Welcome to owenshire.com—your primary source for everything owenshire and Robert Muhlbock related. Given that I am not a touring musical act, this ‘band website’ operates a little differently than what you might be used to. Please approach it more like a planted flag in cyber space or (at worst) a substitute Wikipedia page.
To begin, updates will most certainly be slow and sporadic, as I am just one person doing everything. Add to this my day job as a professor of Language, Literature, and Video Game Theory and Design (and my other day job as husband and father) and—well—you get the picture. Sometimes months do go by with, unfortunately, very little new to say.
My advice to you is this: to get the most current updates, subscribe to owenshire’s Facebook page, Youtube channel, and Twitter, and Instagram accounts. This way, you are sure to get new music as it’s released. Moreover, should you want to contact me, post on these sites and I will get back to you ASAP, provided I’m not replaying Dead Space or Bioshock.
In short, rest assured that when I’m not teaching, gaming, or family-ing, I’m slowly and laboriously (re)-recording the best modern-rock songs you’ve never heard. And then creating all of the artwork, visuals, and promo material to go along with them.
At least it pays well!
Oh, wait, actually…
A song kind of about how far humanity has come but not really. One step forward, two steps back. All of human progress reduced to a rusty trinket. Originally written around 2003. Recorded proper 2024. Keychain is on disc two from the double album The Occupatio Collection.
You don’t know me very well, so in the unlikely event of my death, let the following precepts ring out in my memory among the church bells:
To first and foremost abide by the basic principles of punk rock and DIY culture, that is to say anyone can play, anyone can do this, and all are invited; to always value intent and execution over technical prowess; to believe that music above all other arts is the most affecting, sacred, and primal; to believe rock music is, in fact, important and is still capable of social, political, and cultural revolution;
To forever remain unflinchingly honest, unabashedly goofy, and uncomfortably vulnerable; to completely opt out of competitive and shallow music industry practices; to be forever unconcerned with ‘likes,’ algorithms, comments, ‘shares,’ ad revenue, and ‘daily trending reports’ because its fucking exhausting and ultimately meaningless; to create art with integrity and with an uncompromising vision, no matter its commercial appeal.
To forever relate to and consistently champion the awkward, the outcast, and the perpetually uncool; to hold in the highest contempt disingenuous, pompous, and pretentious jackasses; to be forever indebted to Kurt Cobain, Gord Downie, Greg Graffin, Trent Reznor, Michael Stipe, and Eddie Vedder; to love my heroes with all my heart despite my heart aching over never meeting them; to always choose the latter between the devil’s bargain of a successful musical career or watching my kids grow up and live to a ripe old age;
To perpetually and unapologetically remain, for better and worse, 16 years old in 1992. To know that few of you will read this; and to know that even fewer will care or relate.
