Credits and Album Cover for "Morri's Rock Boutique"Airport Incident After Festival Performance
Becomes
Tipping Point for Politically-Charged New Release
Chicago-based progressive rock project
Refestramus announces the release of its new single, “Goodbye, America,”
arriving January 2, 2026. The song is an explicit political statement that confronts
empire, sanctions, and moral blowback, drawing on mythology and lived
experience to ask hard questions about power and accountability.
At the center of the song is Kashay
Besmertny, a figure from Russian folklore whose “deathless” power comes from
hiding his soul outside his own body. Derek uses him as a metaphor for empires
that can no longer feel the human cost of their actions.
Refestramus returned to the United
States from Heathrow Airport in November after performing at the UK progressive
rock festival HRH Prog 15, where the band performed with acclaimed progressive
musicians including David Jackson (of classic prog act Van der Graaf Generator)
and Alex Hutchings from Steven Wilson’s touring band.
Following the performance, Refestramus
founder Derek Ferguson was involved in a routine customer-service dispute at
Heathrow that escalated when a comment about documenting the interaction online
was recorded as “threatening.” No safety or security incident occurred, but the
experience proved formative.
“What struck me wasn’t the
inconvenience,” Ferguson says. “It was how quickly ordinary speech can now be
reclassified as ‘threatening’ in environments shaped by preemptive
harm-prevention frameworks that can unintentionally normalize intimidating
behavior within authority structures. In combination with similar dynamics
playing out elsewhere, you realize how easily systems meant to protect people
end up allowing some people to exercise power over others.”
Ferguson adds that the moment resonated
precisely because it echoed concerns closer to home, “not across borders.”
The band stresses that the incident
itself is not the story, but rather a real-world illustration of the themes
explored in “Goodbye, America,” which addresses the human cost of sanctions,
displacement, and moral distance.
Lyrics include:
Mothers left out on the street,
Your sanctions left no food to eat.
America, the things you do —
I see now they’re coming back to you.
“Goodbye America” features Octarine Sky’s
Jan Christiana (vocals, keyboards, guitars, and bass) and Dyanne Potter Voegtlin
(keyboards and vocals), and bandleader/writer Derek Ferguson (drums).
“Goodbye, America” is the central
movement of a longer ten-minute composition on the forthcoming album “Morri’s
Rock Boutique” titled “Deathless,” which uses the Kashay myth to trace how
unchecked power ultimately consumes even those who wield it.
“Goodbye, America” will be released as a standalone single on January 2, 2026. The album “Morri’s Rock Boutique,” which is produced by Ian Beabout, follows on March 20, 2026.
“Deathless” will be available on streaming media on March 6.
Fan Link https://fanlink.tv/goodbyeAmerica
“Goodbye, America” lyrics
By Refestramus
So many people died, and what was it all for?
The parts they played in America's war.
Our lives are prisons – we will never be free,
And our cells are made with magic
that’s so strong you cannot see.
As if taken by Kashay Besmertny,
America you’ve gotten so hard to see.
It seems as if with every war,
You vanished just a little more.
Mothers left out on the street.
Your sanctions left no food to eat.
America, the things you do
I see now are coming back to you.
C 2026 Derek Ferguson/Refestramus Music
Publishing (ASCAP), All Rights Reserved
About
Refestramus:
Refestramus is a Chicago-based progressive rock project blending literate
songwriting, political reflection, and classic prog influences. The band’s work
explores power, memory, displacement, and moral responsibility in an
increasingly rule-saturated world.
For more
information:
https://refestramus.com
https://refestramus.bandcamp.com
