Casimir Veles changed my life. As the front man for Effective Disorder, and before that The Book of Veles, he commanded attention and got the audience to question everything, even what they would consider "music." He lived his life pushing people to see the reality of things they would rather ignore. He taught us we don't have to accept the roles that other people assign us and fought for the idea that if you can outsmart the system, you don't have to listen to what it tells you.
A lot of people didn't get what he was trying to do. He pissed a lot of people off, and while the story is that his death was an overdose, it still bothers me that there were no witnesses and so many people relieved after he was gone.
I try to hold on to his memory, uncorrupted, uncompromising and fucking hardcore, but sometimes when I think about the times we shared, I worry I'm just remembering the stories, not the man.
