The Legend of XERO – Damsel
Take a quick peak at The Legend of XERO's most recent experimental music video Damsel. This is what he had to say when we asked:
Where did you get your inspiration for this video?
"Damsel - Story Behind the Song
When I first learned about Human Trafficking, it was more or less presented to me as another charity that needed support. For some reason it was something that all the Christian bands were excited about. It seemed to me that if bar bands were being endorsed by red bull, and Jagermeister, Christian bands were being endorsed by Human Trafficking Charities. At least that's how it was presented to me. At times it seemed like we, as a culture, were celebrating it more than "raising awareness", and I was rather disgusted by the whole concept being that there was so much suffering involved.
Eventually I got to the point that I was seeing it EVERYWHERE. One year, while I was backing up a friend at a Christian music festival, I noticed a huge banner behind us. It seemed like that Celebrated human Trafficking organization was sponsoring the concert. I certainly hope that's not what was happening, but at the time that's how it looked. I never pursued to find out. After our set, I decided to seek out they're tent and get some answers. I was walked through the basic story, and then asked to journey into the tent to learn more.
Inside was a model of an average 8 to 10 year-old's bedroom, equipped with rock star posters and video games, toy guns, cool clothing, etc. in the next room was a model of little boy's room who had been kidnapped and trained as a child soldier. His room came equipped with government propaganda and a dirt floor, military blankets and a cantine. I was immediately crushed!
No one had bothered to tell me that boys were being kidnapped too. Sure, I heard all about the sex slaves, and while I was saddened by it, I also felt powerless and disgusted by it. Powerless, because I have no realistic expectations of seeing perverts give up they're power, be it porn, slavery, incest, rape or any other way they like to get off. They WANT to keep doing it, and if we shut them down, someone else just opens up shop down the road. Disgusted, because these people aren't gonna stop because they don't ever expect to be caught. They're treated as elites and men of power. To them it's like a rare sport, and they have the money to keep it going. They're sin is deep, and they have no reason to change if they feel empowered by it, but worse, it's not the 3rd world rebels that are the main perps, it's the first world elites. They could stop it, but so many of them are part of the problem, and who's gonna turn in their own dad if he's the source of they rich lifestyle? And with so much Misogyny and Sexually-explicit music playing in every venue I visit today, it seems like the next level of where the world was going. TRYING TO OWN PEOPLE LIKE PETS OR TOYS!! It's exactly like the drug problems in the world....exactly.
Anyway, I was so upset that no one had told me the whole story, that I left the tent. I talked to the group about their mission. I wanted to know what they were doing. It turns out that they were funding Rambos to go in and take these children back by force. They were risking their lives to save them. They were heroes. This wasn't a bunch of hipsters playing acoustic guitar in a coffee shop. This was REAL! They were real. So I made it a point that I would spend my tithe money there that week. I wanted to help save a child.
Still, I was really upset by the whole movement, and in my mind I couldn't escape the thoughts. I began to have nightmares about it:
In one of the dreams, I was a superhero who had befriended a little girl who was a sex slave, and I vowed to free her. At that same moment a customer came to her tent and dragged her away. I saw the man who was selling her and in a weird, movie-like, slow motion wide shot, I saw myself appear out of a cloud of black smoke from the wall. I grabbed the man and took him into a black cloud on the floor, never to be heard from again. Then I went after the customer.
It was God's way of telling me that he would avenge those children in his own way, but I needed to befriend the weak. The next day, I stumbled upon Isiah 1:17 and it was the basis for this song. I realize I can't changed the wicked, and many times I can't change the silly either, but I can help the weak, and I can support those few heroes who are out there fighting real battles in the mission field. I can also shatter deceptions and restore those affected by it with God's truth. That's the only way I see as a real option."
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