I write songs because music is what people hold onto when conversations stop reaching them. When words turn defensive and walls go up, a melody can slip through the cracks. Sometimes truth doesn’t land when it’s argued across a table — it lands when it’s felt in the quiet of a verse, in a line that sounds like your own life. Music doesn’t force agreement. It invites recognition. And sometimes that’s the only way the heart will listen.
The artist behind the song tracks for Chrome Horse Records is Don Hackford. Don was born in 1945 in Queens, New York and attended Catholic Schools while growing up there. Later Don graduated from the State University at Farmingdale NY and John Jay College in New York City.
He received his Masters of Arts in Sociology from Saint John’s University in Queens NY, his Masters of Arts in Criminal Justice from the State University at Albany NY, and his Masters of Arts in Mathematics from City College New York.
Throughout his academic career, and after, Don explored and researched the subject of Natural Selection, Sociobiology, and Human Nature, and continued to write on these subjects. He made a study of 177 family trees and the extended families in each, resulting in, in-depth discoveries about the lives of thousand of individuals over many generations, and the outcomes of decisions these individuals made.
Don held many jobs in his young life, from dishwasher to factory worker. Following his graduation from the State University at Farmingdale NY with a degree in Engineering Science, Don was hired by Grumman Aerospace in Bethpage, NY to serve on the design team for the Lunar Lander.
In 1968, Don joined the New York City Police Department, rising through the ranks from Patrolman, to Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain and finally Deputy Inspector.
During his career with the NYPD, Don experienced many profound, life-shaping moments that brought deep personal insights as well as significant challenges. These experiences—together with his independent study and academic development—have shaped his worldview and deepened his understanding of human circumstances, choices, and consequences, all of which strongly inform and enrich his songwriting.
Don has observed that the forces shaping human nature give rise to a wide range of choices men and women make in their pursuit of love and happiness. This observation aligns with The Whisperings Within, in which author David Barash notes: “The biological difference between men and women is absolutely crucial to comprehending sociobiology’s arguments for the behavioral differences between them. Natural selection dictates that individuals will behave in ways that maximize their fitness; consequently, different strategies emerge for the two sexes, given their markedly different biological characteristics.”
Don Hackford – Artist
What Shapes Don’s Understanding and Truth Telling in His Songs?
DECISIONS ARE LARGELY EMOTIONAL, NOT LOGICAL.
“Why Your Best Decisions Aren’t Logical”
Most of us like to think we’re rational. We believe we weigh facts, consider options, and then make smart, logical decisions.
But neuroscience tells us something surprising: almost all decisions are emotional first—and only later justified with logic.
Even when you think you’re being rational, the moment of choice comes from emotion. Logic doesn’t decide. Logic explains.
Now that sounds like a flaw—until you understand where emotions come from.
Your emotions are not random. They are evolution’s shortcuts. They carry information from your DNA—information that has been tested for survival over thousands of generations. Long before humans could analyze data or debate philosophy, emotions were already making fast, life-saving decisions.
Your DNA has one priority: survival and reproduction. Everything else—fear, desire, attachment, competition—exists to serve that goal. What feels like a gut instinct is actually your genetic history speaking up.
Your DNA isn’t interested in truth, fairness, or long-term planning. It has one mission: get your genes into the future. Everything else is a tool to accomplish that.
These emotional systems evolved in a very different world—our ancestral environment. Back then, quick reactions mattered more than careful reasoning. You didn’t have time to think. You had to act.
These systems evolved in what scientists call our ancestral environment—a world very different from modern society. In that world, overthinking could get you killed. Instinct worked better than analysis.
And evolution is not forward-thinking. It doesn’t redesign itself for new conditions. It only preserves what worked in the past.
And here’s the catch: evolution hasn’t updated the software. Our minds were designed for that ancient world, not for modern life, technology, or abstract rules.
That’s why so much of what we do happens automatically and unconsciously. And that’s not a mistake. In fact, sometimes it’s better not to know exactly why we’re doing what we’re doing.
This also explains why trying to change human behavior through reason alone often fails. You can’t talk people out of instincts that were written into their biology long before language existed.
The real insight is this: emotion isn’t the enemy of reason—it’s the foundation of it. If you want to understand people, persuade them, or even understand yourself, you have to start with emotion.
There has been no reason for every evolved behavioral tendency to fall under conscious control. In fact, sometimes it is emphatically not in our genetic interest to be aware of exactly what we are doing or why. No amount of “social engineering” can change what has been encoded by our long past as a successful design in our DNA; and any efforts to counter that design are doomed to failure.