The Politics of Dancing

Matthew Herbert’s latest masterpiece sounds off against the oil industry

Speaking of which, your latest album, “Scale,” is a statement against the oil companies and our relentless pursuit of fossil fuels. It’s a timely subject, but one that the world has been struggling with for quite a while. What made you decide to pursue this topic at this particular moment?

Personally, it was part of my research for “Plat du Jour,” my previous record, which was all about the food industry. I’ve been reading about oil for a long time but went a little further and realized the biggest consumer of oil is the food industry. We associate oil with cars and high prices in our gas tanks, but actually it’s the entire structure of our civilization in the West. I’ve always been aware of it, but it wasn’t until “Plat du Jour” that I realized quite how entirely we rely on it. Then reading further, it seemed we may have actually reached “peak oil,” in which case we’ve got quite a big adjustment immediately ahead of us.

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