Thousand Year Rain is exactly what I've always wanted music to be: dissonant, hostile, and uncompromising. It’s as simple as that. There are no big-money sponsors to negotiate with, no chart-conscious managers to sell out for, and no stopwatches to hinge creativity on. By its very nature this is an art form that deserves to be free of assembly-line industry standards—and the greedy, overblown "rock idols" that come with them. And that's why you’ll never see Thousand Year Rain playing a stage, accepting an award or hyping some trivial, self-important agenda. It will never be about celebrity—no matter how many albums are sold. Right or wrong, I despise the mainstream template of what a musician's career is supposed to be, and I refuse to narrow my audience to concert crowds and star-chasers. To me, the intensity of captured emotion is the only thing that matters; and whether that comes in the form of 80 minute CD's or 30 second downloads makes no difference. In the end, the vision remains unpolluted by the politics of "commercial success." —Thomas Sankt
