Song Cover Image

Under the Influence

NeonAstronaut
Dark pop / sultry pop ballad fused with industrial techno, electronic metalcore and dark sexy rave, ~140 BPM, Deep, smoky, seductive female vocals: intimate breathy whispers, low menacing verses, hypnotic layered chants, snarled accents and huge melodic choruses, Begin with mechanical ambience, heartbeat sub-bass, distorted synth pulses and metallic percussion before a crushing industrial kick enters, Verses stalk over filthy bass, glitching electronics and restrained downtuned guitars, Pre-choruses build through ritualistic tribal-industrial drums and hypnotic call-and-response vocals, Choruses explode into massive electronic metalcore: distorted guitars, pounding techno kicks, aggressive synth bass and infectious dark-pop hooks, Drops feature brutal industrial techno, metallic impacts, chopped vocal stutters and breakdown riffs synchronized tightly with the electronics

[Intro — intimate female whisper over electrical hum, distant notification tones and a slow mechanical heartbeat; fragmented voices flicker like corrupted advertisements] Wake up... Check the screen... Tell me... What am I supposed to be? Who am I supposed to hate? Who am I supposed to love? What's trending? What's real? Tell me how to feel... [Verse 1 — deep, smoky female vocal; sinister dark-pop groove with crawling industrial bass and sparse metallic percussion] Little gods... Behind the glass... Selling futures... Selling pasts... Pretty faces... Perfect lives... Manufactured paradise... One swipe at a time... Everybody's selling something... Everybody wants a piece... Everybody screams their truth... Into the same machine... And I'm... Under the influence... Just like you... [Pre-Chorus — hypnotic chant; tribal-industrial percussion grows heavier with each response] Scroll-scroll... Click-click... Pick a side... Make it stick... Buy-buy... Want-want... Tell me what I need... Think-think... Like-like... Feed me something... Subscribed... Under... Under... Under the influence... [Chorus — enormous dark-pop chorus colliding with industrial techno and electronic metalcore] UNDER THE INFLUENCE! Of the signal... Of the screen... Of zeitgeist society... Tell us what we mean... UNDER THE INFLUENCE! Everybody's plugged in... Nobody knows the source... And we're racing toward the edge... With our hands off the wheel... How far do we fall? How bad does it get? Nobody knows... Nobody knows... [Beat Drop — crushing industrial techno kick; downtuned guitars stab between metallic synths while chopped voices repeat “UNDER-UNDER-UNDER”] UNDER— UNDER— UNDER— THE INFLUENCE! [Verse 2 — beat becomes colder and more mechanical; female vocal almost conversational] Might as well be a simulation... Maybe none of this is real... Perhaps we're just ones and zeros... Taught exactly what to feel... Algorithm knows my weakness... Before I know it myself... Knows what keeps me staring... Knows exactly what to sell... Fear... Sex... Rage... Hope... Package it... Push it... Watch it go... Tomorrow brings another lie... To replace the one we knew... And everybody swears... This one's the truth. [Pre-Chorus — increasingly aggressive gang-like female layers answer the lead] Scroll-scroll... Click-click... Pick your god... Make it quick... Left-right... Wrong-right... Choose your fucking paradigm... Think-think... Like-like... Everything's a state of mind... Under... Under... Under the influence... [Chorus — guitars and techno percussion hit simultaneously, vocals becoming more defiant] UNDER THE INFLUENCE! Of the signal... Of the screen... Of whatever fucking zeitgeist... Steps to the plate to swing... UNDER THE INFLUENCE! Building heaven... Building hell... Can't remember which is which... But we've been built into something... And it's gonna fucking fall. How far? WHO KNOWS! How bad? WHO KNOWS! When? WHO KNOWS! But everybody feel that bass? ... Good. [Breakdown — everything cuts except a massive sub pulse; her voice becomes close, smoky and seductive] If something's gonna... Get inside my head... If something's gonna... Tell my heart how fast to beat... If I'm gonna surrender... To a frequency... Fuck the feed. Fuck the trend. Fuck the algorithm. Give me... The music. [Build — kick slowly accelerates beneath distorted breathing; guitars scrape into feedback while a synth arpeggio climbs] Turn it up... Louder... Louder... I can't hear the world anymore... Perfect. [Final Drop — colossal industrial-techno/electronic-metalcore collision; pounding four-on-the-floor kick, downtuned breakdown riff and stacked female chants] UNDER THE INFLUENCE! LET THE BASS DECIDE! UNDER THE INFLUENCE! LET THE MUSIC DRIVE! Screens can flicker! Empires fall! Influencers disappear! Zeitgeists die! Algorithms change! BUT THE FUCKING BEAT... IS STILL... RIGHT... HERE! [Breakdown Chant] BASS! BLOOD! BODY! BEAT! BASS! BLOOD! BODY! BEAT! NO GODS! NO FEED! JUST SOUND! JUST ME! [Outro — everything abruptly disappears except ringing ears and a faint electronic heartbeat] ... Are you still there? [notification sound] ... Don't answer. [End]