Mark Thomas Responds to Fan Reaction to Overcome

Mark Thomas - DisasterTheory lead vocalist

With the release of DisasterTheory’s new single Overcome, there have been mixed reactions to the song. This is to be expected with any release from any artist. However, much of the negative reaction to the song has taken on, what seems to be more of a political tirade rather than fair commentary or criticism.

“Any fan of mine who’s a supporter of his, I’m drawing in the sand a line. You’re either for or against, and if you can’t decide who you like more and you’re split on who you should stand beside, I’ll do it for it for you with this: F— you.”

This is likely due to one of the song’s featured voices, Marshall Mathers (aka Eminem). In recent times the “Rap God” rapper has come under fire for his political rants in his music, causing conservative listeners to throw a lot of shade toward the rapper. This primarily came after the rapper called out Trump supporters at the 2017 BET awards with “Any fan of mine who’s a supporter of his, I’m drawing in the sand a line. You’re either for or against, and if you can’t decide who you like more and you’re split on who you should stand beside, I’ll do it for it for you with this: F— you.”

While DisasterTheory frontman Mark Thomas says he completely understands fan reaction to the rapper’s statement, he also has a completely different take on issues like this and fan reaction to DisasterTheory’s new single Overcome.

Thomas stated “Yeah I’ve noticed the political undertones of recent criticism of Overcome. It’s unfortunate. Many seem to like the song while some are intent on labeling us politically because of who is in it. We don’t see things from this perspective. Some simply cannot help but bring their politics into every facet of life, even where it doesn’t belong. This goes for entertainer as well as fans and it’s sad. Music should be an escape from that garbage and that pettiness. We strive very hard to stay out of politics and to keep politics out of our music. Some rap/metal artists like to showcase their political hatred in a way to lure fans into clicking and streaming their music. That’s never been us. Fans do not deserve to be preached to by entertainers and told what they should and should not believe. Likewise, we do not have to agree with another artist’s political beliefs in order to appreciate their art or their craft. Having an artist in our song does not automatically align us with their beliefs. It’s petty and sad that most music fans will tell you that they wish politics were left out of music (we agree), while simultaneously injecting their own politics onto an artist or their music. We won’t entertain that petty hate filled shit from either side. We also don’t think it’s too much to ask, not to push that garbage into our corner of the room. Ultimately that truly is the problem when it comes to both sides of this situation and debate. Each one touts their own righteousness while spewing hatred toward one another. Every once in a while, they try to pull innocent bystanders into the middle of it, label them and then put the responsibility on the innocent bystander to answer for it. We won’t play that game. It’s one thing if you genuinely do not like a song. It’s completely different when you just want to shit on something because of what you think the political stance is of the artist or the song.”