How a sci-fi dystopia became a personal utopia (ft. Arc Iris)
6/5/202613 min
A sci-fi ballet imagined a 2080 where AI strips people of purpose, and the day before its New York premiere, an actual dystopia arrived. Arc Iris, the trio of Jocie Adams, Zach Tenoriom and Ray Belli, built iTMRW as a concept record set in a future ruled by a mega-corporation that shares its name. In its world, AI has taken most jobs and even the thinking left inside them, so the corporation offers pods where anyone can live any dream in virtual reality. The piece premiered in Cambridge in January 2020, then its New York show collapsed the day before the lockdown. What follows is the story of a project that outlasted its own premise. When venues closed, they left Providence for Los Angeles, rebuilt a dilapidated house, spent eight months in a 120-square-foot shed, and constructed their own studio and stage. The dystopia they wrote became, in their telling, a personal utopia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Charlie Harding· Host0:19
Every week, "Switched on Pop" opens with a windup of tape loops, layers of vocals, and some very funky Moog synthesizers. [upbeat music] Welcome to "Switched on Pop." I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. That is our show's sonic identity that we documented on episode 401. We called it the biggest theme song fail. We gave our very outdated theme a little glow up with the help of musicians Jossie Adams and Zach Tenorio. Jossie and Zach, alongside drummer Ray Belli, are in a band together called Ark Iris. They've been around as a group pretty much as long as we've been a podcast. They're genuinely some of the most talented musicians I've ever known and are a deep source of inspiration to me. Since you hear them every week on the show, I wanted to give you a chance to get to know Jossie and Zach through some of their music, music that has helped me find a sense of hope to combat these dystopian times. I hope you'll feel the same. Can we just start by... Can I ask, who are you?
Zach Tenorio· Guest1:19
My name is Zach Tenorio, and I play keyboards with Ark Iris.
Jossie Adams· Guest1:21
My name is Jossie Adams, and I play bits and bobs, and I sing and r- arrange and write for Ark Iris.
Zach Tenorio· Guest1:28
And we make