JEDI HoloNet

Diplomat Senator Dje Zait’ou, representing the Bryx sector, has today come under scrutiny for an outburst during the HoloNet News’ Late-Night Show segment. Interviewed last evening on the subject of the upcoming summit on Rannon, Senator Zait’ou was prompted on the subject of today’s youth and their future in today’s Republic. This caused Zait’ou to become visibly agitated, and he began describing his discovery of a, and I quote, “Dangerous new gang, ‘The Wraiths’”, and the “Vile grating noises they call music.”

This is what he had to say.

Senator Dje Zait’ou: And the worst part of it all is some of our young ones out there actually listen to them! And they agree and start trying to dress up like them, then it’ll be acting like them! I’ve done the research, the things they tell our kids in their so-called music, it’s sickening. Those “Ghosts” people slander our good senators, those working hard to make the lives they live possible, and they glorify laziness and apathy. If you ask me what the best thing we can do for the youth, it’s to keep them from influences like those… Those “Phantoms” people! We just can’t let that happen!

Talk Show Hostess: I understand your concerns… But the Republic protects their right to write the lyrics they want to, and after all, aren’t art and political commentary the first to go when democracy is threatened? Shouldn’t we cherish the space we have for this music and let people decide for themselves?

Zait’ou: Of course, I agree. Our Galactic Republic, an exemplar of democracy, welcomes art and freedom to each individual. What I am saying is their ideologies are directly opposed to that of the Republic, and if they manage to spread any of it to our youth, it’ll be like corroding the foundations of the future we’re building. And if it all comes crumbling down, don’t come asking me how it could’ve happened. It’s all right there, with those–

::He performs very visible and exaggerated air quotes::

– “Artists”, like those “The Specters” and all others like them.

Lacking an adequate opposing party to his arguments, I have sought and found “The Wraiths” myself and have earned an interview with them on the subject of the Senator. They have asked for their homeworld and real names to be kept private for the time being. We were sitting in old but comfortable chairs in Nova’s, the lead female human singer, family home’s basement that had been rearranged as a makeshift recording studio.

Truthseeker: Can you tell me about yourselves?

Nova: We’re “The Wraiths,” Or at least that’s the band name we picked out. At the time we figured it made sense because we felt we were invisible and ignored. Now not so much, I suppose. We make the music we want to listen to, and write stuff that speaks to us, and hopefully those who listen to us. Sure, it gets dark sometimes, but it’s just for style, we don’t mean harm.

Truthseeker: What is your opinion concerning Senator Dje Zait’ou’s poor review of your work?

Clone, Ommni Box Player: [A series of expletives is uttered in the Roonan language, the translation of which I cannot place here.]

Talisman, Hallikset Player: Nevermind him, he’s still angry the Senator got our name wrong, like… A dozen times.

Nova: The senator is set in his ways. At his age he probably remembers the mess with Hela Amarggill and thinks we’re all out to cause trouble and hate the Republic, but it’s not true. We’re just honest with what we think and what we feel, and that just happens to not fit with the ideal of the happy little citizens he wishes we were.

Truthseeker: What would that be?

Nova: It’s a complex subject, but the gist of it we think a lot of those our age agree with. These past few years the Republic’s leadership has been incompetent at best, willfully ignorant at worst. You’ve heard it all already, the gross mishandling of the Trade Embargo recently, for example. Or the mess in the Gordian Reach, the homelessness rate… But the most frustrating part is the senate, they’re blind to it all, they just focus on keeping themselves to meaningless factions, scheming and fighting like the senator off in the apartment next door is the enemy because he’s a “war hawk” or a “diplomat”. But nothing you and I can do about it, that’s why we’re all “The Wraiths”, we’re invisible to them.

Talisman: Don’t end on like, a depressing note again.

Nova: Thank you, I’ve almost forgotten, the new chancellor, Naka Rei, he doesn’t seem so bad for a grandpa, if you ask me it looks like his whole thing is playing all the sides, and ending up the reasonable one. Maybe that summit’ll go well, I hope it does.

Following the viral publicity of the outburst, there was a surge of interest in their older debut work. Fans describe the music as at times high-energy and fast paced with intricate Hallikset playing, and other times as slower, more ethereal, and with deeper, stronger bass frequencies from the Ommni Box. All followed with an enchanting and relatively matured voice of the Lead.

In reaction to the spike in popularity, the Wraiths have announced their first self-published album, “Hyper-Rapture”, set to release on the Fete of Lost Ones at the end of the year, as well as a planned tour in key Republic worlds of the Core and Mid Rims in the following cycles.

This was Truthseeker Mikhceikh Clan Bakh’tor, published independently from Coruscant’s orbit, by the HoloNet Relay.