Ireland: Some people are really lonely because maybe they don’t have the option to live with family and they’re not with somebody and they can’t be with somebody because maybe where they live there’s strict quarantine policies or whatever it is. But I think regardless of who you’re with it’s also just a lonely time,  we’re all shaken up and taken out of our routines and kinda taken out of what was normal, in a sense, like being able to go out and see people and go to bars and go for what’s like, most important for you, going to shows and playing shows and interacting with people and going to concerts and going to all these things are not going to be available to us for a really long time. I guess we’re all adjusting or trying to adjust to what is going to be normal now I’d say.

Corey: Yeah, yeah I would agree to that. That was a great answer. 

 Alright, so the next question: [What is] the connection of music to civil rights?

Ireland: It’s always been connected. 

Corey: Yeah, I would start by answering this question by saying: in music, especially in music, maybe not so much in film or physical arts but in music, there’s this responsibility as a songwriter and as a storyteller, to tell your story as someone who’s a part of the world. And so, a movie sort of takes a while to get people to depict or tell a story to tell what’s happening currently. Movies take sometimes years to make so.. to make and tell the story of something prior or, lots of movies talk about eras in the past, but music has an opportunity to immediately speak on things that are happening right now. Because you can go write a song and put it out way faster than some other forms of art and expression. I’m just speaking on myself as a songwriter. I personally haven’t been able to release music about the situation right now. I’m not even done really processing where is even my place to say it or express what is going on because I’m still understanding it and I haven’t for so long and I’m finally being forced to approach that side of myself as a songwriter which is really interesting. And as a songwriter I feel like there’s this recirculation where things get really comfortable and really dried out and you talk about the same things and then something like this happens with George Floyd and all these people, the whole world turns into this magnifying glass on an issue that needs to be talked about in all aspects of the world, not just music. And it’s not even a political thing, it’s just something that needs way more attention and so I think, to answer the question, music is essentially storytelling and you’ve seen people all throughout history especially with Bob Dylan and Cat Stevens, some of my favorite songwriters, that talk a lot about politics a lot in their music especially through the Civil Rights movement and how important that was and I feel like we’re getting the opportunity to do that and come face to face with the issue at hand. 

Ireland: Music I feel like has always transcended through hard times. And it’s always been something that, like you said, takes a lot longer to put a film out than it is to just write a song and especially in this day and age you can upload it the next day and get your voice kind of out there and I think that is something that, communally, has always helped people through times of history like this because we’re essentially in another civil rights movement now and we’re living through one pretty much. But through history, I feel that music has always been there for people when everything else couldn’t really be, or failed to be.

Corey: And I think also, the last thing I’ll add, I don’t think that it’s a responsibility for someone, unless you see people writing songs like this that have a lot more to say, than someone like I guess myself, it doesn’t have to be this dividing, super political, both sides thing like “I’m gonna make a statement and if you don’t agree with me then I don’t want you–” you know? It doesn’t have to be this super jarring and abrupt thing that you come out and you’re so on fire and so political and you can just release…like, I’m trying to figure out how to phrase this. It’s comforting when people just wanna hear music through a tough time. You could just write a song that’s not specifically about the Black Lives Matter Movement or about George Floyd–

Ireland: You don’t have to say anything about it at all, either.

Corey: Yeah, that’s what I mean. 

Ireland: You can just sit back and listen.

Corey: Well also writing music that makes the people that are really having a tough time with what’s going on in the world right now, makes them feel better. Or by listening to their favorite artists. I do think it’s important to talk about those issues, it’s just me for myself, I can say I’ve never really approached that side of my experience as someone who has grown up and seen so much racial injustice in the world but never knew how to write it in my music. But maybe that’s something I will eventually have the right technique to talk about in my music.

Ireland: But at the same time, I think it’s more important to leverage Black voices and artists and poets and activists. If you feel an obligation to speak out is one thing, which it should obviously be more driven by how you feel than how you think you should show yourself because everyone else is doing it, but it’s also like.. I feel like as a white musician, you shouldn’t feel guilty if you can’t come up with anything. 

 Corey: Right like it’s not like “Oh I need to put out this music that talks about me supporting black voices so it doesn’t look like I’m not.” And it’s just so distasteful and people can see right through it.

Ireland: Leveraging black voices through your platform, I think that’s the most important thing right now. There’s too many people that have too much to say sometimes. You know?

 Corey: And that leads us to the next question:

Describe the importance of self expression. 

Corey: Which is, like, such a funny question especially during being quarantined with somebody who you spend like every wake of the day with all the time. So, a lot of people are having trouble finding their individuality while being quarantined around people and how to express themselves when it’s really important to be careful around the people you’re with right now and following rules and guidelines that are really being proposed to us by officials. For lack of a better saying, sometimes I feel like it’s not the time to express myself. It’s more of a time, especially in the times we’re in right now I have just personally been more active in listening and learning about how I can better express myself in a way that also supports and expresses other agendas that I want to support like the Black Lives Matter movement and Black voices and people. But I also think it’s really important to learn how to express yourself. It’s really difficult though, especially during a time like right now. I think that’s one of life’s biggest quests is how to express yourself. I’m constantly waking up everyday and thinking “Oh how can I be a good person, be a good boyfriend, be a good friend, but also be a good musician and do what I need to do, but also express myself through music”. Right now it kinda feels foggy for a lot of people in terms of expressing yourself. And that’s why it is so important because you realize it and try to find the language to do that. 

Ireland: But you can also put a lot of pressure on yourself when self expression doesn’t have to be a comparison to what other people’s definitions of self express are. And I feel like you can do little things, you don’t have to finish some extravagant project or have a whole album finished or do anything because you think you’re comparing yourself to how quickly other people get things done or do things or how they express themselves, which I feel like a lot of people do. We’re all on the same quest of self discovery, figuring out who we are and what we like to do, and what we wanna do with our lives .. I feel like self expression is kind of a funny thing because there’s ways you may be doing that and not even realize you’re expressing yourself.  It’s not a textbook thing, you don’t have to be sitting there with a guitar necessarily. You could be doing so many things, there’s so many outlets of which people have had to get creative in this time and figure out how to do that and I feel like a lot of people have found new hobbies and new things that they love to do. 

Corey: I’ve found that I express myself through cleaning the pool and the backyard. And growing new grass. That is now dead, because our sprinklers stopped.

Ireland: I’ve woken up every day thinking about a new thing that I want to start doing, so…

Corey: If anything, I feel like we’re all learning how to express ourselves in so many more ways than we ever thought possible.

Ireland: Everyone’s a cook, everyone’s making banana bread ..

Corey: I’m on TikTok now.

Ireland: Everyone knits. Or, what’s that needlepoint?

Corey: Ok next question.

Who have you admired in the course of 2020?

Ireland: Oh man. 

Corey: Well, you’ve made a lot of friends that you’ve talked to through Instagram.

Ireland: Well, I’d say that honestly I’m just gonna answer that question very simply because you’ve pointed out that we’ve answered every question in 15 minutes. It’s a really simple answer for me, which would probably be, as blunt as I can put it … I think that at this time, with the pandemic and with all the injustice and with this movement, so profoundly and conveniently coming at the same time… I mean, this is something that has obviously been happening for like forever and I feel like, obviously racial injustice and all of this has been happening obviously long before this pandemic, and I feel like it took a pandemic for us to sit still and realize all these things were still happening in the world. And we just so blatantly, and maybe not intentionally ignored it, but we’ve never done our research or really knew about these people who were being murdered. We never knew about all this police brutality because it’s never been featured so prominently in the news, as it has been recently. But it also took a global pandemic for all of us to sit still and realize “holy shit, all these things are really happening and are real in our world and how have I not known about this sooner or not learned about this before” and I think with the pandemic going on, and with all of that going on, it’s really made me realize who I’ve followed, I’ll say in a social media sense but even in real life, like people that I’ve seen step up to the plate and that I’ve seen speak out about these things. “Wear a mask!”, or tell people “Hey you need to care about these things” and “Hey, this is what’s going on in the world and I’m going to use my platform for this. I’m not gonna keep doing self promotion and blatantly ignoring all of these things going on in the world”. Because so many young people go to social media for information, for news, for all of that. And it’s like, if you have any influence on social media, if you’re a person, it doesn’t matter what influence you have, if you’re just a person and you have a platform, you can use that platform. And I just feel like, what’s been really interesting and, back to the question, is that the people I’ve admired are the people that I’ve seen take the time to do the self-educating and speak out about these things and write beautifully about these things and use any platform that they have for good and just motivate people to write congressmen and go to protests and give a fuck about our world and give a fuck about people and alongside the pandemic stuff, give a fuck about people’s health and safety and all of that stuff. So, I just feel like I’m really proud of the people I’ve already followed by and the people I’ve been introduced to because people have been sharing so many profoundly unique and incredible people with me and now I’m a fan of. Then, there’s been people who haven’t done shit in this time. Or sort of didn’t really step up, and that to me is also… I’m watching those people as well. I’m watching people that I maybe knew or followed and it’s just an interesting thing because it’s a really dividing time. But, I will say … I’ve been introduced to so many new people and I’m proud of the people that I already knew that just care about humanity.

Corey: Yeah. That’s kinda everything I wanted to say. There’s too many people to name, especially because I’m afraid of leaving people out. There’s so many of my friends, especially a lot of my Black friends, that I’ve seen and have encouraged me to approach these feelings that I have and seeing these protests and even being at these protests, and not even just my friends who are Black, but every one of my friends that I’ve seen speaking out on Instagram and it really just creates this community and this safe space that’s been created when before now, It’’d just be super random to be like “So what do you think about Black Lives Matter?” Now, it’s so important. There never really was a safe space, but there were so many people doing their work for the Back community, Latinx community .. you know .. and creating a space for people to talk about the issue, any issue that’s really important to just move forward and not change the narrative of what’s going on in this country, but to create a space where you can just bounce ideas off each other. I guess I could highlight the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter. You and I went to 8 or 9 or 10 protests collectively and it’s really inspiring to see the community of Black Lives Matter in Los Angeles. And to be a part of those protests, not because it’s a photo you post on Instagram. Some people will cross it off of their checklist and say like “Okay I went to a protest, I’m good now, I’m just gonna put my head down”. Which I think, at some point a lot of people are guilty of.. Not everyone, but there’s a lot of rise and decline in your activity and you don’t want to be just an echo chamber. I don’t wanna be an echo chamber of other people’s facts and knowledge and links. It’s also about doing the research myself and just listening and finding my place and where my voice can fit in and wherever it’s appropriate for my voice to fit in. But also, just seeing the protests now in Portland, it’s so hard being in Los Angeles when all these protests and riots and, it’s not even protests anymore it’s just police brutality and the secret government police, the secret police, seeing videos of these women, these moms, the wall of moms as they say, in Portland defending protesters. Grown women being thrown to the ground and beaten in front of their children and in front of their kids. Ugh, it’s just so crazy to see that happen knowing there is nothing that I can do. I can’t even attend, because I’m in LA stuck in quarantine and my friend just got arrested for taking photos and being a journalist for a publication in Portland and has recently just gotten out of jail and has told his story on Twitter. It’s incredible, and not in a great way. It’s really disheartening. There’s not even a word to say “Oh it’s disheartening”, It’s just crazy. And it’s hard to watch it from afar. But just seeing Black Lives Matter in Portland, not just the Black Lives Matter movement, but just people with that agenda, sticking up for racial injustices in the country is just so inspiring. I don’t think I wanna call out anyone individually because there’s just so many people collectively just doing it. And I think that everyone needs to be supported and encouraged to just keep doing that. It’s never too late to speak up. Right on. Alrighty! Thank you Flaunt Magazine for being interested in talking to us, hopefully that was good.

 Ireland: Yeah! Thank you!

Corey: Bye!