Austin’s Indoor Creature Look at the “American Dream” from a Distinct POV on New Single

It’s one thing to deliver socioeconomic critiques in songs from the perspective of the disenfranchised. It’s another to do so from the POV of the disenfranchiser. On their sharp new single, “American Dream” Austin outfit Indoor Creature dare to understand the rationale of a capitalist who craves exploitation the way others might a cigarette.

The lyrics start as a mea culpa: “I confess and apologize
I’m evil and I’m greedy till the day I die.” But they’re transformed into a stubborn self-preservation even if letting others have some doesn’t mean the narrator having none. Along with jaunty elements on this psychedelic pop tune, like its trumpet breakdown and catchy chorus, Indoor Creature deliver on their intention. Those on the top aren’t ignorant of what they’re doing.

Indoor Creature’s new album, Living in Darkness, is out this May via The Record Machine. Stream the song below and check out our interview with the band below, with questions answered via email.

Did the urge to write this song increase within the last year?

No, this song was written before the pandemic. There are endless examples of cruelty within capitalism that light my fire but if I had to choose one that probably sparked this song it would be the lack of nationalized medicine in the United States. I get really upset when I see politicians dancing around the need for medicare for all. There’s just no logical reason to not have universal healthcare outside of profit. If you have insurance, you’re overpaying, if you don’t, you overpay for medical help. private insurance stifles wage growth in unions because premiums go up so Unions have to negotiate that, instead of increased salary. And it’s not like having insurance even protects you from a huge bill. Socializing medicine doesn’t even impact doctors wages. I truly cannot stand people capitalizing off others’ health. Why would you ever want a for-profit business deciding your healthcare? There is clearly a conflict of interest. There’s been so much propaganda against nationalized medicine over the past 100 years, it’s a struggle to break through to American citizens that they are being robbed blind by greedy corporate interests. 

What does the American dream look like to you, if it exists?

The American Dream to me would be the end of imperialist activities abroad, nationalization of a few industries like healthcare and energy, and improving access to quality education. If the for-profit mentality is removed from these industries, people across the board would have better healthcare and the politicization of climate change would stop. Improving the education system improves the quality of a democracy. The only American Dream I want to live in is the one where American government isn’t the evil empire. 

How self-aware do you think people like the capitalists you’re writing about actually are?

I think they’re very self aware. There’s so much literature, and media to validate their thought process. Cognitive dissonance allows humans to live with hypocrisy, by making reasons to rationalize questionable behavior. It’s a powerful tool for a system that can only exist when there’s a percentage of people whose life and labor is extremely exploited. If you read some of the often-cited pro-capitalist books, like The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, there are tons of examples for why capitalism is the best model, they just conveniently leave out counterpoints, reality, and then manufacture deductions off falsehoods, like the origin of money. Adam Smith perpetuates the myth that money is derived from the barter system but ask an anthropologist like David Graeber and they’ll explain that’s very far from what actually happened. The trick to making your economic system take off is propaganda, so capitalists since the 16th century have been writing about its benefits, and conveniently leaving out the criticisms. Don’t even get me started on the “Free Market”. The US economy is so far from a “Free Market”. The government subsidizes so much industry that directly benefits the state. The closest thing we interact with that’s a free market is your local farmers market. 

How did the group triple its size, and how long did it take to happen?

Indoor Creature expanded to six people because we wanted our live sound to be really big. The songs have a lot of parts and we felt that we needed one more person to help out with a synth line, background vocals or a guitar part here and there, and right when we were thinking about that, our friend Mason asked if we needed help with anything. Mason is a really talented and versatile musician/producer. It was easy to take him up on the offer.  As for the 6th member Zach, he has great energy. It was really easy to throw him up on stage on the bongos. Crowds really respond to him. We needed that energy to take our performance to the next level.