Dirty Lie from Dirty Lie by Gaslight
Title track “Dirty Lie” starts off almost like a simple three chord shoe gazer, then shifts back a gear to allow the vocal to grind away with an almost seething indifference. The bridge presents an air of sarcasm that perfectly sets up the chorus to send home the message that we are utterly fed up with being lied to constantly by governments and powerful corporations. The lyrics daringly challenge the listener to identify with the author’s frustration and righteous anger about the state of inequality caused by a minority of elites who own most of the world’s wealth. When quizzed about the subject matter of this song Ivan referenced the book 1984 by George Orwell, and pointed out that the motivation for writing this song was to hopefully wake people up to the simple fact that we have been fobbed off with a total lemon by the ruling elite. In this conversation Ivan stated how perplexed he felt when playing this song in venues like the Esplanade in St. Kilda, and how exasperating it was for him to deliver such an honest assessment of what’s been happening in the world only for audiences to react with puzzled looks and ignorant indifference. He went on to say that he was quite perplexed to receive this type of reaction, and laughed about it saying that the irony of this is that it felt like he was looking into a mirror and that he was just as puzzled with the audience’s reaction as they were about his song.
