Roach'd Bastard

performed by:

Dani Nawrocki, voice 1 & 2

didgeridoo, ari berger

drum kit, eytan flapan-feig

Vocal Duet, contrabass

In summer 2023 I found a random piece of paper adrift on a hill, a specific hill with emotional significance to me. The paper comprised an anonymous short story about a drummer who busks. An older man walks by him each morning, becoming a daily norm. Yet on a random evening the man sees him playing, which is unusual for the evening, and the man contemplates why. As someone who always searched for meaning in literature and symbolism in life, he became tortured by the thought of why he chooses to play now; so much so, he confronted the drummer with rage, to which he responds, “I like the music!”

This short story was written with unusual disclarity, even incorporating personal allusions--allusions only the author would know. I interpreted this mysteric writing as an encouragement towards living with freedom. Humans have become dependent on reason. We make up symbols within stories, and even fantasize deities just to satisfy the hole of the unknown. However the boy, the Roach’d Bastard, argues that perhaps things simply are, and for no overthought reason. In his case, he likes the music, and that’s all he needs to know. I often feel I have two personas: overcontrolled and carefree. I’ve been called “wise old man” as well as “chillin’ guy”, and it really confuses the hell out of me. Who am I to be? While the Roach’d Bastard is idealized in this story, I find both have important roles in society. I believe in a balance between “Roach’d” and “Unroach’d”. I believe that if any approach to living (which is most often the most extreme and polar) gets in the way of life, it’s not living at all. Simplicity becomes essential.

This story quickly touched me and influenced my way of thinking, so I decided to adapt it into a poem and combine two things I have a passion for: music and literature. I felt the human voice beautifully encapsulated the humanity demonstrated in the poem, and the drumming alludes to both the words and the emotions in the story. I envision a reality where listening to my music permits others to live freely, and question their own balance between rationality and liberty: everso human.