Alternative Hip-Hop duo Punskription just released their new EP "Native Brains: Foreign Hearts" and to celebrate we asked P.Cruz to tell us about the single "Conceived of Children Who Lie". Here is the story:
"Conceived of Children Who Lie" is an emotional song driven by angst and our bleak outlook on existence. Though the song has gone through many changes, the mood has never changed.
At its inception the chorus was only one line "It's unbelievable." Those words were a reflection of my mental state and the horror at consistently hearing reports on police brutality. I know it's nothing new but the high numbers of deaths were hard to shrug off and to be frank, sickening. Now I realize the first lines "I open my eyes, can't believe I live in present times" set the lyrical mood.
I sent the demo to Pete, and he responded with his most personal verse to date; the inner conflict resulting from his parents divorce, and before then we had never talked about it. It is beautiful to get to know someone through their artistic expression. He eventually rewrote and sung the chorus. Now, the chorus is a better bridge between our verses. It also feels more contemplative whereas the original expressed hopelessness. Our inspiration and subject matter were very different but the angst of which it is rooted in is one and the same. That's why the song feels so powerful to me, it's as though Pete and I are having a conversation and through that conversation we are consoling each other's pessimistic view on existence.We had our verses memorized for a long time, sometimes performing them at shows, which gave us the ability to concentrate on the emotional delivery. Considering the length of these verses, getting the emotion right during tracking was important.
What took the most time to develop were the instrumentals. Through the two years we had this song, I continued to work on other instrumentals and on my production. Finally I grew confident enough in my skills to tackle this song that meant so much to us. I'm glad it took a while to finish, otherwise the song would have stayed heavy with distorted guitars and drumlines taking impact away from the words. Now the instrumental is less abrasive with synths being the driving force, allowing our words to breathe. The mixing, too would have been different. I happened to watch the Netflix show "Stranger things" just before mixing and the soundtrack, which was incredible, and definitely influenced my sonic preference. The ominous, and dark synths throughout the show are still guiding me.
I can go on to list more intricate details on how time allowed "Conceived of Children Who Lie" to become the song it was meant to be, but what it comes down to is that this song reinforced my belief that our songs get finished when they are meant too. I used to get anxious about having unfinished songs sitting in my hard drive, but now I see them as digital seeds that will germinate when the season is right. My one disappointment with this song is that the social issues we wrote about years ago are still prevalent.
Hearing is believing. Ndow that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself here and learn more about the EP right here!
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