i have a friend working on a article to put in music magazines or other publications and he was asking me for advice about how to write it. you know, from a musicians standpoint the way that things are written can have a very different effect on us than it does to the average person reading an article. since he's a musician as well, i definitely wanted to remind him of that.
anyway, the article is tentatively titled: "When Power Chords Lose their Power." (he's obviously an acoustic artist, HA! regardless, he's quite amazing.) i had already been thinking a bit about this topic a bit recently when at a practice prior to the mention of this article, my guitarist basically called us out with a comment saying 'i don't want to just play power chords and sing; Taylor Swift does better than that!' (note: it was really weird coming from him. and not just because he'd basically admitted to listening to Taylor Swift...)
so if they have lost their power, then what am i doing? i try to refrain from only playing power chords of course, but sometimes they are hard to avoid using and have been the basis of rock music for a very long time. so what am i doing? i've been thinking about this since i've started playing guitar - playing praise and worship songs for my church youth group. all power chords.
oh come on. i was a convert from bass guitar. it made the adjustment rather simple. and i learned that there was more than power chords rather quickly.
so then, even with that development, what makes my music stand out from the other 'developed' sounds out there. why listen to me, and what makes me relevant even if i DO use power chords.
rhythm.
i've always had a knack for it, but i'm really beginning to embrace the reasons for my using them so much. i've recently been paying more attention to the lyrics of songs in regards to where i write them and when, etc. i find that most of my song writing occurs while on our bustling highways and thoroughfares of southern california. the rhythms of driving and sitting and driving and sitting; the sounds of the different cars going by; the stress of knowing that you'll be late to your destination because someone ahead of you decided their text was more important than the other cars on the road. all of that is in my songs in one was or another.
Kindred Fall is a victim of these same feelings because i am the main songwriter. i've been trying to find where our place is in the music scene (if that so exists here in orange county), and i think that this may help define it. we DO indeed belong here, maybe even more so than some others because we feel what everyone does and our music is the expression we have to give from it.
so, power chords or now, the evolution will still occur. unconventional rhythms, driving rhythms, a-rhythms all have their place in the structure of a song. and may be the defining factor in determining it's worth. not just a chord progression.
i will have to incorporate this into our kick-azz bio soon. more concise of course. until then---