Driving home from another great Super Art Fight event, I had my Apple Music library on shuffle.

Not sure if that’s just a me thing to do, or others handle their music libraries the same way, but that’s not the point.

The song “War on Torpour” from the amazing Canadian post-rock band Do Make Say Think came on, off their 2017 release Stubborn Persistent Illusions.

It’s a hell of a song, and a great kick off to an album. After a slow, yet intense build, the song goes in all sorts of directions.

Here, give it a listen.

Pretty rad, right? Comes in with a lot of energy and a feeling of catharsis, not to mention the drumming is out of this world.

Thing is, for years and years, I just knew that song and its driivng force. Honestly, that’s really what I knew of Do Make Say Think’s music - the sound, the noise, the feeling.

During COVID, I looked up a live performance of the band – and not only is there a killer rendition on YouTube, via House of Strumbo, but I was hit upon not just delight at how well they performed the song, but a reminder that I was seeing – finally – how that incredible noise was made. You can forget that these songs are the efforts of individuals, making noise, together.

That should be timed to the song’s appearance in the video. If not, it’s at 24:45.

It was a crash course for me in not just respecting their efforts, but seeing the craft which spawned it. The magic trick, explained, even if I couldn’t believe it, as my ears and eyes couldn’t jive their perceptions of the work.

I don’t want to sound like an Old Man Yelling at a Cloud here, but I think we forget the art we digest is through the skill and effort of the artesian. They made the magic. Their dedication gave us something to appreciate and love.

And that hung with me on this drive home, how lucky we are to just be able to digest the art of so many, so easily, in a way more accessible than ever before. It’s a lucky time.