New music recorded in summer 2025 written, performed and produced by Issa Ibrahim.
On July 4th in the summer of 1989, my mind declared independence from shared reality. After several months I became full blown psychotic. Following a horrific family tragedy and given the Insanity Plea, I was committed to Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, NY.
Gifted with a guitar from a forbidden love and getting reacquainted with my raw musical talents, the songs just poured out of me. With plenty of time on my hands and a functioning instrument, I banged out scores of original compositions, alternating between adrenalized punk/pop or mournful folk/blues, informed by the early work of Chuck Berry, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello.
Self-recording since 2004, officially releasing CDs while institutionalized, my early output was captured surreptitiously on a Fostex portable 16-track digital recorder with an internal CD burner, featuring me playing all instruments and doing all the singing. I recorded in bathrooms and bedrooms of the locked ward of the hospital.
I was fortunate to win release from the asylum in 2009, and subsequent albums were recorded in the same multi-tracked one-man-band fashion at halfway houses while living on the campus and now at my apartment in Queens. Though I’ve embraced newer tools and more modern recording techniques, I continue to cultivate the naïve charm of my early releases, channeling the resilience and self-determination of those desperate days, the ingenuity and seat-of-your-pants creativity born from lack and gumption.
This album’s title is inspired by the indomitable spirit and paraphrased from Samuel Beckett. I felt this resilience and passion in the face of adversity while in the asylum and it’s still with me. Though my life has greatly improved I now employ the phrase to my music making. Emotionally winded by the rise of fascism in America, it takes all that I have to remain positive, and music helps ease the pain. So, if you too need a balm, an uplift, or an anthem to rally around you may find it here. And never lose hope because you can go on, you must go on, and you will go on.
New music recorded in summer 2025 written, performed and produced by Issa Ibrahim.
On July 4th in the summer of 1989, my mind declared independence from shared reality. After several months I became full blown psychotic. Following a horrific family tragedy and given the Insanity Plea, I was committed to Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, NY.
Gifted with a guitar from a forbidden love and getting reacquainted with my raw musical talents, the songs just poured out of me. With plenty of time on my hands and a functioning instrument, I banged out scores of original compositions, alternating between adrenalized punk/pop or mournful folk/blues, informed by the early work of Chuck Berry, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello.
Self-recording since 2004, officially releasing CDs while institutionalized, my early output was captured surreptitiously on a Fostex portable 16-track digital recorder with an internal CD burner, featuring me playing all instruments and doing all the singing. I recorded in bathrooms and bedrooms of the locked ward of the hospital.
I was fortunate to win release from the asylum in 2009, and subsequent albums were recorded in the same multi-tracked one-man-band fashion at halfway houses while living on the campus and now at my apartment in Queens. Though I’ve embraced newer tools and more modern recording techniques, I continue to cultivate the naïve charm of my early releases, channeling the resilience and self-determination of those desperate days, the ingenuity and seat-of-your-pants creativity born from lack and gumption.
This album’s title is inspired by the indomitable spirit and paraphrased from Samuel Beckett. I felt this resilience and passion in the face of adversity while in the asylum and it’s still with me. Though my life has greatly improved I now employ the phrase to my music making. Emotionally winded by the rise of fascism in America, it takes all that I have to remain positive, and music helps ease the pain. So, if you too need a balm, an uplift, or an anthem to rally around you may find it here. And never lose hope because you can go on, you must go on, and you will go on.
