Imagine you're in the future, you wake up, and there's nothing but a blank canvas in front of you...everything has finally been man-made or synthetic material, and the only natural thing left on the entire planet...is you.

You're trapped in some sort of room, and all you know is that you see nothing but white...and think maybe something is on the outside. It's watching and tracking every movement and thought you have, and sometimes you occasionally hear codes through your headset that they placed on you, causing you to carry out whatever those commands equated to.

Lastly, there's a door, it's always been unlocked...but every time you've tried to open it, your captors administer lethal, almost deadly, feelings of pain all through your body via the headset you can't remove. It's always stopped you from opening the door; causing you to retract and retreat back to your "room" as they called it...but you knew damn well it was basically a prison cell. Then one day, you decide to fight the pain, open the door, and get out of that twisted fantasy...finding out along the way as you escape...you are Invincible!

This is what I thought about throughout the process of making this with Acid Paradox; I'm nothing without him as he made the original samples of this and guided me on how I should put this masterpiece together :)

LYRICS

Verse 1

There was a time
When life wasn't always (Synchronization lost, attempting to resync)
A cheap simulation

Outside my walls
There's nothing but
Upgrades and optimizations

My brain is part
Of a software
That always
Needs some connection
(Synchronization Restored)
There is no sky, no clouds
Just an empty texture

STORY TIME

Acid Paradox is the main reason I got into DJing, and I’m forever grateful to him for guiding me and being the big brother I never had. This track has been in the works for almost as long as I’ve known Ruben. We met online July 2013 after I did some research and found his personal Facebook. Thankfully he responded to my “fanboy message” and he introduced me to Traktor DJ, the program made by Native Instruments, that I’ve always used for anything I’ve made related to music. Soon after he started sending me samples of what new songs he was working on; along with giving me input and feedback on what I myself was working on.

In October 2013 he sent 1 sample I thought was one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard. I told immediately whenever he made progress on that specific song, to please send me everything on it. My reason for that was because I wanted to make a remix of it as soon as it was released to the public. So for the next few months he sent me sample after sample, and I kept loving what I heard because I had a feeling this was going to be one of his best works since “Prime”.

There were 9 files in total by the time November rolled around, and I waited patiently for him to say when it would be released since I completed a remix of it shortly after that Thanksgiving. I continued my patience, waiting for him to finally release it, but then in May 2014, he sent me the 10th and final file, which was supposed to be the final product. I was glad to finally have all the pieces, but was a little frustrated because as mentioned above, I had a remix already made. I was fine with it since I could always just start over.

3 years pass...and this is one still one of the saddest days of my life...I get a message from Acid on May 2017. He said his hard drive got fried again due to a storm, and it was unsalvageable...meaning he had lost everything for the 2nd time (he had a similar incident when he was working on Prime EP in 2011). He also ended up telling me that this time...he was potentially retiring for good this time. I sat there for a good few hours...not knowing what to do, because although you have friends that can help...it’s nearly impossible to replace a mentor that had become like family to you.

The timing was terrible, because shortly after I had a falling out with my roommates at the time, on top of trying to finish the semester strong, it legitimately sucked to be me. I ended up moving back home after the semester finished...and ultimately fell back into a depression I’ve been dealing with most of my life.

I have friends and hobbies, but most of you with depression know full well that those things don't matter when you just wanna be alone, and try to figure out how to beat it and move on with your day, acting like everything is alright. Let me tell ya: those were a humbling 2 years of "self-rehab" and music hiatus.

Fast forwarding to this month; I’m in a much better place in terms of my mental health and overall well being. I have a fantastic paying job, and I plan to start really working on redefining myself, along with starting to get my name out there in the music world.

I have plenty of other Acid Paradox related content I plan to share in the future; but this is the most special to me. He basically gave me Invincible to claim as my own song (as long as I give him the proper credit and all that good stuff), and frankly, I couldn't think of a better first upload to Newgrounds than this.

I hope you all enjoy this as I put in a lot of hard work, heart, and effort to make sure this song is up to Acid Paradox’s standards. I don’t know where I would be without his support, along with my friends, family, and God...I’ll eventually be putting this particular song eventually on iTunes, Spotify, and wherever else once I get that mumbo jumbo figured out!

Till next time Newgrounds, and for future reference this will be where I put my uploads first before any other platform, so stay tuned!

- Steven