Music

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is now making EDM

by Richard Howard

April 18, 2016

The man behind the biggest privacy leaks in history is making techno with Jean Michel Jarre.

Edward Snowden: whistleblower, enemy of the US government… electronic music vocalist? Yep, the man whose face no doubt adorns multiple dartboards at the Pentagon has made that inevitable celebrity step of a foray into music.

If you’re hoping Snowden unveils a heavenly set of diva-esque pipes while singing about overcoming a broken heart, you’re out of luck. On the song “Exit” which will appear on French composer and electronic music pioneer Jean Michel Jarre’s new LP Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise, the former CIA employee sticks to the script. After pounding frantically along for about three minutes, the track breaks down into an ominous drone, over which Snowden muses on privacy rights:

“Saying that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different that saying you don’t care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say. It’s a deeply antisocial principle because rights are not just individual, they’re collective. What may not have value to you today may have value to an entire population… If you don’t stand up for it, then who will?”

The track, which would pair well with any of the Bourne films, was fittingly completed during a clandestine meeting between the two men in Russia where Snowden remains in exile. Check it out below: