Hey kiddos,

Been a little bit, but I wanted to let you in on a couple things going on. 

Firstly, if you missed it, I played another Witchy Ways Market a couple weeks ago and it was a really great performance! 

A copy of the audio from the improvised performance is now up and available for Subscribers to download. Speaking of which…

Secondly, I’m restructuring/rethinking how I do my site subscriptions. All the different tiers are just going to be collapsed and simplified into one, single, cohesive, pay what you want tier for everything: ENCRYPTED+. I liked having all the cute different tier names, but the functionality to post something in one tier and have it auto-populate to all the other tiers isn’t there for some reason and posting everything 7 times feels like wasted energy. Additionally, I will no longer be pushing for the goal of putting up a new piece of audio EVERY week, because it simply isn’t feasible between my 9-5, my work as a visual artist/vendor, and what’s about to be occupying my time…

Lastly, I will be going into the studio starting this month to finish recording all the tracks on my new album, FUTURE MAGICKS: VOLUME 1, HYDRA’S RUIN. 

I’m ridiculously excited to have some intensely talented folks helping get everything sounding as excellent as possible. Kellii Scott of FAILURE has recorded some incredible live drum tracks for five of the songs, and they absolutely fucking rock! And Travis Bacon of CONTRACULT COLLECTIVE will be producing, engineering, and helping put the final polish on the record. I am hoping to get the record out by the end of the year, but I’m also willing to tap the breaks any TLC is needed. Regardless, I’m absolutely psyched about what’s coming. The future is magick.

Thank you for being here.

XOXO
Rust

Hey kiddos!

I have some a very exciting news! RUST_VISION is fleshing out to be a full live band! One of my goals this year was to play more live shows, as last year I didn’t play live at all. I played the LA Industrial fire benefit show in January at Slipper Clutch but was down for a few months due to my foot surgery. By the time I was ready to stand for any length of time, I had already booked a set for Queer Mercado in East LA, but was still too weak to really rehearse a full set requiring vocals and guitar-playing, so I opted for an instrumental set, which was a fun challenge and not something I’d ever done before. After that performance, I was asked by my friend Carolyn of the band Pickpocket if I wanted to play their next show at The Mint on Thursday 6/26 and I said “Hell yes!” 

Carolyn put me in touch with the booker at The Mint and he said he’d be happy to put me on bill for the night, but only if I had a band. No solo performance with a laptop and guitar and synth allowed! I thought for a second before replying, then took a gamble and said GO AHEAD AND BOOK IT. 

I had a few people who had expressed interest in joining before, but those conversations had taken place prior to my surgery. I quickly contacted those individuals and they were, very fortunately, still interested! Then, out of nowhere, a mutual on Bluesky messaged me about a video L had posted of my Queer Mercado performance and asked about getting together to “jam”. I told them I was putting together a band to play RUST_VISION material live, would they like to join? Apparently L’s post, featuring my RUST_VISION performance, was casting a net for LA musicians for a non-RUST_VISION  jam session; I had not seen the post, so I was unaware of this specific detail. This resulted in some crossed communication, but I sent them some demos to listen to and we did get to meet and jam and we got on well enough that they said yes, they’d be down to join.

So, without further ado, it gives me great pleasure to announce RUST_VISION’s Live lineup!

(left to right)

Paul Morgana - drums
Rust MacCarthy - vox/synths/guitar
Eric Santiestevan - bass
Catton Arthur - guitar

We just had our first band rehearsal this past Tuesday and I’m SO excited about how fresh the sound and energy of this music feels with these amazing people on board! I can’t wait for y’all to hear what we’ve got in store for you!

Early bird tickets to our 6/26 show at The Mint are on sale now! https://dice.fm/event/bbdlqk-the-motorists-pickpocket-kings-of-karma-rustvision-26th-jun-the-mint-los-angeles-tickets?fbclid=PAQ0xDSwKGXEhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp6586Snz6dP7zdBbo_Hi1v5yTacrqpS_b7i50ZGNN8tm4Dj8AhsPxCRXe0dB_aem_NcEcIpaZ6o0bMs4J6el9lQ

Another fun thing that happened this past week is GUILLOTINE, Pt. 4 turned two years old! Hard to believe it's been that long!

This release, two years ago, marked the completion of my first Concept Album, GUILLOTINE, broken up as 4 EPs, the story climaxing with a full rebellion against the 1%. IRL, that revolt did not happen, but I still daydream that it will. Ironically, we as a band will not be playing anything from Pt. 4 of GUILLOTINE when we play at The Mint on 6/26—it will all be songs from Pt. 1-3, plus new material from the upcoming album. While this is somewhat disappointing for me (some of my favorite GUILLOTINE songs are from Part 4), this decision was made from a practical standpoint, as I really had to decide which songs could potentially benefit from a full live band versus simply being too electronic for that to make sense. But don’t worry, there will still be plenty of “burn it down” energy 😎

Looking forward to seeing you all soon in person!

All my love,
Rust

Hey kiddos,

Rust here. It's been a hot minute since I had much to report. But I just turned 39, and I've got a few things I feel are worth sharing.

1. I'M PLAYING A LIVE SET TOMORROW NIGHT!
   Sunday the 17th, 7pm, I'm playing a short set at The North End of Hollywood, as part of Ex Corpse's Experimental Nite.
   I've been rehearsing for the past couple months just in case an opportunity presented itself and here it is. So that's a cool thing. I will be debuting a new song as part of my set, called “Dancing.”
    
2. THE VISIONARIES music video will also be premiering tomorrow night (Sunday), probably right after my live set, so keep your eyes on my YouTube channel for that. This was a labor of love and took a long time to wrap, but we finally overcame the location hurdle that we were running into for awhile and finished the shoot!
    
3. I am very close to finalizing mastering on my upcoming instrumental album, titled “Heaven's Artifice.”
   This is the cyberpunk soundtracky project I've been alluding to for some time. It's a concept album. I have an idea of what the story is. Maybe the story that forms in your imagination when you hear it will be similar, but maybe not. I'll talk a little bit about the project a bit more once it's released, and how it came about, but I'm gonna leave things somewhat open-ended as far as the album's narrative. I'm hoping to get the final polish on it later this week, then put it out in time to occupy some liminal space in people's minds.
   
   As for general life things: 
   -I'm back in school, and I'm trying to maintain a better work/life balance as far as my schoolwork goes (as opposed to last semester when I just felt buried beneath all the work I had to constantly do).
   -I'm going in for knee surgery soon. Hopefully this procedure will get rid of most/all of the chronic pain I've been dealing with there. Send good vibes my way this week.
   -I was finally diagnosed with autism. Not really a big surprise. Nice to feel validated by the medical system, instead of the opposite. Like I can maybe be a little more gentle with myself.
   
   And that's enough to be getting on with, I think. Hope your September has been delightful so far!
   
   Love and adoration,
   Rust

Buckle up, kiddos!
In this final Behind-The-Music interview, I talk about "Guillotine", the 4th EP, the concept album as a whole, happy accidents, French retirement riots, BLM, ex-LA Mayor Garcetti, eating the rich, ACAB, January 6th, the dramatic nature of guillotines, American complacency, Leftist in-fighting, the importance of symbols, the need for tearing down old top-down power paradigms, and the possibility of true equity through the compassionate and efficient distribution of resources.

Interviewed by L Faunt

Be sure to sign up for The Visionaries email list for more!

Love,
Rust

Hey kiddos,

I just realized I'm a little behind in posting these. Whoops. Trying to remedy that. In this Behind-the-Music interview, I chat about "Hero?", the song's history, repeating themes, scrapped guitar parts, nostalgia, and cults of personality.

Interviewed by L Faunt.

Be sure to Like & Subscribe on YouTube for more!

Love,
Rust

Hey kiddos!

Long time no talk. Sorry about that, I’ve been buried in school work in a way that was extremely poor for my mental health. I was invited to play a show in February, but logistics made it impossible and I had to bow out—which deeply upsetting. The video I had planned for “Abnormal” never came to fruition because finding a suitable location to go smash and break things on camera proved more difficult than anticipated. These failures, on top of my packed school schedule, really put me in a bad place. I was super off balance and miserable for about 9 weeks straight. However, I dropped a couple high level courses (that I was not supposed to be taking yet anyways) and, now, things have more or less evened out. Enough to where I actually have the mental breathing room (and time!) to enjoy being a little bit creative every now and again.

So.

All that said, I have a few things on the horizon.

***

GUILLOTINE, Pt. 4 is coming out May 5th! 
 

The theme of the fourth & final act of the GUILLOTINE story is UNITY. It is a divergence from our disappointing reality—a fantasy—and begins with me making good on my promise in Part III to do "whatever it takes" in a small but significant way. I hack through the security of one of the world’s elites & doxx them—irl I am legitimately awful at coding & at confrontation. But in the album’s narrative, the doxxing gains me a lot of admirers/followers who are more than willing to rally behind me if I say the right things & tell them what they want to hear. But in order to enact *real* change, I realize I need to resist this temptation, choose to set aside my ego & refuse to establish another top-down power structure. Fuck cults of celebrity and personality. No gods, no masters—those are how we arrived at this tenuous and volatile place.
 

GUILLOTINE'S story ends with all of us coming together, pulling the One Percent out of their homes, & executing them (which, for legal purposes, I do not condone). Whatever future awaits beyond standing together and rising up still needs to be written, but we can’t just keep repeating history, letting ourselves be owned, & expecting different results.

Tracklisting:
1) Doxx
2) Hero?
3) The Visionaries
4) Guillotine
 

As with previous releases, I will be releasing interviews (performed by L Faunt) exploring the meaning/inspiration for each of the songs.

I hope this EP, and GUILLOTINE as a whole, will inspire some of you. I hope you are inspired to share it and its sentiment/message to people around you with whom it might resonate. I hope that we, as a society, can change the toxic aspects of the ways in which we relate to one another. I hope that we find the strength to choose differently.

***

L and I will be filming a music video for “The Visionaries” soon. The video will touch on how our lives are ruled by money and how struggling with that can be extremely primal. There will be blood. Hopefully, I will be able to get it all shot and edited together in time to release alongside the EP, but if not, it will come shortly after.

***

In other news, I have, up until now, been using Redbubble as a central hub for merch. However, they will soon be instituting a policy that penalizes smaller vendors with more fees per transaction. This is something I cannot support and will be finding a new, less exploitative company to partner with for merch. Some of the current designs will be phased out with this transition as well. So. If you've had your eye on anything, the time to purchase is NOW.

***

Lastly, I am looking for band members! Guitar, drums, synths, and bass are all needed. Playing/programming everything myself is all well and fine for studio recordings, but I can't do it all myself in a live setting and would rather have as few pre-recorded backing tracks as possible. 

NOTE: although this is a serious gig, there is currently no money coming in to this venture. Please don’t hesitate to contact me about this if you play any of these instruments, are in the LA area, and are legitimately interested—or if you have any questions :)

***

That’s all for now. Thank you for being here. Thank you for paying attention.

All my love,
Rust

Hey kiddos!

It's time! GUILLOTINE: Part II is here! I'M SO EXCITED! To purchase from me directly, simply go to the Store section of this site. The audio quality of .wav files is better, the money goes directly to me, and you get a spiffy artwork/lyrics e-booklet as a bonus :)

To celebrate, have a glitchy new video for "Servants of the Moon"!

I will be posting more Behind the Music interviews for all the songs on GUILLOTINE: Part II in the coming weeks, so be sure to tune in. In the mean time, enjoy and have a great weekend!

Love,
ЯV 

Hey kiddos!

I had such big plans for August. During my scant weeks between school sessions, I had hoped to knock out a couple music videos, get a bunch of overdue adulting done, practice a live set, and pull multi-tracks for possible remixing.

There was some success in about half of one of the music video shoots I had on the books, but the rest ended up being failed experiments that need rethinking. If I hadn't just spent the last several years practicing video craft, I would probably write it off and say the failed experiments were fine and use them anyway--but I have, and so I am holding my work to a higher caliber. This is one of the downfalls of being a jack of many trades--perfectionism can become a paralytic.

I did get some of my intended adulting done, but a lot of external adulting catastrophes also landed on my head and energetically incapacitated me for the rest of the week. This caused me to get less done, which deepened my depression, which caused me to get less done... Anyone who's struggled with mental health likely knows how that cycle goes. 

One of the only things I've really felt inspired to do is work on my novel. Yes, if you didn't know already, I am also a writer; back in 2017 I had this science fiction thing I'd written called DREAM STATE and I turned it into a really fun audio drama for about 5 episodes before it imploded under the weight of Life. I've been working on this novel now for about a year and I was stuck at about 40k words for most of that year, but I've refocused, found a new way forward, and am loving where it's going now. Not really much news to share there--45k in now and the story is really just getting going, so I have plenty more to write. But, it's certainly occupying a lot of my creative energy right now. Which is frustrating, because I have RUST_VISION shit to get done.

But the video fails have certainly done a lot to discourage working on other RUST_VISION stuff. I intend to change that this week through sheer force of will. We'll see how well that works.

Wish me luck.

Love,
ЯV 

Hey kiddos,

Welcome to my website! And to Underscore, where I am likely to blab myself into trouble.

Why is my blog called Underscore?

Because the whole point of RUST_VISION is that Rust (and the corrosion and imperfection "rust" implies) is supposed to underscore the bright and shiny Vision. That duality is important. Embracing your imperfections does not mean you stop striving for your ideal self!...

Also, because Facebook currently won't let me add the underscore to my FB Page's name and I am bitter and being a little bit petty about it.

Anywho, please feel free to explore the site, sign up for the email list, leave comments or encouragement. And since I'm my own Website Person, please let me know if something doesn't work or is buggy or whatnot.

Music News:

GUILLOTINE: Part I is coming out in just a few weeks! June 24th! I'm super excited to begin sharing more of this music with you all! I will be trying to put out another video in the coming weeks for the song "Galaxies," but I haven't finished shooting it yet, so WHEEEEE!! This is gonna be fun! Once the video is out, I will also put the song up here and on Bandcamp.

And if you're still here, reading this, thank you. I can't overstate how grateful I am that you're here.

ЯV