Hey kiddos, a couple things going down right now.

1. Mixing for the album is done! Everything sounds fantastic and flows really nicely from track to track. This album is definitely a journey, and I hope, once it’s out, people will sit down with it and listen from start to finish. 

2. Rehearsals are underway. There’s a lot to learn—new songs, new parts, new effects, new software, and even new instruments for some people. Progress is happening surprisingly fast because these people are amazing, but I still don’t foresee us playing a show for a couple months still. You will be the first to know once anything is on the books.

3. RELEASE DATE - While I don’t want to jinx anything, right now I am looking at a possible release date of late fall. There’s a lot of little admin/legal/creative things behind the scenes that need to happen before any of this goes out to the public. But I am going to be trying as hard as I can to get it out THIS year and not 2027.

4.Behind the scenes - enjoy this unfiltered little behind-the-scenes tidbit of the song “Dancing”

Until next time!

Love,
Rust

Hello Friends,

It’s been a few months, but I just wanted to check in and give you some updates that I’m personally very excited about!

ALBUM UPDATE:

Recording for the upcoming album, HYDRA’S RUIN, is done! After having to take a month off to recover from the flu from Hell, I was nervous for last weekend’s recording session because my voice didn’t feel 100%. But I am ecstatic and relieved that everything turned out great! Now for some final mixing and polish over the coming weeks and it should hopefully be completely done!

Once finished, I won’t be releasing the album via traditional methods—not right away, anyway. I hate being a slave to the streaming algorithm, Spotify is garbage, and I don’t want my work scraped for AI slop. Instead, I will be releasing the album here, on my website, as well as on a few select other spots like Bandcamp. I am currently looking into the logistics of a physical release—CD is likely, vinyl maybe, if enough people want it. It will stay out in these select spots exclusively for ONE FULL YEAR before going out to streamers. As soon as I have dates for any of this confirmed, you’ll be the first to know.

LIVE NEWS:

Last year after the show at The Mint, the live lineup fell apart a little bit. Eric, who played bass, decided to pack up his family and move to Costa Rica; considering the fast-deteriorating techno-fascist dystopian hellscape we’re living in now, I don’t blame him at all.

There were multiple other scheduling conflicts as well and soon much of my energy was being spent on a new 9-5, MMIX Art vending, and then, beginning in February, recording. But now that recording is finished, things are looking up!

I’ve beens able to recruit some very talented individuals—one to step in for Eric on bass, and another to play live synths. More details to come. Rehearsals will be starting later this month to hopefully play some shows this fall/winter around the album's non-streaming release.

That’s all for now. Updates will hopefully be much more frequent from here on out. Keep your eyes peeled for some BTS footage coming your way soon!

Love,
Rust

Hey kiddos,

I have added a few new music downloads for Subscribers! Be sure to check those out and let me know if you're enjoying these!

Next: in case you missed the Temple broadcast, you can find the video below. 

A lot of the texturized glitchy details got lost at the hiccupy low resolution of the stream, so I definitely recommend viewing at 1080p.

Lastly: I am very excited to be performing what I am calling a MR. VISION set on 9/7 at the Witchy Ways Market at Boomtown Brewery in DTLA. 

This is gonna be super experimental, as I will not be preparing a setlist--hell, I won't even be performing any of my proper songs. This is just gonna be me jamming on and off as the event unfolds. Come check out the vendors, immerse yourself in the ritual, and grab a beer while you’re there!

That's all for now. More updates as they come!

XOXO,
Rust

Hey kiddos,

Well, it’s finally done. My work on “Heaven’s Artifice,” my forthcoming instrumental album, is wrapped up like a holiday gift. 

About the album: 

“Heaven’s Artifice” was the result of several jam sessions with myself. Sessions 1 was just me playing around on the Moog Matriarch for about 45 minutes with a simple 4-on-the-floor beat going the whole time. Session 2 was me playing the guitar—yes, that lead sound is not a synth, it is a guitar running through a brassy synth pedal effect. From there, I took out a whole lot of the kicks to give some of the more atmospheric parts some breathing room. In Session 3, I went back over some of the lower notes I played with guitar with a bass synth to get some nicer low end in there. In Session 4, I built out drum parts using my drum machine, quickly building complimentary rhythms and moving on to next song/section. I was mostly satisfied by this point, but ultimately decided it was still missing something. With Session 5, I went through and improvised a bunch of parts on piano, most of which I ended up deleting; I found keeping the piano sparse allowed it to be more effective.

There is a loose storyline to this thing--at least, in my head--but I’m not really gonna detail that. My hope is your imagination conjures something in your mind that my explanations never could.

I am offering you all 10 tracks of “Heaven’s Artifice” for a Pay-What-You-Want sliding scale, almost a week before it’s available in streaming services or in digital music stores. Consider it my gift to you.

May your holidays be lovely. See y’all next year!

Love and cheer,

Rust

Hey kiddos,

It's finally here! Been trying to get this done this since before Guillotine, Pt. 4 was released. Some of my most anti-capitalism sentiments, and I'm really proud of how it turned out.

Hope y'all enjoy!

On another note, my performance last night at The North End of Hollywood went great! I'm so thrilled with how it went down and how my set was received by the crowd. Big thanks to AJ, Jared, and all of Ex Corpse for inviting me to the stage. I got some video of the show, and I hope to be able to share some of it here in the coming weeks.

Love and power,
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

Hey kiddos!

I know it seems like nothing much has been going on since the release of Guillotine: Part IV and I started my summer vacation from school, but I assure you that's not the case. Several things are in the works right now, but nothing's quite ready to face the public yet.

Of note, we visited DTLA’s financial district the other night to get some essential filming done for my up and coming music video, “The Visionaries.” This one has a fairly straightforward concept, but one that has to be communicated effectively to really hit home. We have one more major and climactic shoot ahead of us, then we should more or less be wrapped.  Here are just a few of the awesome stills from the gorgeous footage L Faunt got of me. I'm very excited about the final video and I think you'll really love it!

Additionally, I've been putting some tweaks and polish to an instrumental album I've been kicking around since early this year. It's kinda Blade Runner-esque and much more soundtracky than anything I've made in a long time--maybe even moreso than the actual soundtrack I made for Dream State. It's called Heaven's Artifice, and I'm hoping to drop it sometime in the next couple months.

One more thing is brewing as well, but I'm not ready to talk about it yet.

Talk soon.

Love,
Rust

It's here. Get it in the Store section for high-quality audio & e-booklet. I'm real proud of it. However, due to school, I lack energy, so apologies for not talking it up to quite the same extent as some of the prior Guillotine installments. 

Filming has begun for The Visionaries, but the music video release will come later than expected due to some logistical issues staggering the shoot schedule. The shots we've gotten are pretty excellent though. I'm very excited about this one 😈

In any case, the release of this EP marks the completion of GUILLOTINE as a concept album. Hope you enjoy it in its entirety :)

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!

Continuing on through the Freaking Weird Genre songs of Guillotine, we come to "The Monsters Are Still Here." 

In this Behind The Music interview, I talk about working with Eric Malcom Schreeck, oppressive power structures, white nationalism, and channeling cabaret during a worldwide catastrophe rife with fucking nazis.

Interviewed by L Faunt.

Be sure to Like & Subscribe for more!

xoxo
Rust

Hey kiddos!

Once upon a time, we made a dance video to the instrumental demo of my song “The Monsters Are Still Here”. At the time we made this, I had maybe half the lyrics written, Schreeck hadn’t added his magic yet, and Jared Eakin hadn’t even begun to make things sound gorgeous yet.

This was one of the first videos L and I made where I started to incorporate some “music video style” editing into the things we output together. It was a lot of fun to make! Hope you enjoy this glimpse into the heart of the pandemic times from which this song was born! 😷  
xoxo  
Rust

Hey kiddos!

IT'S TIME FOR SOME UPDATES!

Firstly, I finished the music video for "The Monsters Are Still Here" (feat. Eric Malcom Schreeck) late last night! This song is unique for me and has a kindof industrial cabaret feel(?), so the music video has some pretty macabre tongue-in-cheek humor to it. I hope you get a kick out of it!

I have another music video planned to come out in January, but filming schedules are dependent on a number of other factors, so we'll see what happens.

But regardless of music videos, GUILLOTINE, PT. 3 IS HEERRRREEE!!! 🥳🎉🎉🎉

cover photo: Kate Newman

You can find this puppy over in the STORE section :) As always, buying directly from me gets you higher fidelity audio files than from iTunes or Spotify, plus gets you the Lyric/Liner Notes e-booklet, plus I get 100% of the purchase (unlike most days on Bandcamp where they take 15%). So please get it here. It's a win-win deal.

This EP has a few really weird songs that I'm especially fond of (including The Monsters Are Still Here), so I'm particularly excited to send this odd little baby creation out into the world. I have plenty to say about these songs, but will leave that for the continuing Behind The Music interviews that will be coming out in January. For, I just hope you enjoy it as much as I do! 

Happy New Year!

xoxo
ЯV 

Hey kiddos!

In the final Behind The Music interview for GUILLOTINE, Pt. 2, I talk about "Servants of the Moon," Big Brother, the men who run the world, finding community, and how this song relates to the rest of GUILLOTINE as a whole. Bonus points if you start to recognize reoccurring musical themes starting to pop up--a synth part in the bridge/breakdown is a callback to "Notice of Intent" and the lead synth line during the chorus is a callback to "Broken Promises." Interviewed by L Faunt.

GUILLOTINE, Pt. 3 will be dropping by year's end and things are starting to shape up for the possibility of live performances. Be sure to sign up for the Visionaries email list to get the latest and greatest RUST_VISION news straight to you! Talk soon!

Love,
ЯV 

Hey Kiddos,

In today's Behind The Music interview, I spill the tea about "The Awakening," unplugging from the Matrix, and how this song relates to the rest of GUILLOTINE. Can you see the strings?

Don't forget to sign up for the email list for more!

Love,
ЯV

Hey kiddos!

Continuing the series of Behind the interviews from Guillotine Pt. 1, L Faunt sits down with me now to talk about the songs of Guillotine Pt. 2. First up is “Namedrop City”!

Hope you enjoy this look inside my head :)

Love,
ЯV 

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!

Who do you want me to be? Do any of these faces do anything for you? Can I mean something to you? Time to turn the desperation up to 11! Enjoy!

Love,
ЯV 

Hey kiddos!

I guess the cat's out of the bag now. GUILLOTINE, Pt. 2 is coming out September 23rd!

That's in less than a month! Very excited about this release. With Guillotine, Pt. 1, I think it might feel very easy to get to the end of those four songs and assume, "Okay, I more or less know what RUST_VISION is all about and how his music is going to sound." This installment of GUILLOTINE definitely subverts a lot of those expectations.

The theme of the second act of GUILLOTINE is DECONSTRUCTION. These next 4 songs begin with me becoming so desperate to fulfill my dream that I try buying into the bootlicking, name-dropping thing—selling out, if you will—then hitting rock bottom when it doesn't work and coming to a profound realization. The reason everyone’s so broken is not because the people around me are the problem, or because the system is broken. The system works exactly the way it’s supposed to, but the world we live in is just systematically built on subjugation. My youthful disillusionment with Los Angeles was never actually about Los Angeles. It was about capitalism and imperialism and devaluing human beings because you know someone is desperate enough to suck your dick for exposure. It was about everyone devaluing themselves just to survive in a world that makes survival unnecessarily fucking difficult for most of us so that a few at the top can live like kings. There’s an eye-opening there, an awakening, and an attempt on my part to forge connections with like-minded people whose eyes are also open, which is what I went through in my early thirties. A directionless sort of “fuck the system, fuck Mark Zuckerberg, burn it down, be kind to each other” sort of philosophy. And there's a certain comfort in knowing that even though the world is terrible, you're awake enough to see the puppet strings on everyone. That realization is empowering. The problem is that sometimes that empowerment acts as a soporific and no one who's awake ends up taking real action with any sense of urgency. Which leaves room for the monsters at the top to make their move instead.

The next single will be a funky little jam called "Namedrop City." Musically, it feels like what might have happened if Flea had played on "Mechanical Animals." It will be coming out September 9th, the day before my birthday. Luckily, some very successful shoots happened this week, so a music video will be coming out for "Namedrop City" as well.

Looking forward to sharing with all of you. Stay tuned!

Love,
ЯV 

Hey kiddos! 

We've finally come to the final GUILLOTINE, Pt. 1 interview (with a few hints at what's to come in GUILLOTINE, Pt. 2), with L Faunt continuing to delve into my writing process and into the meaning of each song. Today's interview is probably my most spastic song ever, "Zero Fucks Given", the apathetic culmination and response to every song prior to this one on the EP. If you've ever felt frenetically antagonized by overwhelming amounts of apathy from people about the things you're passionate about, this song is for you. One of my personal favorites, as it just devolves into sheer chaos at the end.

If y'all enjoy this sort of thing, please Subscribe to my YouTube for more video updates, and to my Official Mailing List for other updates going forward! Thank you so much for all your love and support!

Love,
ЯV 

Hey kiddos! 

I'm very excited to bring you the next of GUILLOTINE interviews that will continue to come out over the next several weeks. L Faunt is digging deep into my writing process to expose some of the backstory of each song from GUILLOTINE, Pt. 1. Today's interview is on "Galaxies", the most synth-pop song I've ever made, but still with plenty of emo angst. If y'all enjoy this kind of thing, please Subscribe to my YouTube for more video updates! Thank you for all your support!

Love,
ЯV 

Hey kiddos!

Time really snuck up on me! GUILLOTINE: PART I is here! Please purchase it at the STORE section of the site. Again, the audio quality directly from my site is unequaled on any other digital music platform. Plus, you get a free artwork/lyrics PDF booklet!

To celebrate the release of GUILLOTINE: PART I, I made a bit of a less-serious music video (than for "We Are Fire") for "Galaxies". I mean, my face is serious throughout and the song has kindof a sad emo-boi synthpop vibe to it, but I had a field day with green screens and projectors and silhouettes and psychedelic filters and effects! 🙃🙃🙃 Anyway, I hope you all enjoy! 

ЯV 

Hey kiddos,

So apparently I accidentally released my EP a few days early? I think I must've been in the middle of editing it on here and been called away/distracted then had to restart my computer or something because it just went ahead and made it go live. Which is fine. I've just been extremely busy with other things like starting school and haven't gotten the chance to do the really hard promoting like I did for the We Are Fire single. In any case, if you're here reading this, you can go grab the EP a little early from my "Store" section. The audio is a higher quality than what you'd get from streaming services, the money goes directly to me, and you get a PDF booklet filled with art and lyrics to go along with the EP! Anyway, I'll probably talk a little more about the songs themselves in the weeks to come, but for now, I hope you'll just give it a listen and enjoy 😊 

ЯV 

Hello hello kiddos!

Guillotine: Part I is now available for pre-order on Bandcamp!

On GUILLOTINE:

When I began this album, I had something much different in mind. Something less angry. Something smoother. But the road to completing the 16 tracks that make up GUILLOTINE has been challenging and rough. Largely because nearly all of it was done by myself in my apartment during Covid, making lots of mistakes and figuring things out the hard way, but also because I had to find the courage to be honest with myself about myself, warts and all. Despite the fact that this is a concept album, GUILLOTINE is the most personal batch of music I've ever written. This album demanded I examine my past failures and disappointments, contextualize them all in the broader scheme of things, and look ahead to imagine a path through the madness of the times we live in.

I highly recommend getting GUILLOTINE (in all its parts) from Bandcamp for several reasons. Firstly, the audio quality is simply better than the uber-compressed formats available from Spotify and Apple. Secondly, Bandcamp takes less of the money you're trying to give me, especially on #BandcampFridays when I get 100% of my sales. Thirdly, direct platforms like Bandcamp are the only way I am able to deliver unto you the EP's booklet as a PDF. 

However, this website is also a direct platform. I do not have a way for you to preorder it here, but if you want to ensure I get paid 100% of the money you fork over without having to worry about whether it's #Bandcamp Friday, you can just wait until June 24th and get the EP here. I will also make the PDF available from here :)

That said, one of the new tracks, called "Galaxies," is currently available to stream over on Bandcamp! 

Go! Listen! Do the thing!

ЯV