(Listen to the song in here)

“All These Worlds Are Yours” was by far the most painful song to write for the “Player Characters” album and took five months to write. Here’s a video about my frustrations from that time.

I have no idea why it just didn’t come out like the others did.

Sometimes songwriting is like that.

But eventually it did materialise and I’m very satisfied with the composition.

As always, eternal gratitude goes to my producer Juho who again made the song glimmer and sparkle like it should.

What is it about?

Thematically the song tells about a world where people are seeking to gain bigger influence for fame and fortune and about the related struggles within.

That… does sound like much of ours, but this one’s set in the future.

There, a content creator discovers that the immortality of their legacy lies in understanding people’s desire to belong to a group of selected few and in making sure that the riff raff stays out of it.

The influencer, driven by the desire for universal reach but struggling with gaining any traction, manages to build an empire of content protected by algorithmic walls – their own “flaming sword.”

Yet unlike the biblical narrative where God placed the sword to prevent access to knowledge, my protagonist uses it to guard their carefully curated digital legacy. The fact that his (her? I still have no idea) content is now gated catches people’s attention. It’s human nature to demand access to what’s hidden. 

Meanwhile, the irony isn’t lost: in attempting to control their digital legacy, the influencer ends up mirroring the very systems of power they initially challenged.

Thus, the song’s resolution presents a paradox: while the influencer achieves a form of digital immortality, the preservation highlights the finite nature of their physical existence.

This reminds me about a recent corporate discussion of data privacy, digital rights, and information control.

In our current landscape, several entities act as modern knowledge gatekeepers:

• Tech Giants: Companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter controlling information flow through algorithms, then banishing people who break the policies.
• Government Agencies: Using classification systems and surveillance to manage access to information. The god like Big Brother is watching.
• Corporate Entities: Protecting intellectual property and trade secrets, for example those of us who are artists!
• Educational Institutions: Traditional gatekeepers of academic knowledge and the sometimes irrational suspicions of the greater public.
• Media Conglomerates: creating and controlling true and fake narratives, then playing people against each other.

Each of these modern “guardians” echoes the flaming sword, determining who gets access to what knowledge and when – raising questions about power, control, and the nature of digital presence.

Literary Connection

The cover art, drawing from a medieval woodblock print, presents a merchant counting his coins, while Death stands next to him with an hourglass and pitchfork. This image, inspired by an image in Arturo Perez-Reverte’s El Club Dumas, connects to a broader theme present across all my “Player Characters” cover artwork – the price and consequence of gaining knowledge.

In my interpretation, shot in the Baroque Hall of the fantastic Lebell Merchant House, I play the role of a modern businessman who not only counts but flaunts his wealth.

Meanwhile, Death, played very impressively by my good friend Dag, is stepping through the door reminding the merchant that his time is up. But, the merchant couldn’t care less. He’s got money to spend.

The hourglass, notably different from Death’s traditional scythe, suggests that time – not death itself – is humanity’s true constraint.

However, if you look at the original image, there is a word under it that can be translated as “FRUSTRA” which means “In vain”. This means that you may be a king or a queen and wealthy or not but eventually your time will be up.

And with these elements present, the image is asking the same question as all the cover arts of my Player Characters album: is it wealth or knowledge you’re seeking and what to do once you’ve found it – and – in the case of this particular image: is it all in vain?

The legacy YOU leave behind will tell.

Making the music

When I started writing the songs for Player Characters, one initial idea was to have an arpeggiator in every song.

Duran Duran’s “Last Chance On The Stairway” was a candidate reference which I wanted eventually to use, but it took a long time before I found the right place for it. “All These Worlds Are Yours” ended up being that place, and my producer Juho did a great job in adjusting it for our purposes.

Another overarching theme on Player Characters is dualism. One way to create that dualism is to write about something serious, but make it sound fun.

That’s what I tried to make “All These Worlds Are Yours”. The melody goes up and down somewhat heroically (as I tend to say), and Juho’s choices of instruments create a carefree atmosphere.

To add to that we used the drum, bass and horn combo from the Playstation game “Crash Test Racing” in the C part. That always makes me smile.

It’s all in the past

Philosophies aside, in the post-production stage I had one more idea: let’s meme-ify the promo content for this single with something completely different – and that’s when I remembered The Bayeux Meme Generator, which today is called the Historic Tale Construction Kit.

So I went and added a layer to the song’s visuals that look like a Medieval tapestry, speaks about modern digital content creation, presents Poliphilos as the architect and has space aliens!

On top of everything else that’s going on, this layer finally memeifys the whole message.

Not sure if it’s all too much but I myself laughed all the way when constructing the videos in Canva.

Hope you can enjoy the absurdity of it all. 😉