This past week saw the momentous release of another brilliant song by Spectrum Fusion member and friend, Chris Martin. Spectrum Fusion is thrilled to have had the chance to give a platform to Chris and feature his song, “White Knights,” directly inspired by our very own Reactor Room program.
Chris has been a member of Spectrum Fusion for several years now, ever since the company’s initial inception back in Australia. A lyricist and musical aficionado, Chris has passionately dedicated himself to writing music that will help other people struggling with hardship. In that vein, his song “White Knights” is all about reaching out and using your strength to help your neighbor.
Thrilled to hear such an incredible song from Chris, members of the Spectrum Fusion media team reached out to ask him a few questions about the process of writing the song and how he felt about it after it had been released. Chris explained that the song was directly inspired by his impressions of Spectrum Fusion’s Reactor Room program, and that he felt that such an ambitious program needed a song that would lend it a victorious air.
“After the release of ‘Get My Wings’ back in 2019,” Chris said when asked what motivated him to write White Knights, “I realized that one song for Reactor Room wasn’t enough, I thought that a “victory” song was required to be played at the end of Reactor Room,” he said, describing his experience at local sporting events in Australia. “I’m not sure what things are like at Houston Dynamo games, but at my team’s home games the ‘walk out’ music is Joker And The Thief by Wolfmother, and the ‘victory’ music is Twist And Shout by The Beatles. I thought, ‘well we’ve got walk out music (Get My Wings) but we don’t have victory music.’”
Indeed, Chris previously wrote the song “Get My Wings” specifically to be played at Reactor Room events. That song, Chris said, was meant to inspire and uplift the reactors going through the program. Likewise, Chris says that White Knights is meant to inspire our Activators to volunteer their time, resources, and expertise to reach out and help the Reactors reach their full potential.
“This song was largely written for the Activators,” Chris said when asked who the song was for and how he settled on the song’s title, “I thought, ‘What’s going to motivate them?’ Lyrically I was thinking of songs like Heroes by David Bowie and even Fortunate Son by CCR. Some people really are in a better position than others, so why aren’t they using that power and influence to help people that don’t have that? If someone asked me what an Activator is in layman’s terms, I would say, well, a White Knight.”
Certainly “White Knights” invokes the feeling of a late 70’s or 80’s rock tune. Members of Spectrum Fusion have compared the song to works by the musical artist “Meat Loaf,” and other popular rock performers from the 1980’s. Chris Martin says that this is no accident. When asked about the style of the song, Chris explained that it was written with a particular singer in mind, but that the singer in question was not available to record the song for him and he was forced to look for other performers to bring his lyrics to life.
“I got onto YouTube and looked for cover versions of the planned singer’s other material and the best version I could find was by Lords Of The Trident,” Chris said when he was asked how he got in contact with the performer, Fang Von Wrathenstein (real name Ty Christiansen). ‘Lords of the Trident’ is the band that Mr. Von Wrathenstein heads. “I then sent Fang an email asking (about) his availability. He said he thought he could do it. I sent him the money and the rest is history.”
Chris further explained that the message of the song is meant to inspire people to reach out and help their fellow man. He described his frustrations with stagnation, and how much trouble he had advancing in his life and growing as a person without somebody to go to bat for him or take a chance on him. “Most of the people I know that were given opportunities got them because they had friends in high places, and I’ve never really had that. People would always say, ‘it’s who you know, man,’ but it seemed like no-one took any notice of me or even wanted to know me, and they certainly weren’t going out of their way to be cheerleaders for me.” Chris explained further that he had a lot of frustrations with the rampant nepotism pervading society, and how he wished that people would be more willing to take chances on promising strangers and up-and-comers that they aren’t personally familiar with. “I’ve had a bugbear with nepotism for many years now,” he said, “and I want it banished to history.”
Indeed, these thoughts about nepotism are shared among many members of the Spectrum Fusion community, and the autism community at large. Unfortunately, difficulties with social interaction are very common among people with autism, and this makes it incredibly difficult to network and meet people with powerful connections who might be able to hand out opportunities. The Reactor Room was purposefully designed to help bridge this gap for people on the Spectrum, which is why Chris Martin was so enthusiastic to write multiple songs for the program.
When asked how he felt now that the song was finished, and what the song “White Knights” meant to him, Chris said, “I’m extremely proud of this song. I feel I’ve been able to bring my (love of) 80s rock into the here and now, and have captured the essence of what it means to be an Activator.” He continued, saying, “This song is the culmination of a lot of hard work. It was written back in July 2020, and when I received a grant from the American Express Nominate-A-Mate Program back in August 2020, it was obvious which song had to be recorded.” Chris finished his interview by praising the musical accompaniment in the song, exclaiming that “the two guitar solos on the song kill!”
Spectrum Fusion is proud to have such a diligent and talented member as Chris Martin, and is thrilled to have a new song to play at Reactor Room events. We would all like to thank Chris for his amazing work, and are honored to be able to further showcase his talents to audiences all around the world!
