Problems Focusing

Find “Problems Focusing” wherever you get your music. It’s that simple.

Spotify | Apple Music | Tidal | Qobuzz | Youtube Music

Amazon | Deezer | Bandcamp | …and many more

If you want to know how it all started, please read on.

It all started IN 2004…

CulturalException Music is a musical project started by Tony Long in Chicago, Illinois, in 2015, later transferring to Lausanne, Switzerland in 2019 where it has been live ever since. The project came about to bring some of the many hundreds of song ideas and finished instrumentals that Long developed over the years and make them available for independent film scoring and other media formats. But the true origins of CulturalException – still rooted in music – go back much further.

In March 2004, Long registered the domain name "culturalexception.com" and started a music blog that focused on bands and songs that were "hors les sentiers battu" - off the beaten path. Over the next few years it became platform for a wider range of topics covering the rapid rise of the internet as a free-range content publishing platform that (in those days) leveled the playing field for content creators who were not part of the world of "big publishing" whether music labels, magazine and book publishing, or television and film studios.

According to Wikipedia, Cultural Exception "is a political concept introduced by France in General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations in 1993 to treat culture differently from other commercial products. In other words, its purpose is to consider cultural goods and services as exceptions in international treaties and agreements. Concretely, it can be seen through protectionist measures limiting the diffusion of foreign artistic work (quotas) or through subsidies distributed according to the country's cultural policy."

In other words, it gives France the right to not allow Rambo films into the country if it so chooses. Perfect!

Tony Long's background includes work as bassist in the 1980's band Mutiny as well as in the 1990's Chicago band Wailing Angels, later renamed Chrome Baby. In the mid 2010's Long reunited with the core bandmates in Samson The Aviator, playing bass with them until 2019.

From 2023, Tony has been working with Canadian singer/songwriter Reins on her hit “Save A Place”, which resulted in a house remix in 2024.

Problems Focusing is the first album release by CulturalException, highlighting tracks that were written anywhere between 2009 and 2024. There remains a massive backlog of music to be explored, and pre-production work on the next album is already underway.