realchaffytaffy - Tumblr blog

[realchaffytaffy]

Why Straight Edge?

It's a pretty straightforward concept, isn't it? Do not allow anything to control you. And yet more often than not, we can't see how a thing can truly cause us suffering when we simply enjoy that thing.

I am, of course, referring to addictive behaviors. Habit is a comforting thing. This compounds our problem with substances of all kinds because comfort is a deeper thing than chemical dependency. Comfort refers to a condition of the heart. Your heart feels comforted and frankly is designed to prefer comfort to anguish. This is why, while weed and thc are not chemically as addictive as cigarettes, it is still an addiction. An addiction of comfort.

But that comfort does not allow for change, even when what comforts you comforts you all the way into a coffin. We've known that hard drugs can kill you for years and years now. Everybody in America knows somebody who sleeps below due to drug abuse. And we know that alcohilism is a great way to end up dead or in prison. And we know that nicotine can harm your heart, and the smoke from any inhaled substance can give you black lung. And as of late, we've found that pornography changes your brain structure to prefer the digital world to the real world.

All of that is bad. But all of that feels good. So why should anybody go straight edge?

For freedom, of course. Say you're punk and you want to rebel against the eatablishment. Why then are these things legal? Because the establishment knows that YOU are a slave. And they have power to control when and where and how you get your paltry fix of comfort. What could be more punk rock than becoming HEALTHY and of SOUND MIND?

The human person, au natural, was made good by Our Father in heaven. Your body was made in the Image of God. To destroy it is to deface God's creation. It's also a blatant eschewing of your own self-interest, and it's handing money to people who don't care if you get cancer in your seventies so long as you make them some cash by then. Porn producers don't care if your marriage falls apart because of them. Drug dealers don't care if you destroy your body, provided you stay alive to buy their product. This mammonism is in opposition to your well-being and your freedom.

So what should a person do? One should seek help to overcome these addictions. That's way more difficult than it sounds. There's no magic button that returns you to normal. You must actively seek discomfort and LEARN TO LOVE IT. I recommend starting at the gym. Exercise even when you don't want to. Walk places every day. Even if you're tired. And above all, LEAVE YOUR DAMN HOUSE. Isolation is comforting, and coffins are pretty isolated. Find someone who will MAKE you do the difficult things with them. Once your comfort is no longer your main focus, you can switch to seeking freedom from chemicals because your heart is free from the clutches of the false comforts. You must first take action to prioritize your health, changing your behavior, and this will help you change your thought patterns. This requires the will to follow through with a hard thing. And honing that will is the first step.

Tackle each struggle one at a time. Conquer and then continue your conquest. Believe me, once you're free from false comforts, the entire world is open to you.

So come with me.

[realchaffytaffy]

Album art for ST. CECILIA

[realchaffytaffy]

Beginnings

I became a denizen of the internet around 2015 (confirmed zoomer). At that time I was not an artist. Or at least not a good one. More on this later.

I began learning music in 2nd grade when a family friend gave me piano lessons. I was a horrible student. I never learned my pieces and somehow managed to meander through recitals unscathed. But after 2nd grade was over, I told my mother I didn't want to play piano anymore. Hilarious.

Sometime around age 12 I developed a horrible condition which caused me to desire to play drums. This ghastly illness persisted for years and I played for my family's Church worship group until I was about 17. At that point I had demolished my electronic kit beyond repair through the notorious blast beats. I was pretty good.

During that time I had begun producing elctronic music through a free DAW called audiotool. Much of it was horrible. Truly offensive to anyone who could hear. This online presence was essentially my ONLY public online presence for years.

Around age 14 I had tried to learn sheet music and piano once more, but this only lasted 1 year and I did not improve at reading music. Frustrating. But then I picked up my sister's electric guitar that she never used and I began to learn guitar theory by irritating the bloody Hell out of everybody in my house.

By 18 I had learned how to play piano by ear and I had finally become a Twitter lurker. I had written a few songs in my time by this point, but nothing of note.

In the year of our Lord 2020, my entire life fell apart and I dropped out of college, started working full time and lost the girl I was seeing due to the unfortunate fact that I didn't dislike Catholics enough. And then I BECAME one.

By this point I still hadn't written a single "real" song. I could riff and I'd started shredding but I lacked creativity in the guitar department. But due to abrupt singleness I ended up with loads of money and loads of free time which I filled up by buying music online like a whole entire dweeb and spending 3 hours a day practicing guitar.

At this point I was just a workaholic with a guitar dependency.

Well a friend of mine came back home from the army and he needed a gym buddy. I was in wretched shape after spending most of college eating one meal a day and sleeping whenever I was not at work and this toll it had taken was not inconsequential. But he needed me to be there for him to get back into it, so I went. And it changed my life.

2 weeks into our 12 week program this man asks me to move out of my parents house, by this point I'm 25, and I had never left our town. So I said sure. And after having lived in our little house for a while, I begin writing EASY which would birth the punkisdead EP. The album began as me blowing off steam in my living room and making my roommate laugh.

Fast forward and I'm at my new job which is very physically demanding and my roommate has left to go to the other side of the world. I'm alone in an empty house every day. So I got to thinking, WHAT IF I MADE AN ALBUM?

But seriously, what if I made an album, a punk album, full of my ironic and sarcastic jokes about how much work sucks and how being 25 and down bad is funny?

So I turned roomies room into a studio. And I recorded Life Like Isekai the day my cheap microphone arrived. I worked a 10 hour day and came home to work another 6 on music.

Now, what does any of that have to do with this right now? I'll tell you.

MY MUSIC IS ENTIRELY SECULAR AND DEGENERATE AND IRONIC. It served no great theme. There was no message. There was no glory for God in it.

And that's why I'm writing this. If anybody has found Chaffytaffy through music, or through my Twitter, or my Gab, I am now going to drop the massive bomb that I hope will bamboozle. I want to use my music to get people to read me, so I can tell them about God and why they should live well. I want to bless them.

So now that you're here, I'm gonna tell you all about God's great love for you. I hope you'll still find my music fun. And if you're finding my music from my Christian writings, please don't be scandalized.

And in the future, perhaps my music is going to be about something a bit more substantial.