KNARS - The World Is Burning [Ohoh Records]

Greetings fellow drum and bass followers! Today I share KNARS with their latest out on Ohoh Records, The World Is Burning. The Dutch lyricist, producer and filmmaker Martijn Holtslag is known artistically as KNARS. He is undeniably one of electronic music’s most intriguing and unreserved creatives. The latest offering plays on the bubbling pressure cooker of modern-day issues, reaching into global warming, rising mental health issues, government corruption, imbalance of wealth and a lot more. Let’s get more details from the man himself.

“The world is burning, the fire too big to extinguish on my own. Try to forget and keep working, but doing nothing turns my heart to stone.” – KNARS.

Inspiraton

The writing of this song has been fundemental in my development. I’ve used to make more party songs but during COVID asked myself what life and music is really about. i felt empty making only ‘entertainment’ music and not really contributing to the world, which as a teenager was more important to me. I’ve left that out over the party-music, and now felt it was important for me to pick up the axe again.

At first I got into a writerblock not knowing what to write, but as i fueled into my anger about whats all wrong with the world and its madness, i connected strongly with my more protest side and started writing down a lot of different facts and ideas. This is actually one of the tracks i rewrote the most lyrically as i started to be more and more precies about the message. I also tried to make it more presonal and maybe cynical, being aware this is a problem i can’t solve. The beat went through a few different phases too. Happy with it!

A Difference in Production

I dove into halftime beats more and more while i was writing these lyrics. So the laidback flow plus intense synths and sharp basses was the ultime balancing act for the drop. I also tried to make the verses more melancholic and was really happy with the guitars i implemented. The drop was first more 808 based but as it progressed it received more and more bass sounds to it. Happy with the snare and hihats along those noisia-esque bass oneshots.

The Video Process

To amplify the song we made a video during COVID. We got all our friends together and told the story of how we’re filled in a world of masks, and how I could overthrow our corporate elite by infiltrating. Its an abstract and pretty tension filled video with police clashing with protesters and metaphors of workers burning down forests and bankers bleeding eachother dry.