A joke that had to work first

Meat Energy did not start as a model for the future of music. It started with meat, fire and hard guitars. The first album, Glory to Meat, was physical and direct: steak, smoke, barbecue, hunting, carnivory, rock and satire. Working titles such as Predator Diet, Carnivore Code, Ballad of the Beef, Ribeye Revelation, Raise the Grill and In the Beginning There Was Fire show what the project first wanted to be.

There was a real thought underneath: humans are physical beings, food has a physical origin, and fire, hunting and eating are very old human structures. But the record was not meant to sound like a manifesto. That led to the first rule of the project: the music and the joke have to work first; the philosophy may sit underneath. If listeners need to read an essay to understand a song, the balance is wrong.

Frequent Flyer Food became the first proof that satire could be a front door. The idea is simple: a modern salad of cashews from Vietnam, avocado from Mexico, chickpeas from Australia and quinoa that has nearly flown business class, set against food grown a few kilometres away. Your lunch has probably logged more flight hours than you. The song makes a point without the listener knowing anything about Meat Energy.

A video concept followed, The Global Salad Tour: ingredients treated as touring rock stars, avocados at the airport, cargo planes and glamour, and next to it a farmer driving a few kilometres. The lesson was that the humour only worked when it was not played as a cartoon. The visual may be absurd, but the execution must take it seriously.