Journal of a RocknRolla: #5 New Format For Bands pt.1

 

Prologue: The Conversation

With this diary note I would like to share several interesting thoughts about bands that are pushing the underground scene today. A huge inspiration and unique finds. Let’s go.

Late night in the patio of a noisy club, surrounded by rowdy crowd covered in cigarette smoke. In one of the corners you can see someone desperately trying to hide his attempt at doing blow from a key. The walls are shaking from a consistent pounding of low frequencies hitting the room.

- Cool, man, so what’s your band’s name?

- It’s “The Hate Club” 

Both laugh…
- What do you play?

- It’s only digital instruments, like midi controllers and keys.

- That’s tight, dude. How many of you are there in your band?

- Just one.

The Format

A certain movement has been growing over the past few years in the underground community. Recently the wave is confidently making its way to the big scene.

The instruments changed…. live instruments are now competing with the “cool stuff”. I think this is quite predictable, most of the live instruments in the band scene have been around for almost a century. Digital gear opens the world to sounds and performances never used before. You can virtually generate any sound you can imagine and mess around with it.

A few drawbacks worth mentioning is that digital gear can be slightly limiting when it comes to the depth of touch and expression you experience playing a live instrument….I mean the physicality of the process. However, the digital tech is catching up.

Instead of seeing 3 - 5 dudes galloping the stage, now it’s probably gonna be a duo or a solo act. In separate occasions joined by a guest singer or a bunch of instrumentalists, typically for theatrics rather than any practical reason…..looking at you Big Gigantic :P

Missio on photo^^^

One of the most challenging things here is to brand this format. Typically, it won’t fit one particular genre, but rather an amalgamation of musical sources. Some will lean towards electronic and some towards something more extreme

The Genre

The most frequently occuring term to describe the sound is Alternative Electronic…. It’s funny but even the musicians don’t quite know what it is. It’s all about making music that comes out naturally rather than playing a specific genre.

This is it for the pt.1...I’m going to upload all the bands and their music for you to check out tomorrow. Comment with your thoughts and if there's a band you think should be featured on here!

Much love,

Alex