Secondhand by Caleb Pickering

secondhand is a tongue-in-cheek statement piece about climate change, deniers, and those who actively make decisions that negatively impact our environment for their own personal gain, and set up future generations for failure by handing them a ravaged planet. The work is influenced by progressive metal, but an upbeat, pentatonic, “pop” melody is prominently featured, and always combined with heavy dissonance and rhythmic instability. The upbeat mood of the piece combined with an ominous atmosphere is inspired by the robot character Claptrap from the hit Borderlands videogame series, whose voice is programmed to be happy, even in dooming circumstances. 

“If I sound pleased about this, it’s only because my programmers made this my default tone of voice! I’m actually quite depressed!” -Claptrap, Borderlands II