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Indomitable Heart: Why Micah Schnabel’s Music Is More Important Than Ever
Stolen equipment. A disappearing album. Years on the road. Through his journey, Micah Schnabel’s powerful blend of wisdom and fury has made him one of music’s most urgent voices.
Listening to Micah Schnabel’s music is like getting punched and hugged at the same time. And like a cracking levee holding back a lifetime marked by both bitter rejection and heartfelt connection, Micah Schnabel’s live performances are visceral avalanches of unbridled emotion.
While some artists favor a calculated slow-boil approach to their live sets, Schnabel’s runaway-train style comes naturally. “It’s like a therapy session for me. I’ve found that that’s where I’m the most comfortable writing, that’s where my voice is, that’s when I feel the best about myself,” Schnabel says.
Raw, vulnerable and honest, Schnabel’s body of work deftly calls out the roots of American divisiveness: greed, sexism, capitalism, racism. On his newest album, The Teenage Years of the 21st Century, his signature spitfire delivery of society’s ills is unmistakable, razor-sharp and impossible to ignore.
On Remain Silent, for example, Schnabel paints an all-too-familiar portrait of racism:
My uncle, he hates immigrants
He talks about it on the internet
He lives in a town that’s 96 percent white
How do I talk to him?
How do I fight?
A white, rural male stereotype
Who’s retreated into anger
And blames his personal failures
On people who happen to have different color skin
Trapped within a perpetual police state that has become as American as apple pie, Schnabel reaches a breaking point, ending the song with:
I know I have the right to remain silent
I just couldn’t today
Although Schnabel’s music unveils so much ugliness, layers of hope and inspiration are revealed. In A Celebration, Schnabel rejects the hollow lure of capitalism -and one of its classic catchphrases - and embraces the pursuit of the present:
Maybe I don’t want to get rich or die trying
I think I’m okay with simply surviving
Tomorrow morning I’m gonna wake up early
And…
