Justin Payne

Music – Charlotte

All my life, I\'ve been an outcast. I spend a lot of time alone; observing, contemplating, writing, singing, and playing. Making music brings me great joy and relief, much unlike the nausea that is our \"civilization\". My mission: to undermine contemporary American culture with guerrilla tactics and street-level, face to face performances. None of the tried-and-true methods of exposure and advancement for artists are untainted by corporate cash, and thus cultural cancer. The art comes second to the dollar. When the world in which you live sickens you to behold and understand, and all of the roads to sharing your art and a modicum of social and financial stability are blocked to you because you\'re either too smart, or not a size 00, the only answer is to cut your own path, to revolt and burn down what is not working anymore, just like those that came before us in equally desperate times. Join me comrades! Let us burn down this gulag that\'s been made for us: the American artist! This is my manifesto. This is my last will and testament. I have nothing to leave you when I go, so I give you my blood, my bones, my art, and my life.