I've been writing derivative songs since I was a teenager. “1984” is, of course, a reference to George Orwell's dystopian cautionary tale, which saw a huge spike in popularity during Trump’s first term (its popularity spiked again at the beginning of Trump's second term). Upon hearing Prince's “1999” recently on Denver’s Indie 102.3, I realized it could be reworked into “1984.” When I later remembered that Prince was from Minneapolis – the epicenter of ICE's biggest operation to date – I became obsessed with stewarding “1984” into being. Mexican-American guitarist/producer El Javi and I started working on a demo a few days later. With a little help from LatinSoul, we finished primary recording by the end of the second session. DVLP Academy's Drew Dugan started mixing and mastering that weekend and we had a finished master in a week.

Image: Ryan Plattner