operates on this
planet. These messages rangefrom intimate recordings from
the awakened forest to concerts,national conferences, and

(00:56):
broadcasts on a wide array ofphilosophical topics.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Okay. Welcome again to the second installment of
Dominance and Control where wediscuss the songs on this epic
concept album. Of course, thisis the second album of the
trilogy since there's threealbums in this demarcation, and
then of course Dominance andControl, and then the final one,

(01:23):
the White Album, will be TheSound of God. So World I Have
Won, this is where rock starCaesar, our central figure, is
really fighting more the battlesand prevailing in all cases.
Often he's merciless and crusheshis opponents, and not just

(01:43):
military opponents, but also hisnon military opponents such as
the press and media.
He wants great things writtenabout him. He wants to be on
every billboard and all this.And he's so devastatingly good
at doing this that hisopponents, you know, pray for
divine help as a last resortbecause they don't have anything

(02:05):
else really to turn to. AndCaesar, in this case, he takes
his defeated folks, and heenslaves many of these. And you
think of Romans and like BenHur, and you think about the
slaves in the galleys, andthey're all rowing, you know,
sweaty and all that.
You hear in the song, We keepyou alive to serve this ship.

(02:30):
Row well and live. So you havethis slave like element and it
almost sounds industrial becausehere we kind of wanted to
translate it to the modern agewhere you think of factories and
people working behind computersand machines where people feel
fundamentally sometimes likeslaves and that they're working
for the man or the machine beingmanipulated. And then it's like,

(02:54):
what's it all about here? Sothere's almost this mechanical
industrial aspect where you canhear the hammer coming down on
the rail and you hear screamsand whips.
And then Alex came in the studioone morning and he had just went
crazy adding some differentvoices, because we knew that,

(03:15):
again, we're telling a storyhere, and so there's a lot of
that. There's all these groans.I mean, just outrageous.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah. You know, it was a pretty
eventful day in the studio. I II came in. I felt inspired.
It was it was the the mist inthe air. I knew what we had to
do, you know, in adding soundeffects to this song. So Andrew
stepped out and I was there bymyself and I was trying out some
of these voices, was trying outsome of these parts and it just

(03:44):
wasn't clicking. But I put onthe headphones, I tuned out the
world, and then I was there onthe ship and I was cracking the
whip. The whip?
The hammers were falling. Thehammers were falling. The
smokestacks. That's right. And Iwould do an example for you
right now, but you have tolisten to the song to be able to

(04:06):
truly enjoy it.
And so I'm gonna leave it forthere. No spoilers. And so,
yeah, that was a lot of fun todo.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, so World I Have Won. And this has really almost
a Rush like vibe because there'slots of different musical
movements and song changes init. And actually some of the
musicality in this song is someof my favorite, like especially
when you get into kind of thesolo section and stuff, it's

(04:33):
really got this industrial feeland almost machine like guitar
riffs, which are way cool. Andthen it goes into this like Thin
Lizzy type riff where it'splaying it straight, and then we
have the wah harmonic guitarplaying its part. And it's just

(04:53):
really satisfying, I know, forme to listen to.
And since Thin Lizzie is one ofmy favorite groups, I like Rush
as well. But I'll just say this,when I write, it's not like I'm
trying to think of really otherartists or imitate, you know,
what they're doing. I'm justwriting from my own musicality.
So with that said, here is WorldI Have Won. Triumph.

(10:52):
Triumph is victory. And so whenyou go to Paris and maybe some
other European cities and yousee this great big square thing
with kind of a round openingover roads that cars go through,
that's called a triumph. Andit's normally erected to
commemorate a victory. In Romandays, you know, they are the

(11:15):
rock stars. They are the symbolsof power, and they are, again,
lords of the world at thatpoint, at least the world that
was known at that time.
So when they would havevictories over their opponents,
they would go to the holy city,you know, Rome, they would go
down the streets in their goldenchariots and waving at the

(11:36):
crowds and all that, their bestattire, you know, with all kinds
of flower girls throwing petalseverywhere, the crowds cheering
you on. Again, almost like arock star thing in the modern
era. As they made their waytowards usually the big temple
where the emperor was, and thenof course they'd march up the

(11:57):
steps, crowds roaring allaround, and they would bow down
and of course receive normally atype of leafed crown or a baton
of gold and what have you. Andit would be a national day of
celebration. So the triumph isan important thing.
And of course in this case, rockstar Caesar is being honored
with his great victories here.And one cool aspect that I

(12:23):
haven't really talked about is alot of this album was actually
written in high school. Yes, myfirst bands were all prog rock
bands. There's a few reasons forthis. First of all, obviously I
liked that music.
I found that I had thismusicality. So this music was
interesting to me. We didn'tplay covers. I have never been a

(12:44):
cover guy. The incidental coversong that we do is just because
we think we can do a goodversion of it and it's
interesting to us.
But it just didn't make sensefor me to try to mimic or copy
other people's songs just to bepopular or whatever. I was into
the art and I really haven'tchanged that much, much probably

(13:08):
to the dismay of the differentmusic insiders. But we would
play these songs, and this songlike Try It, people loved it. I
mean, was a pure instrumentalpiece, and we learned how to
move with our instruments, howto become really good
entertainers. But I was alwaysshocked at how we could have non
vocal songs that people juststand up and just think we're

(13:31):
crazily good.
The other point about this song,when it goes towards the drum
solo, it's almost this demonicthing that we used to play live,
where I'm just like on the walljust playing crazy, awful notes,
and Aaron's letting his fingersjust rip with the fires of hell

(13:52):
coming out of it. And it's justit's just a crazy introduction
to what? A drum solo. Now howmany drum solos do you hear at a
modern concert? They are gone.
But to me, a drum solo is partof rock and roll. And so, yes,

(14:13):
we have this epic drum soloincluded in that. And again, I
think it makes this album uniqueand why it's, in my opinion,
just such a classic rock record.Now the part of the song that
people love the most is Alex'sorgan part where it comes on and

(14:38):
then he goes up the octave andit just sounds like Phantom of
the Opera or the Ghost and Mr.Chicken, kind of creepy, like,
Woah, this is epic!
And I remember kind of saying, Ikind of want it to go like this
and went out and I came backlike the next day and Alex had

(14:58):
put it down perfectly. And Ithought, Wow, that is cool. And
I need to add this point is atthe beginning of the song, of
course, the triumph ishappening, and so we have the
crowds masked, you know,clamoring for their hero, and me
and Alex just kinda lost ourmind in the studio one day and

(15:19):
it's like,

Speaker 4 (15:20):
Caesar, play us your music. Yeah. Play us your
wonderful songs. We can't livewithout your music. We can't
live without you.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
But that's kind of the thing that people they just
go to hysteria about their theirrock idols and gods and stuff.
And so anyway, we had a goodtime doing that. So without
further ado, here is Triumph.King of things and lord of more.

(20:57):
At this point, excess anddebauchery continue.
Business transactions as thebuying and selling become the
sport of the day. So here wehave rock star Caesar. The
glory's losing its glimmer, youknow, and it's fading away and
it's just more and more thesame, more buying and selling

(21:18):
and all that, with diminishingsatisfaction. And that is just
so much about life. We thinkthat if we strive and after the
great victory, then we'll behappy.
So a lot of people are actuallypostponing their happiness, you
know? It's just like, you know,if you're learning to play an

(21:39):
instrument like the guitar orwhatever, practicing and
sweating it out, of course. Butif all your satisfaction is
going to come from the concertyou're going to play or that
public appearance, you're kindof missing out on life. And my
advice would be enjoypracticing. Just enjoy playing
the instrument and the wholeprocess of life rather than

(22:01):
setting aside for some futuredate.
Rock star Caesar, again, workshard, gets all the victories,
everything he thinks he wants,but it becomes more and more and
more just not content with life.And you think about modern

(22:23):
society, you think aboutadvertising, and more and more
and more is the cry becausetheir whole job is to make you
feel inadequate, to get you tobuy something to complete
yourself, to give you somesatisfaction. And then you mail
off, you get the thing, you goon the internet it comes, and

(22:43):
then it's like, Okay, likewhat's next? And then you're
buying the next thing that youthink is going to satisfy you.
So the cycle is just inside oflife.
And I think it actually has togo down to the survival instinct
that more and more and morethat, Hey, you know, the food's
abundant right now. This thingcalled winter and fall are

(23:03):
coming. Might not be as much,better hold back. But having
more is just better. And then ofcourse as we evolve our
consciousness, we start to getup in the higher planes,
especially above 500, and werealize that we don't need that
much.
That life can be verysatisfying, you know, with

(23:25):
things you love and thenecessities of life, and you're
tasting your food, and so it'snot always about quantity and
the continual striving for moreto fill the void or lack. So
with that said, here's King ofThings, Lord of More.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
If you need anything further, just go to MBI.life.