This song is from the 2025 1.0 Album.
Artist: Paul Louis Villani
Release Titles: 2025 1.0, 2025 The Internationals, 2025 2.0
Release Date: 2025
Overview:
The 2025 trilogy is my reckoning with the past and an uncompromising embrace of the future. Three albums—2025 1.0, 2025 The Internationals, and 2025 2.0 - will stand as a testament to my unrelenting need to create, even as I distance myself from the human chaos that once defined my musical career. Spanning up to 50 works, this monumental release splits into three distinct identities while maintaining their cohesion as a singular artistic statement.

Background:

Mid 2021, everything changed for me. The band dynamic that had dictated my creativity for decades was gone, leaving behind a hollow, venomous resentment for the compromises and burdens I had carried. For nearly 40 years, I was always the one: the one with the reliable car, the one funding the studio time when others came up short, the one dealing with the egos of unreliable bandmates. That grind left scars that are still raw.

When I finally walked away from bands and the pitiful Australian Music Industry (unless you’re drinking with or taking drugs with the right people you have no chance), I thought I was done. But music and creativity doesn’t just let go. By 2024, 20 tracks were ready for vocals, and then floodgates unexpectedly opened. Even as I resented the relentless drive to create, stealing my sleep and dragging me back into long hours of recording, I couldn’t stop. Yet this time, it was on my terms. No live performances. No face-to-face collaboration. No compromises.

Challenges and Resilience:

My refusal to collaborate in person isn’t stubbornness; it’s survival. The toxicity of past experiences pushed me to sever ties with the traditional music-making process. Nearly four decades of dragging bandmates and their baggage through every stage of creation left me bitter and done with humanity’s role in music. I don’t mince words about it: "I’m fucking over it. I’ll never share a rehearsal room, stage, or studio with anyone ever again."

But out of this anger, a new way of working emerged—a way that fueled my creativity without reopening old wounds. Texts and emails with Mauro Elias, the album’s vocalist, brought refreshing simplicity. Mauro’s immense talent and organic approach to crafting melodies proved to me that music doesn’t require the chaos of human proximity.

Looking Forward:

Is this the end? I want to believe it is, but I’m no Nostradamus. The future looms large, with artificial intelligence already playing a role in the visual components of 2025. While AI hasn’t yet touched the music, lyrics, or vocals, I see its potential. AI could eliminate human messiness from music production entirely, something I entirely welcome. If anything can convince me to keep going, it’s the idea of embracing a future where creation no longer hinges on human involvement.