riseabovethemadness:

Introductory Commentary for Ain’t No Reason-Brett Dennen

“I guess I wrote this song to speak about, you know, humanity and the horrible things that we do to each other as people. I believe the most atrocious crimes against humanity happen every day, and we allow them to not because we agree with them but because it’s our routine. We do what we do because things have always been done that way. Instead of trying to change them, we’re all waiting for some sort of savior or someone else to come and change and bring us salvation when we’re the one who are gonna make change. You know, we have these things imbedded into the framework of our society, into our institutions, like prisons and war, and these are systems that are unfair to some people and fair to other people. Most of the people in prison are people of color and getting younger and younger by the day. We make laws that put these people in prison. Our school systems are set up, you know, so that some people can succeed and other people can’t—other people are forced to turn to other ways to succeed. And it just keeps happening over and over again on a small community level and on a global level. I just think it’s not only crazy that this is the way we live, but it’s also crazy that not enough people, especially not enough young people, are speaking out against it, and I wrote this song, ‘Ain’t No Reason,’ through that perspective. I mean, it’s partly in the perspective of someone saying you know, ‘We gotta stop this; this is insane,’ but it’s also—I’m writing it from the perspective of someone who’s caught up in the routine of their day-to-day life, you know. As someone who’s very privileged in this world, you know, I have a lot to be thankful for, and it’s easy to just neglect all the people in the world who have suffered or are disadvantaged because of my own personal privilege. It’s easy to forget about them, and it’s also hard to think about: ‘Well, what do I gotta do to change the world? That means I’m gonna have to be very brave; that means I’m gonna have to be very bold; that means I’m probably gonna have to give up a lot of my privilege; that means I’m gonna have to make a stand; I’m gonna have to speak out for other people.’ And I think that scares a lot of people. And so I want these things to be talked about, especially amongst us young people, I want us to talk about ‘em more. And that’s what this song’s about.”

Official Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDMqyv-fqm4

Acoustic Version (Peace EP): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhSiQnKa92E

I listen to this so frequently