Matthew Heller is happy to announce that the video for "Learn to Love" from the forthcoming David Pollock (CAKE, Wild Ones) produced Temple Moon Desire LP (out 10.04) has premiered at Glide here.
Matthew Heller's Temple Moon Desire is a record imbued with compassion born of tragedy. Together with producer Pollock, Heller worked to create a group of songs that challenges listeners to learn to love in the face of strife and work to cultivate the nascent empathy and love that is there within us all, no matter how deeply it may seem to be buried.
Watch the video here:
In 2015, Heller had just released the guitar-centric rock EP Tragedy Town when longtime friend Pollock issued a challenge: try writing from someone else's perspective. While contemplating how to approach this task Heller happened on an episode of Democracy Now! wherein a refugee was asked; "What do survivors of war need to live happily?" This resonated deeply. He wrote it down and thought about it.
Heller began researching the war in Afghanistan. In a BBC documentary, he found a scene of a very young woman riding a horse for the first time (the very act was forbidden). He felt compelled, against all odds, to try and reach her. Heller scanned the credits, opened a web browser, and, miraculously, there she was. Overjoyed, he reached out. Mehri Azizi was only a few years younger than Heller. She was also happy to interview people around Kabul on his behalf. On Jan 21st, 2016, Aziz was commuting to work when a Taliban suicide bomber murdered Mehri Azizi and six of her colleagues.
Heller was devastated. How could the war have become so uncontrollable, so uncontained, so hysterically overwhelming? Yet be portrayed by Western media as basically over? In the middle of tracking for Temple Moon Desire, Heller and Pollock found themselves working at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas just as the city became a hotbed for political action.
All these experiences led Heller to a profound observation: "It takes strength to have compassion for other people." Compassion is an innate human trait, Heller says, that we all possess. Nobody lacks compassion, but everybody can nurture it and let it grow. There is no limit to compassion. Compassion sees no enemies or borders. Looking at the world through the eye of compassion eliminates our differences. Heller hopes that the message of Temple Moon Desire will help others nurture the seed of compassion that grows within them.
