At times, we (as a band) have been described as 'controversial', whatever that means. In today's musical climate, however, controversy is not the guarantee of success that it once was. If a band were to declare themselves to be 'bigger than Jesus' in next week's NME, I doubt the moral majority would flinch. The word 'controversial' is often overused and misunderstood, in my opinion. Controversy is created, in my eyes, for the sake of itself. It is no means to an end, but an end in and of itself. To be controversial is to attract attention solely for the act of controversy. Nothing more is asked by the instigator (if the controversy was planned) and nothing more than attention is expected from the audience. I believe that our band perhaps strayed into the land of controversy at times, not least due to my reluctance to think before I opened my mouth at times, but I believe that more often than not we were provocative rather than controversial.

The difference may be subtle, but there is certainly a difference between the two. To provoke is to engage in an action that will, through its effects, result in another action from the subject of this provocation. Provocation is not content with its own being – it seeks change, whether this is a change of mind or a change of action. The end result is infinitely more important than the act of provocation itself. The black power movement, for instance, could be described as provocative rather than controversial. Whilst many would find it difficult to support the notion of black supremacy rather than racial equality across the board, it was important for a movement such as black power to emerge after centuries of repression by white supremacists. If a scale has been tipped to one side for too long, sometimes it is necessary to redress the balance through extreme reaction from the other side. Whilst there will inevitably be those who truly support this tipping of the scales in the other direction, the overwhelming majority, one would hope, see this provocative action as being one step along the path towards perfectly balanced scales.

When we sing lines like 'selflessness is a lie', for instance, it should not necessarily be interpreted as a literal truth. Indeed, anyone would be hard pressed to deny that there are some people in the world who are truly selfless. It would be a great disrespect to, for instance, the young single mother who gives up all her time in order to care for her child. The line exists in order redress the balance. We live in strange times, where two million people will actively 'support' a campaign to end third world debt by attempting to obtain tickets for a rock concert, whilst many of these same people will buy clothes made in sweat shops. Encouraged to believe that their actions are truly selfless, many will believe that all it takes to help the world out is a gesture, rather than real action. This notion of selflessness is fundamentally flawed, and a line like 'selflessness is a lie' represents this notion, even if it at first appears to be a sweeping generalisation.

Likewise, when the line 'a prayer for death at the Vatican' is sung, it is hoped that the listener will not interpret this as a direct call for the death of Pope Benedict, but a response to the overwhelming evils committed by the Catholic church throughout its many years. In a similar fashion, it may be said that our culture is not really 'drowning in its own scum', but this response is necessary when faced with such banality as Celebrity Love Island and the absence of real feeling in much of today's culture. Sure, there are great moments still happening within the culture of our generation, but the scales are so heavily tipped in favour of mediocrity that an extreme response is required, hence the aforementioned line.

Kinesis sought to provoke at all times. We did not see being in a band as an end in itself, like so many other bands do. We were not content with simply sustaining a level of success that would allow us to continue in a band and separate ourselves from reality. Instead we wanted change. Perhaps at times we were obvious in our targets, but sure it can be said that the targets we chose were obvious for a reason. Perhaps our lyrics we like a weather girl telling you it's raining. Remember though, that there is nothing you can do to stop the rain, and there is certainly much that can be done about the dilemmas we mentioned in our lyrics. To provoke a response from our listeners was our prime aim – change the desired end result. When we ask for the head of George Bush it was not simply for the sake of controversy, but in order to force people to face up to difficult questions – why did a group of teenagers feel so strongly about this? I hope that our music provoked some of you to explore areas of life that you would otherwise have ignored. If only one of you has done this, the importance of provocation will have been demonstrated.

Conor