Transgalactica’s 'Liberal Anthem' blends progressive rock grandeur with Steven Pinker’s philosophy, fusing politics, spirituality, and emotion into music that challenges populism while celebrating humanism, hope, and the better angels of our nature.
1. “Liberal
Anthem” is based on Steven Pinker’s reflections in Enlightenment Now. What was
it in his words that pushed you to actually create the “church of liberalism”
he cautioned against?
Pinker did come up
with this idea and although he advised against it, he offered it as a solution
to a real problem, namely the “thinness” of liberalism as an ideology. The
populists, both from the right and the left, make a strong appeal to human
emotions, and although they are mostly negative emotions such as fear,
chauvinism, resentment, hatred and envy, they have the power of moving people’s
hearts and win elections for the populists. In Poland we have a saying that
liberalism is the offer of “hot water in the tap”, which paradoxically leaves
people cold. The church of liberalism as an idea floating in the public
awareness has its drawbacks, such as offending religious sensibilities, but we
hope it will move people to perceive liberalism as something worth fighting
for.
2. The lyrics highlight the liberal idea as noble, humanistic, and pro–human
rights. Do you see the song as a manifesto, a celebration, or more of a
provocation?
A little bit of all three, but first of all as a celebration (perhaps every
anthem is a celebration).
3. The piece combines a strong guitar riff with sections that reminded early
listeners of Marillion. Was this resemblance intentional, or a natural outcome
of your influences?
It was to some extent intentional and resulted from the choice of
keyboards.
4. Towards the end, the song shifts from minor to major, giving it a hopeful,
almost triumphant tone. Why was this modulation important for the message?
It is a cliche and perhaps a simplification, but the minor key is more
sombre and dramatic, while the major key is more hopeful and joyful, so this
just reflects the shift in the mood.
5. You’ve mentioned that the anthem section is loosely inspired by All
Tomorrow’s Parties by Velvet Underground. How did you approach adapting such a
minimalist piece into your own grander, symphonic style?
What we borrowed and transformed was the riff, that is a short melodic and
rhythmic theme, and a riff can be used for many types of music without imposing
many constraints on the style and everything else.
6. The “hard-rock” anti-populist part is inspired by the 16th-century Polish
song Hej żeglujże, żeglarzu. How do you balance weaving folk or historical
elements into progressive rock without losing cohesion?
See the answer to question 5.
7. Your dream is to have Jon Anderson from Yes sing the anthem part. Why is he
the ideal voice for this vision?
Because it is excluding goodwill, joyfulness, love of humanity and general
benevolence. We think angels in heaven are envious of him.
8. Transgalactica is a father-and-son band. How does that dynamic shape the
creative process - musically and personally?
Tomasz the father does the lyric-writing and composing, while Filip comes
in towards the end of the process to play and/or invent the guitar parts and to
write the guitar solo if there is one. As for the personal sphere, the
musicmaking makes the abysmally deep bond between us ever so slightly deeper.
9. Your music draws from both progressive rock giants like Genesis, Yes, and
King Crimson, and classical composers like Bach and Sibelius. How do you fuse
these worlds into something that feels modern?
As our producer Ignacy Matuszewski likes to say, all music is music, making
use of the same twelve notes, the same chords, harmonies, scales, rhythms and
all. We like to think that if the old musical masters were alive today, they
would be composing symphonic rock (Ignacy thinks this idea sacrilegious).
10.Lukky Sparxx, your vocalist from Chile, adds another layer of international
flavor to the project. How did this collaboration come about, and what does he
bring to the sound?
We started off with Tomasz doing the vocals, but they were quite terrible
and apart from some marketing mistakes, this prevented us from getting our
musing across to a wider audience. We found Lukky on Fiverr and we are
absolutely delighted with his singing. He adds what was intended to be there in
the first place, but Tomasz just didn’t have the voice for it: power, drama,
mystery, dark tone, energy.
11. Your debut album is titled Better Angels. What does that phrase mean to you
in the context of your music and message?
The phrase “better angels of our nature” was first used by Abraham Lincoln
in his First Inaugural Address on March 4, 1861, as an appeal to rise above
divisions during a time of great national strife. Steven Pinker used it as a
title of his novel about the decline of violence, suggesting that the better
angels of our nature were starting to prevail. We shortened it to better angels
and we use it both descriptively, to say that on the whole people are getting
less violent, more emphatic, more generous, kinder, more helping et cetera, and
prescriptively, to say that values based on the better angels of our nature,
rather than on fear, hatred, resentment and envy, are the way forward.
12. Finally, do you see “Liberal Anthem” and the album as primarily political
statements, or are they more spiritual explorations dressed in political
themes?
The truth is that Tomasz wanted to write progressive rock music and he had
to find the subjects to write music about, and he decided that it would be best
to write about things he cared about. Since 2015 he had been calling himself a
Pinkerian and chose to draw on themes from Pinker, although not exclusively,
because the themes of Marginal Music (the dire situation of music artists in
the age of streaming), Joyce Of The Market (a tribute to new Ireland) and
Sibelian Eclipse (a comparison between Anders Chydenius and Karl Marx as
representatives of liberal and leftist thinking) are not to be found in
Pinker’s books. We try to be realistic and think that our music will at best be
enjoyed by the listeners, but of course we would be delighted if the message contained
in it made an impact.
Tomasz Bieroń (@transgalaktica) • Photos et vidéos Instagram
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