Chronic Lying Makes You Impotent: The Ember Files - Log 9
To read previous log - Log 8 - click here.
Interview with VEGA, WYATT – lead singer and guitarist for Lo-Fire Radio
Filed by: Dr. C. Moraine
Date: December 7, 2023
Access Level: 3 – Institute Archive
Classification: Witness Statement – Subjective Fragment
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
Moraine: Wyatt, I want your take on someone you might know. Rook Wetherell.
Wyatt: (smirks) Yeah. I know of him.
Moraine: You two ran in the same circles?
Wyatt: L.A. music scene? Everyone overlaps. He’s been haunting it forever. Always at somebody’s gig or session, always dropping names he shouldn’t.
Moraine: What’s your impression?
Wyatt: (rolls eyes) He wants to be the Bukowski of the dive bar set. But not the real Bukowski. The myth. The self-destructive poet king of piss and ruin.
Moraine: What’s the difference?
Wyatt: (leans forward) Bukowski knew he was a mess. That was the point. He didn’t curate it. He didn’t package it. He bled it.
Rook? He curates the mess. He’s got mood boards for authenticity. He’s Frankensteining it out of other people’s real shit.
Moraine: So you think he’s a fraud.
Wyatt: He’s not even an interesting fraud. He’s a fucking scrap collector. Steals people’s trauma, their best lines, their worst nights and collages it into his little guru act.
Moraine: Ever steal from you?
Wyatt: Not me. But I’ve watched him do it. He once told me a story like it was his. Thing is I was there. It happened to my best friend. I didn’t call him on it. Didn’t seem worth it.
Moraine: Why not?
Wyatt: (shrugs) Because back then, he was fun. We all were. We'd get fucked up for days, do whatever, whoever. Whole scene was a fucking carnival. A sideshow of freak shit.
Moraine: Sounds wholesome.
Wyatt: (laughs) It was what it was. But even then, you knew he was a bullshitter. Could talk music forever, though. He’s got knowledge. Right until he started lying about who he’d toured with.
Moraine: He still playing?
Wyatt: Playing at it. These days it’s all black clothes and secret-society bullshit. Calls himself sacred. Like he’s some sonic exorcist.
Moraine: You don’t buy it.
Wyatt: (snorts) It’s the same tired act with new branding. He calls it growth but it’s just running.
Bukowski didn’t run. He sat in the wreckage. Owned the ugliness. That’s what made it art.
Rook hides in the myth and calls it holy. He’s not Bukowski. He read Bukowski back in the day, learned some Dylan, and thought this is a vibe.
Moraine: Why do you think he does it?
Wyatt: (pauses) Because he didn’t have it. Not really. Couldn’t make it on raw talent. That’s the tragedy. He knew he wasn’t enough. So he built this mystical hustle to patch the holes.
Moraine: You almost sound sorry for him.
Wyatt: Don’t get it twisted. I’m not. It’s just accurate. He’s sad, sure. But that doesn’t make him interesting. Or harmless.
Moraine: Harmful how?
Wyatt: He’s not gonna stab you in an alley. He’s just gonna steal your worst day, remix it, and call it enlightenment.
Moraine: Ever threaten you?
Wyatt: Nah. He’s not a threat. He’s an irritant. Scene’s full of them. He’s just especially committed to the bit.
Moraine: Anything else I should know?
Wyatt: (arches brow) Why do you even care? You running some kind of exposé?
Moraine: Just gathering perspectives.
Wyatt: (leans back) Well. If you figure out what broke him, let me know. It might help me next time he corners me with his mystic bullshit.
END TRANSCRIPT
INSTITUTE ANALYST NOTE
Wyatt Vega demonstrates:
No awareness of Rook’s relationship to Observer Luz.
Consistent with local music-scene witness accounts.
Confirms subject’s sustained pattern of narrative theft and curated persona.
Witness’s language reflects both contempt and clear-eyed understanding, highlighting the performative failure to integrate trauma.
END OF LOG 9
To read the next log - Log 9.1 - click here.
