Weeds

I wrote this song during an artist residency in Chiapas where I was working with Indigenous youth from the Zapatista territories and other Indigenous zones. We recorded the audio at Hyde Street Studios with Scott McDowell. We recorded this video in Athens when we were on the road. At dinner I asked David Graeber if he wanted to be in our music video—he said yes. I miss him and am so grateful for the gifts of analysis he left to serve us in this critical moment.

I wrote this when we first released this video in 2012:

as a band, we started going to athens 5 years ago to play concerts, brought over by an excited promoter of means. when we were there we witnessed progressive signs of deeper social unraveling. in 2009, we discussed with the concert promoter our discomfort in charging ticket prices that would prohibit people who may want to or may need to hear this kind of music from coming to the show given the economic upheaval greece was experiencing. so we found a way to come to athens with our music that felt right to us. we met young organizers in athens' anti-authoritarian movement, people who were running a social center called NOSOTROS where crucial aspects of social functioning were continuing as schools closed, clinics closed, suicides, drug use and homelessness increased. there, we played shows that were open to the public and free, asking for donations and accepting the generosity people were able to give, in the way of food and shelter. we have returned to athens in this way several times now and this simple act is teaching me something about the value of music outside of industry or economic models. i see the effect it has to simply witness and to bring a moment of celebration and reflection to people who feel invisible as the world's experts stroke their chins to discuss "the greek crisis" in terms that do not reflect the humanitarian crisis or the humanity of the people on the ground, those people who are trying to build another way. the filmmaker who made this video yiorgos bakalis is a friend we met through NOSOTROS. he offered to make this video to our song "WEEDS" as an expression of his gratitude for our gift of music. i checked in with him at the end of september to see how the video was coming. his reply to me in email: "sorry for the late but i was in prison." i came to find out that yiorgos was one of 15 demonstrators who was picked up by the greek police and tortured after attending an anti-fascist demonstration on september 30th where greek citizens were speaking out publicly against the activity of the neo-nazi group, the golden dawn. scapegoating greece's economic hardship on groups of poor laborers who travel from the global south seeking work, the golden dawn has been terrorizing immigrants in athens by roving in gangs and assaulting immigrants in their neighborhoods. yiorgos went to join the demonstration against this activity and was tortured as a result. a large percentage of greece's police force are part of the golden dawn and greece's media is tacitly complicit, allowing these kinds of abuses to continue. this video is a tribute to the global awakening we find ourselves in, to the people who have the courage to speak out against the abuse of power where they see it--in their governments, in their financial institutions, in their own neighborhoods.

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Music and lyrics by Rupa Marya

Performance by Rupa & the April Fishes: Mario Alberto Silva on trumpet, Adam Theis on trumpet, Misha Khalikulov on cello, Safa Shokrai on bass, Aaron Kierbel on drums, Marco Benevento on organ, Rupa Marya on vocals and guitar, Maria Fernanda Valecillos Felice and Meredith Axelrod on backup vocals.

Video directed by Yiorgos Bakalis Edited by Aggelos Mantzios Director of Photography by Ross Domoney