Those of you who have been regularly following these pages, the names Matt Heart and Jhuryll Phoenix are not unknown. The father and son team are engaged together in various projects – from music to a YouTube comedy talk show FatherAndSonTalk, a website www.startoversaga.com where they are trying to raise money by selling albums and helping people fallen from grace to start over, a record company called 424 Records, and web series called Start Over Saga. Matt Heart has lived through more than his share of illnesses and mishaps, and knows exactly what it means to start over.
Currently Matt and Jhuryll have now joined forces musically in a project they call FatherAndSonTalk, for their very latest single release, “The Drug”. The two wrote, performed and recorded the song, because they have lost people due to heroin and opiate addiction.
“The Drug” narrates the story of a man who loses his girlfriend to the drug so he decides to do the drug so he can be with her. Drug abuse has been the fuel for thousands of beautiful, moving, raw and intense songs about addiction, and this song can stand proudly amongst them.
When people sink to the deepest point in their addiction, they sometimes cry out for help. They feel weak and powerless in the face of overwhelming desire for a substance.
“The Drug” puts a different twist on that weakness, expressing the pain of being consumed by an addictive drug for the absolute love of a passed one. The lyrics describe the isolation and loneliness of losing your life’s motive for existence to drugs, and then choosing to perish via the same route.
“China White, I see the light. This rubber band is so damn tight. What the hell have I done? This horse is racing so damn fast. There’s so many hurdles, in my path. And have I finally come undone. So will you catch me when I fall? I’m under attack, and you’re my walls. For me, for you. So can I have this dance? Kaleidoscope, I’m in your trance. For your love, your love is the drug my veins.”
As can be expected, Matt Heart’s resonant and soulful vocal performance, is poignantly beautiful, but it’s tragic, and heartbreaking, as well. The song’s weight is only increased by Jhuryll Phoenix’s superbly rapped verse.
Capturing the dark, desperate side of addiction through music isn’t an easy thing to do, but for all of their talents, Matt and Jhuryll’s strongest assets may be their gift for devastating honesty. A double-edged skill that makes “The Drug” one of the most powerful drug songs written in the last few years.
Over an indomitable beat that manages to sound of any pop era, and simultaneously contemporary urban, Matt Heart and Jhuryll Phoenix weave an afflicting tale of desolating consequences. The unadorned title and the all-embracing musical arrangement, enhances the power of “The Drug’s” brutal honesty, crafting a lasting depiction of drug abuse that is as frighteningly chilling, as it is compelling.
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