Strange Mangers

By Craig White, Andrew Swartz, Joseph Yuen

Interview With Strange Mangers Lead Singer/Guitarist Dan Lewicki - 

Dan Lewicki Performing "Bottom of The Bag" (Click Link to go to Youtube)

Interview:

C: How do you go about developing a musical idea?

D: In a band setting typically either the bassist or I will come up with a riff or some basic line. We usually have a set of different riffs that we’ll find a way to mold them all together to make them cohesive, even if that means changing the key of one of the riffs or changing the tempo slightly so that they can work together. We’re not into the verse chorus thing. Each song has its own distinct sections of it, so we usually go section by section.

C: Who are some of your influences?

D: Right now, we’re into a lot of late 90s post rock that was going on in, I think, Chicago. There was this whole scene that we didn’t know about until we got a review written about us, which said our sound fits in with the scene. I guess there are bands like Dianogah, Tortoise, American Football, that sort of thing.

C: So you just started playing and then somebody told you?

D: Yea, people were telling us that we fit into the scenes well, and we didn’t even know it existed.

C: How do you work to establish your own sound instead of copying someone else’s?

D: We do have a couple of songs where we do sound like someone else, that is definitely a big concern of ours because our goal of making our music is to be original and show people musical things that have not been shown before. But we do have some odd name songs that are in the works, so we’ll be like “let’s play the blank song, like the song that sounds like these guys.” For me, its frustrating sometimes because I have a pretty good sense of being able to hear a song and know immediately the harmonic structure of it, so it gets frustrating when I write something and I know “oh, here are a list of 10 songs that also have the same progression”. I have to move out of the harmonic part of it and more on the melody.

C: What are you trying to say with your music?

D: Usually, like I said usually we’ll have a beginning riff or something and we’ll usually establish a theme at the beginning of a song not necessarily lyrically but a musical, some sort of theme. Then we have the option of either continuing with the theme for the rest of the song or we’ll totally deviate from it and go somewhere else. I think from song to song, our goal is to make each song either interesting because we carried out the original theme well, or because we did an effective job or starting somewhere and ending somewhere else.

C: So you guys would say you’re more geared towards the musical aspect then instead of trying to say something with your lyrics or poetry?

D: For the most part, as of right now, you’ll notice on the recordings the lyrics are generally pretty low in the mix, and they are there more for the melodic value than anything else. We take a lot of time to make sure the lyrical content is solid, but its not the primary concern. The most important thing is, like you said, the musical aspect of it.

C: What aspects of music do you focus most on?

D: Usually ill have that opening riff, and then I’ll have an implied baseline in my head, so that’s the harmonic part of it. Then we usually build off it, like jam on something for a few minutes. Colin, the drummer, can get the rhythmic aspect of it down. I don’t know, we kind of try all the bases and not leave anything out. I think rhythmically its pretty simple and I think what differentiates us is the harmonic progression. That’s what we focus most on: trying to keep that interesting.

Method of writing:

Dan (guitar) or Nick (bass) will enter a practice session with a few riffs. From these, the band will try to make them work together and develop a more general theme based on these riffs. Dan states that they sometimes must transpose the key of a riff so that it works with another, or within an existing song. This is necessary in order to maintain coherence within a singular composition.

Once the harmonic theme is established, the group will then jam to the theme, create the rhythmic accompaniment and any necessary harmonic deviations. Typically, as Dan says, Colin’s (drums) percussion is “simple.” However, this is not the case with their meter or even tempo. Mixed meter and tempo changes can be heard in several of Strange Mangers’ recordings like “Moths”, sometimes as peculiar as 11/8 or 9/8.

Analysis:

“Bottom of the Bag”

http://strangemangers.bandcamp.com/track/bottom-of-the-bag


C major  - Bb maj 9 no 3 – D minor 7 – F major 7 (10X last time through F is a G maj 7)
F maj 7 6/4 – A minor 7 – C maj 6/4 (8X)
F maj 7 -  G7 (Fades out)

The song’s most intriguing characteristic is its build. There are several layers throughout the recording, which add tension at times and resolution at others. The focus of the song is clearly the harmonic material rather than the lyrical content, unlike most popular music. Another noteworthy aspect of the recording is the articulation. The guitar evolves from a peaceful, almost hypnotizing trance in the beginning, to chaotic shred at the end. This adds to the build of the song and keeps the listener engaged till the end.
During the second chord progression, a series of tenths are played by the higher guitar voice. Strange Mangers manages to use un-traditional chord progressions and voicing to create a unique sound, unexpected of the masses.

Activities Done:

The three of us, Craig, Andrew, and Joe met with Dan Lewicki, the lead guitarist and vocalist for the local band Strange Mangers.  We discussed with him the process that he and his band mates go through when they are looking to write new material.  We tried to get inside the mind of this songwriter and see what drives him to produce music and what elements of music are the ones that he focuses on most.  After chit-chatting about influences, musical ideas, and establishing their own sound, we got down to business and had Dan play the guitar part to a song that he wrote.  We were quite impressed to hear the music after initially discussing the elements that drive it.  We met back up with him the next night and asked him a few additional questions about where he performs, pre-show rituals, and the instrumentation of the band.  After that, we collected a lead sheet for their song “Bottom of the Bag.” Andrew previously had an MP3 of this song and we will post the studio-recorded version to the blogspot.  We did a basic analysis of the song and got another shot of the artist at work under the city night’s sky. After collecting all this material, we met as a group again and worked to put it all together and post it to the blog on time.  The interview was transcribed and the video was edited to the best of our ability.

Learn from the musician?

We were pleased to learn that there are a continuing number of young songwriters that are devoted to bringing their audience the very best and most original harmonic structures.  Dan and his band are trying to make a name for themselves by continuing their ambitious ways and striving for true originality.  They are not focused on mainstream lyrics and tacky poems, but instead on innovating the use of underlying chords and creating unique melodic lines that keeps the listener guessing.


Critical commentary:

After listening to just a few seconds of one of Strange Mangers songs, we became entranced with the airy, open, Explosions In the Sky-like guitar sound.  The band displays killer timing when it comes to dynamic changes.  The rise and anticipation that many of their compositions create makes the listener very eager to hear the end when they finally break through both harmonically and in sonority.  The vast majority of their pieces are harmonically and melodically driven with little emphasis on the vocals.  The vocals are always low in the mix.  Despite this, the bands underlying vocal harmonies help to balance out their perpetual need for harmonic expansion.  Subtle drums that develop into fierce rhythmic noise are a great component as well to their sonority.  If there was one area in which we were critical, it would be the lack of rhythmic change and room for potential expansion within this area.  The band could work to keep the listener guessing as to what may be coming next.

The Incredible Dom Provenzano

- Caitlyn Dougher, Cassie Herbert, Ryan Jantz, & Rita Johnson -

I. INTRO

Dom Provenzano is a Staten Island native, who has spent the last few years as a guitarist and lyricist in his band, the Secret Wall. However, recently, he has moved onto solo projects, focusing on improving his musical and lyrical skills. Dom has performed all over Staten Island and New York City, and has even had one of his music videos, "Did I Mention" featured in the Memphis International Film and Music Festival. Two songs in particular, “Coming of Age” and “Why I Don’t Date” showcase his abilities as a songwriter, as they differ harmonically, lyrically, rhythmically and structurally. His songwriting approach often varies, depending on whether a lyric or melody inspires him first. “Whenever I sit down and try to write something, it never works out… it's when I have that moment of pure inspiration that things click.” We sat down with Dom over Thanksgiving break to see what we could find out about this up-and-coming singer/songwriter from the big city.

II. INTERVIEW

RJ: So, generally, what genre of music would you describe yourself as?

DP: Some kind of mix of folk and rock, it depends. My acoustic stuff tends be more folky and my electric guitar tends to be more rock oriented.

RJ: What bands have you played in and what kind of shows have you played; what are some big appearances you made?

DP: My first band was called the Secret Wall and it was me and 3 other members - I was a songwriter, singer, and I played rhythm guitar. We played all around Staten Island and Manhattan. We played the biggest venue on Staten Island, which is the St. George Theater. We did a bunch of Battle of the Bands shows around the Island too. Unfortunately college brings people apart, so the rest of my band sort of went in different directions…

RJ: And you've since gone solo?

DP: So right now I’m writing my own music and its mostly acoustic, but I have a bunch of friends who play music as well so we make formations of our own band and play music.

RJ: So you can find most of your solo career on your website?

DP: My solo website is all on my website which is domprovenzano.com and the electric stuff can also be found there.

RJ: Didn’t you go to some kind of Film Festival? 

DP: Yea, The Memphis International Film and Music Festival. For another one of my acoustic songs, "Did I Mention" We recorded a video in Snug Harbor which is on Staten Island, which is also where Lady Gaga just filmed her music video. We filmed the video and we entered it in a film festival in Memphis, because the song kind of has a country kind of vibe. It got into the festival so we went down there and they showed the video and we just answered some questions and did some interviews.

RJ: I think it's funny you can say you have a presence in Staten Island, Manhattan, and Memphis. Anyway, to shift gears a bit, can you talk about the process of creating an original song? Where do you start and what brings you through it?

DP: Well with the Secret Wall it was kind of a team effort between me and the guitarist. The guitarist would come up with a melody or riff and would then come to me with it and I would work off it, usually working in lyrics at home. For “Why I Don’t Date” it just so happened that my friend, the drummer of the band, had actually gone on a really bad date and sent me a text that said “This is why I don’t date”. I really liked that line and I wrote an entire story - much of it didn’t happen, a few things did but –  I wrote down a lot of it and wrote it from his point of view. It just so happened that my guitarist came with a riff that I really liked, that intro riff, so I kind of condensed the words and made them fit into the melody and that’s how we wrote that song.

RJ: So its kind of a team effort, putting the pieces together?

DP: Yeah, for the band. But for my acoustic stuff, it's all myself. So I’ll pick up my acoustic guitar and I’ll either write the words first and I’ll kind of find a melody, but it depends.

RJ: So you switch off between what comes first?

DP: Yeah, but most of the time I’ll find a really cool melody I like for like "Coming of Age", which doesn’t have any lyrics, I’ll find something really powerful, that doesn’t need words and kind of speaks for itself.

RJ: And what makes something powerful to you?

DP: In “Coming of Age”, it’s a lot of volume changes within my own hands. I don’t need to use a computer for volume. All the sounds, all the volume changes are in my playing. I’ll play softly, I’ll play harder, I’ll play harmonics, I’ll play up the neck. I have direct control over the entire song. When I wrote “Coming of Age” I was frustrated because I felt like I was a terrible lyricist and I wanted to write a purely instrumental but meaningful song. I thought to myself, where do you hear songs that speak for themselves? And I thought, film. You hear a lot of music that in the background and accompanying what is going on. So I figured, what if I wrote a song for a film? I wrote that song “Coming of Age” as kind of my own wordless narrative, and as it would happen everyone says when they hear it “Oh that would be perfect in a movie.” A lot of people actually cite my exact idea: someone packing up, growing up, moving out, coming of age. When someone hears what I meant for them to hear, it’s a great accomplishment. But it was never meant to have lyrics, I feel like they would never work.

RJ: Can you talk about the basic things like the key, the structure, and tuning in "Coming of Age?"

DP: This guitar is tuned to D, D-A-D-F#-A-D, almost like a banjo. I got that from Mumford and Sons, a very popular folk band right now. I was listening and playing them a lot and I was in that key and I loved how you could play open and you would get a chord, which is a D. I loved how you can play one note on a certain part of the neck and strum and it sounds like a totally different chord. I was really obsessed with it and I thought it was perfect for my movie idea. The new change of tuning comes off as fresh, in fact the only two chords in the song are D and A.

RJ: But you embellish these chords obviously?

DP: I embellish and do different variations of the chords. In the studio version I actually added banjo and bass, the banjo arpeggiating on the D the same guitar line. On the bass, I had the bassist come in and we had different takes. We had one that was a little more flew with the guitar, like they went together, and another that was just a driving D. And I felt like the driving D was a little better because when the bass was in there playing its own line, it was kind of confusing and a little overwhelming so I cut that.

RJ: The structure of the song really isn't verse-chorus-verse, its more unique.

DP: Yes, I’d say it’s more of a piece rather than your straight forward pop or rock song.

RJ: So let's talk about "Why I Don't Date" and the musicality of it.

DP: “Why I Don’t Date” is in G. Well, most of my songs are in G because it seems to be the key that most fits my vocals. The intro happened to be in G and the intro happened to be the same thing as “Brown Eyed Girl”. There are no solos in the song because I felt like it was long enough. On the bridge, there is a little bit of guitar in the background that is just adding some flare but not enough to be a solo.

RJ: What are the chords you use in there?

DP: In the verse its G – Am – D – Am. The chorus is D – Bm – C – D. The bridge is C- D – G. It’s a really simple song but with the full band it gives it a really cool ska-rock feel. My guitarist has a really cool way of strumming that I’ve kind of adapted. He kind of slams at the guitar and does a lot of muting, mute strumming. **plays to demonstrates muting and strumming**

RJ: What can you tell me about your creative process?

DP: As for the writing process, it tends to come in big bouts of creativity. Like I just have a month where I’m super creative and then six months of self-deprecating where I just keep telling myself “you suck, you suck, you suck.” And there’s nothing I can do about it. And then I just have that one-month where I’m super creative again and I’m pounding out stuff left and right.

RJ: Where do you actually start? Does an idea start in your head, or does it start when you pick up your guitar and say ‘I’m going to write something now’?

DP: Well I’ve never written a song when I say I want to write a song. It’s just a really cool click. As for “Why I Don’t Date” I heard a friend of mine say that line and that was it. I just said, “that’s great…I have to write something”. But whenever I try to write something it just never works out. I might create something but it never turns out good. I just have these moments where I think I suck and I just can’t do anything and then when I have a moment of inspiration it’s like a really big click. So right now, I would say that I’m in a creative stage. I’ve been playing with friends and when I play with people, I tend to get a little more creative. Since the band left, I’ve just been on my own so it’s been a little harder. But when I have people to cooperate with and just play with, even if we’re just playing covers, it gives me a little bit of inspiration.


RJ: Do you prefer to write songs with a whole band as opposed to yourself?

DP: In my old band, it was just me and the guitarist that were writing. The bassist and drummer would just adjust to what we were doing. We would show them the song that we had and they would start playing and come up with something. So the one-on-one is just easier.

RJ: It’s convenient.

DP: Yeah, yeah. The two person Lennon/McCartney type of song writing…it was good but if you don’t have that chemistry, it’s not going to work. We had the chemistry in the beginning and then towards the end of the band, when we knew we were going to split, we weren’t really playing as many gigs, I wasn’t writing as good of lyrics as I thought I should be writing, so we were just going through the motions but the chemistry wasn’t really there. But I feel like if you have someone who is really willing to write with you and you work well together, then it’d be great. Working on my own kind of sucks at times. I have more freedom on my own but I just don’t have people to bounce ideas off of. The band’s gone and they aren’t the type of people to do acoustic music so I don’t really bounce my ideas off of them. I just do it off of friend’s that don’t really know music that well. I’m still writing my acoustic stuff, I’m just trying to listen to a lot of music and broaden my horizons a little bit and figure it out.

RJ: Top five influences


DP: The Beatles – they got me into music. My song structures, lyrics, everything is The Beatles. Then I would have to say Mumford & Sons had a big influence. I separate my music into two sections. The Beatles are what got me into music and then from there I was just discovering artists of classic rock. Then when I discovered Mumford & Sons, that brought me into a new era, well, a lot more indie, a lot more folk. So I’m not doing The Beatles so much any more. I’ve moved on to other things - a lot more Dylan, Jack Johnson, Strokes, Springsteen.

RJ: Well Dom it's been a pleasure - I think that just about covers everything, thanks so much for your time.

DJ: It was my pleasure and thank you.

III. ANALYSIS

 

 

 

A. “Coming of Age”

There are times when Dom just isn’t as creative as he’d like to be. One day he found himself writing horrible lyrics, so he decided to create an entirely instrumental track. And the track “Coming of Age” was born. This song is a mesh of a few guitars, a bass, a banjo, a steady beat, and a repeating phrase. The simplicity of this song really gives the piece its power. From the instrumentation, to the key, to the melodic lines, simplicity can be found in every aspect of “Coming of Age”. Still there is so much movement and growth that it can be listened to over and over again.

There is a main motive that is introduced by the guitar in the intro of the song, and all three instruments build on that same motive for the next three and a half minutes. There are one or two guitars always playing. There is a banjo that plays the same repeated accented line, which adds emphasis to the guitar melodies. And there is a bass giving this piece a bottom and a sense of motion. There is no vocal line or percussion, except what is played through the strumming of the guitar and banjo.

This song is in the key of D, according to Dom. The chord progression of the main guitar line is D – A – D – F# - A – D. The banjo follows along with the same D chords but plays them a bit more arpeggiated compared to the guitar. The bass goes off and does its own thing completely separate from the other two instruments but still finds a way to connect and keep a heavy downbeat.

There is an intro, which starts out slow. The main phrase is introduced with help from the bass, which takes its time to find a groove. The next section could be considered the A. In this part the bass, guitar, and banjo just jam out using that main motive from the intro. The different lines build on each other and grow into a larger sound. After the A section, there is an outro in which the different lines play with the tension and dynamics of the piece until it is finally resolved in the last few seconds of the piece.

Throughout the entire piece dynamics are an important characteristic and even Dom mentioned it during the interview. Just from the first phrase after the intro, there are so many levels of guitar each with a different volume. What makes this interesting is that Dom said “it’s a lot of volume changes within my own hands…All the sounds, all the volumes are in my playing.” Accents are strummed at louder levels, while the bass line stays low under the other instruments.

B. “Why I Don’t Date”

“Why I Don’t Date” is a song by our interviewee’s former band, the Secret Wall. In our interview, Dom revealed that the inspiration for the song came from a disheartened text from the drummer of the Secret Wall after he experienced a bad date. The actual text, “this is why I don’t date,” doubles as the hook and title of the song. The lyricism covers both fictional and nonfictional parts of the date, from boring conversation, to texting during dinner, to squandering all his money on a girl who wasn’t worth it.
             The musical form of “Why I Don’t Date” can be considered as a standard AABA/verse-chorus hybrid with an intro and an outro as it goes intro-verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus-outro. Each section is pretty symmetrical in length to one another in addition to the symmetrical phrasing; each phrase is 4 measures long. The verses, choruses, and the bridge are all 16 bars long. The intro starts with the electric guitar playing a cool riff for 8 measures until about the 13 second mark where the drums enter followed by the other instruments. After the intro before the first verse begins, the 4 measure phrase that is repeated throughout the entire verse is played to familiarize the listener to the verse’s harmonic and rhythmic pattern. Each verse plays this 4 bar repetition four times. The chorus is the most interesting section because of its variations in rhythm and harmony. The last chorus adds an extra measure which gives the ending a strong sense of conclusion. Each new section is prefaced or ended with (depending on which way you look at it) a short drum fill that serves as a bridge between sections.
             The intro of the song plays a nice 8 measure long riff that can be considered antecedent-consequent phrasing. The first four bars acting as the antecedent, presents an unanswered, unresolving phrase and the last four bars, acting as the consequent, provides resolution. This antecedent-consequent phrasing is played in fragmentation again at the end of the song. The main melody of the song consists of Dom’s vocals. The entire song is in the key of G Major, as explained by Dominic as the most comfortable key for his tessitura which is in the middle register of his voice. The range of the vocal line is narrow and stays mainly around the same pitch with conjunct steps going both upward and downward. He doesn’t make any significant disjunct leaps. However, the last chorus transitions from the normal pitches that are heard throughout the entire song to Provenzano raising the pitch of his voice to a somewhat scream, venturing outside of his comfortable vocal range. 
             This song isn’t too rhythmically complex. The steady and uncomplicated drum pattern—hi hat on each beat, snare on beats 2 and 4, kick drum on every eighth note except for beats 2 and 4 (where there are eighth note rests), and an open hi hat on the last beat of each four bar phrase—helps determine an explicit pulse in common time. The rhythmic pattern of Dom’s voice is pretty much the same with subtle differences for each verse. Provenzano splits the phrases into two parts, the first two measures contain lyrics and the last two measures let the repeating harmonic pattern ride out. Though the tempo doesn’t change, the articulation differences among each section of the song give the illusion that this is a multi-tempo track. Because of the smoothness of the guitar, the intro sounds a little slower than moderate. The verses display the true tempo which is moderately fast. The bass guitar plays notes that are both the duration of one beat as well as a fraction of one beat, contributing to the feeling of faster speed. The chorus is split into two 8 measure long parts differing in the feeling of the tempo. The first part, with its muted guitar techniques, is stripped of the constant strumming that is found in the verses, creating a sense of slower tempo. Then a punk rock rhythm comes in for the second half picking the tempo back up, helping the transition to the fast feeling verse. The bridge plays the same rhythms as the second half of the chorus but contains another electric guitar part with a rock and roll role in the background that Dom Provenzano says is “just adding some flare but not enough to be a solo.” The bass and the guitar are playing very similar rhythms behind the main melody, producing a melody and accompaniment texture.
             The harmony is played by bass, guitar, and percussion accompaniments. The harmonic progression of the verse goes I-ii-V-ii (G-Am-D-Am); the chorus goes V-iii-IV-V (D-Bm-C-D); and the bridge goes IV-V-I (C-D-G). The chord changes come at every measure. Though the second half of the chorus and the bridge contain the same punk rock rhythm, the bridge possesses the true punk rock qualities with the classic subdominant-dominant-tonic progression found in much punk music. The harmonic motion of this song is interesting because the chorus is typically the part of the song that drives the tonic into the listeners’ heads. In this song, the tonic isn’t played at all in the chorus but is rather important to the verse and bridge. The contrast of the chorus is a change from typical harmonic progressions and expectations.
             The instrumentation for this song includes a full rock band: vocals, bass, electric guitar, and drums. “Why I Don’t Date” fits into a funky, reggae, syncopated ska-rock genre with an upbeat and playful timbre. The variation in articulation contributes to this timbre, as the heavy use of the strum and muting technique gives off a reggae rooted ska vibe. In the outro, the last two bars are doubled with two guitars. The intro’s guitar riff is played almost legato in a smooth manner. The verses represent ska music with their fast strumming. The first half of the chorus contributes to the representation of ska by switching from mainly strumming to a more mute-dominated strum. The second half of the chorus returns to strumming, but with a different feeling, as it adds a punk rock element to the song.

IV. REFLECTIONS

Dom sat down and spoke about his creative processes, past projects, accomplishments, personal works, and inspiration. This interview demonstrates how different every band or artist is in terms of the way things like to be done. Dom’s former band, the Secret Wall, used collaborative efforts among each member of the band to create. It seems as though most of their works contain little pieces of each musician, which helps craft a whole and complete product. Provenzano is also a contemporary example of how music can still have effects without the use of technology—

“In ‘Coming of Age’, it’s a lot of volume changes within my own hands. I don’t need to use a computer for volumes. All the sounds, all the volumes are in my playing. I’ll play softly I’ll play harder, I’ll play harmonics, I’ll play up the neck which increases the volume and sounds. It’s so I have direct control over the entire song.”

He teaches us that in the midst of a technology-driven world, there are still ways to manually create without the reliance of computers. The last thing learned from Dominic was artistic work doesn’t come from force; it comes from natural inspiration. He explains that if he sits down and consciously tries to write anything, nothing will materialize. It must come from anywhere and everywhere, but nowhere premeditated.
             Dom Provenzano has a flexible range of musical styles as well as creative ideas. Not only does he incorporate aspects and qualities from genres like acoustic, soft rock, classic rock, ska, folk, and punk music, but he also envisions his music in different ways. For example, his song “Coming of Age” was written to tell a story without words and let the music speak. Another song, “Why I Don’t Date,” differs from “Coming of Age.” This song contains lyrics and a comic and playful vibe, while “Coming of Age” has a more serious and contemplative feel. It is important to be able to communicate on different levels to the listener. The two recordings, “Why I Don’t Date” and “Coming of Age,” display his creative scope.

Moss Points North

Moss Points North

Andrew McCloskey, Jordan Buchanan, Matt Ripley

Moss Points North (or MoPoNo) is a band consisting of vocalist, and guitarist Colin Lee, guitarist Pat McCusker, bassist Jesse Gottlieb, pianist Isaac Richardson, all friends that met at Berklee in 2007. As said in their bio, they “fuse earthy rock and nostalgic folk with ample doses of jazz, pop, and improvisation to produce Moss Point North’s signature sound.” The band lists Wilco, Radiohead, Bon Iver, along with older bands such as the Beatles and the Band, as some of their main influences of their music. We sat down with Colin, who is one of the main songwriters, to talk about their working practices and other topics.

Moss Points North generally creates songs through as a collaborative effort. The band used to write full songs individually, but have more recently decided to do most of their work as a group in order to enhance creativity. Usually a band member will come into the fold with a musical idea, be it rhythmic, sonic, or melodic and it is expanded upon by through group. They then riff and experiment with the idea until a clear A section of the song is created. Then, usually a member will come up with a different, but related musical idea in order to transition to a B section or a chorus. They often have different members riff on a melody to figure out orchestration and texture. If they hit a roadblock they use their extensive knowledge of music theory, as all members are Berklee grads, to figure out how to develop an idea better. Lyrics are usually the last part written. According to Lee, they use dummy lyrics as they write the music, until the piece is mostly done. Then, once they can get a feel for the mood of the piece the band comes up with fitting lyrics. After this, minor alterations are done over time, until a final version of the piece is finished. Lee also says that inspiration is a driving factor in passionate writing, but sometimes inspiration can be created through an exciting chord progression or musical aesthetic.

After a song is written, MoPoNo adds many different attributes to it, from horns and strings to complex harmonies. Lee explains how most of these decisions are made by saying, “Usually when you start a song, you have kind of like a vision for it in your head, like where you think it sort of fits in a context of sounds…Sometimes you can throw a lot of stuff at a song, and it doesn’t always stick. Sometimes you don’t really do that, you think to yourself well, it only needs a guitar, a string or a horn section or something like that. I think finding it is just sort of about listening, making sort of the right decisions in the band, listening back to a song and discussing it at length until you decide how you think the arrangement should serve the music.”

Lee lists some of his favorite places that MoPoNo has played at so far. That list includes Church bar, the Middle East, the Western Front and T.T. the Bears in Boston as well as many venues in NYC, including a show at the CMJ festival this year. Moss Points North typically plays most during spring, summer and fall, but they plan on taking a break on playing shows this winter to focus on new material and practice. The whole band lives in a house together, so it is fairly easy to practice at least once a week all together, or just jam with other members of the band in their attic turned practice space.

MoPoNo is a fantastic band with a great, original sound and vast musical knowledge. From where they have been so far, it is easy to see that they are going to be going places in the near future.

Watch: "True Love" Live

Song Analysis: “The Owls”

“The Owls,” written by Colin Lee and performed by Moss Points North, is an eerie ode to a nighttime hunt. The piece starts with an intro in D minor, as the guitar strums quiet, short chords. After a few measures the drums and a background guitar comes in, which swells haunting notes to set up the vocals to come in. The soft, emotive singing matches the way an owl might perch in his chestnut tree. The chorus starts after the verse maintains an A7 chord for some time and the drums and piano build to increase the volume.

The chorus is very short, 8 measures and only a few phrases of lyrics, but it modulates up to an F Major, then returns to the A7, then back down to the D minor and again back to the A7 before returning to the verse. This second time around there is more accompaniment and more background embellishments, especially in the piano, which wasn’t present until right before the chorus. The lyrics also shift focus from the owl to a fox and a rabbit, explaining their interaction before once again swelling into the chorus.

However, after the second chorus, there is a bridge, which starts with an unusual measure of 6/4. After this measure, we are introduced to more instruments, as there are now very clear horns in the foreground with the vocals. It’s not an overpowering sound and there is a definite Cake influence. The chord movement here starts with the D minor once again, but then alternates between G major and C major. This alternation matches the lyrical content that moves between the owl and the fox. As the bridge moves to an E7 that leads into an A minor, maintains intensity and the last vocal lines are sung over an F major, A7, then back to the D minor. Once the vocals cut out, the song starts to fade, with a Bb major and ending the song on F major.

Listen: The Owls

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Amy Hoffman

Biography

The Amy Hoffman is a pop-rock band based in Boston, MA consisting of college students from Berklee College of Music and Northeastern University. The songwriter of the band is Amy Hoffman, who is in her second semester at Berklee after transferring from Belmont University in Nashville, TN. Amy is originally from Joplin, MO, where she played guitar in a rock band called The Colors You Can't See. Amy has been playing guitar seriously for the last 8 years and has been writing songs since her early high school days. Her influences for guitar include Johnny Lang, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. For song writing Amy's influences range from Say Anything and The Rocket Summer to John Mayer. While The Amy Hoffman as a band has yet to play shows in Boston, Amy has played shows across the country as a solo act, including annually at the benefit concert "A Voice for Love", where all the proceeds of the event are donated to the organization Love146 which helps fight human trafficking. Along with doing concerts Amy enjoys performing for friends and family. In late October, The Amy Hoffman released their first EP on Noisetrade.com. The EP is called "The Scholarship EP" with all the proceeds going to the Missouri Scholars Academy, which is a summer program that allows 330 of the top rising high school juniors in the state the chance to realize their full academic potential. The album can be downloaded for free on Noisetrade, but donations are appriciated. So far the EP has been downloaded by over 200 people and raised $500 for the academy. The band hopes to promote the EP more by doing shows in the Boston area and elsewhere across the country.

Interview

How long have you been playing guitar?

Amy: I've been serious about it for probably 8 years.

Who is your biggest influence?

Definitely Jonny Lang, got really into Blues guitar after seeing him at 11 or 12. Classic blues guitar: Stevie, Jimi, of course. Songwriting wise, I start playing more pop-rock stuff, The Rocket Summer, Say Anything, and Mayer, of course, is a huge influence.

What is the process that you go through when you're writing a song?

It varies, it changes over time. More often than not, I come up with something on guitar before anything else. I'm a guitarist before anything else I do musically so that tends to kick of the process but other times it's a melody, rhythm, or something in my head that clicks.

Would you say when you come up with a guitar part is it the chord progression first? Or is it a riff or melody?

It changes every time, it varies. A lot of time I'll get a bass line in my head and build a chord progression from it. For example, a couple weeks ago I started building chord progressions around a minor 7 sharp 5 chord because it is such a gorgeous chord. It changes every time but more often than not I find chords I love and build around them.

When you do write lyrics for the songs, do you write the words and try to fit a melody around the words? Or vice versa?

It kinda comes at the same time, typically I'll have a rhythm in my head before a melody and kind of fit it to that so it comes together.

How is the form of a song decided?

I have a whole lot of ideas that come together and tend to naturally form itself. My song "Best of Luck" came together with me thinking that there wouldn't be a chorus to the song, it would be AABA form. Sometimes I just decide I don't want to write verse/chorus/verse/chorus but it just kinda comes together on its own based on parts fitting together.

What influences your lyrics?

I draw from experience. Either things I've lived, things I've observed, and things I'm passionate about. I try to go deeper than just a relationship. Especially in the genre that I write for, it's just this sappy love song or a big bad breakup song. The stuff I write comes more as a learning experience kind of thing, where I say "I've gone through this, how can I build on it?"

How do you decide on how to use certain techniques on guitar?

With "Roads" I was practicing the technique because I loved it, I learned it from the John Mayer song that used it. The song came together with me goofing off with that technique and me trying to find other ways I could implement it because it's so much fun to use. All of a sudden, there was that chord progression, just from F shape to a C shape, and it clicked like nobodies business. A lot of [songs] have worked out that way, I picked them up just from jamming and listening, and start messing with it on my own. I come up with something that works but it will always change a lot from that first thing I use, it'll mold and evolve until I'm really happy with it and until I master the technique. Typically, I start prematurely playing with it before I really have it down and see where it goes from there and make it my own.

Where do you play?

I have a show in North Carolina next semester, played in Nashville last week, I feel like I play every time I travel. I play basement-esque shows. A show in North Carolina was held in a big church last year, campuses, cafes, clubs.

How does the band work together? Does someone write a song and say "here it is"?

Pretty much, I've written everything we've worked with except for this one song that isn't finished yet. We were just jamming one day and came up with the bass line for it and I harmonized over the bass line. It sounds awesome, it's completely different from everything else but I love it, it's a lot of fun. More often than not I'll bring in a song and we'll just jam over it and see where it goes. The other musicians pick it up quickly, it's just a matter of getting everything to fit well.

Analysis

Roads? Where We're Going, We Don't Need Roads

"Roads? Where We're Going, We Don't Need Roads" is a mid-tempo pop song written for acoustic guitar and voice in the key of D major. Structurally, it is built upon a simple verse/chorus pattern, with a bridge after the second chorus to introduce a new motive. Unlike the majority of pop singer-songwriter guitar work, the guitar plays a vital role in the piece, providing the rhythm, harmony, and a weaved-in melody. Creating a full, warm sound, the tonal quality of the song is characterized by a constant finger picked guitar line akin to the chugging of a train.

"Roads" begins with a verse, using a repeating chord progression of IV - I. Through the fingerpicking and slight alteration of the chords, the guitar line creates a subtle melody inside of its rhythmic pulse. It counteracts with the vocal melody and fosters a sense of polyphony. The vocal line is more complex than a typical pop song, the contour tends to conjunctly descend at first but later ascend. Hoffman sings of a topic very personal, creating a close connection with the listener in typical singer-songwriter fashion. After multiple repetitions, the light, airy quality of the IV - I is cemented down by a IV - vi - V - I - V progression. The V chord creates a wanting for resolution that pushes the music into the chorus.

The chorus follows a vi - IV - V - I pattern then repeats, omitting the I while adding tension through the lack of resolution. The way it begins on a minor chord helps convey the tense emotion found in the lyrics. Sonically, the guitar work is similar to the verse but the vocal melody is stronger and simpler. A strummed V chord at the end of the refrain helps to push the music forward into the next section while creating dramatic tension. The constant fingerpicking disappears and creates a sense of uncertainty for what is to happen next. This is useful for moving into the bridge. The bridge enters with a soaring, emotive vocal melody and strummed chords, staying home to the key in a vi - V - I - vii - vi - V progression. Hoffman adds a new sense of urgency and a completely new feel to the piece by giving up on the soft fingerpicking and introducing a strumming pattern. After a short interlude, the chorus melody and chords return but with a similar strumming pattern, increasing the intensity of the music and adding new excitement to it.

Activities Done

We sat down with Amy in her apartment to interview her and talk about her music. We filmed her performing multiple songs and listened to the recordings she had done. Afterwards, we sat together and analyzed the music to discuss how the elements of her music played a role in her work.

What We Learned

We learned about where musical ideas can come from and how musical works are pieced together. Every artist has a different creative process and it is interesting to see how it leads to the creating of a song. Inspiration can come from something as simple as a chord to something derivative, such as playing around with another artist's songs.

Critical Commentary

Amy Hoffman's songs are well-developed and engaging. Her lyrics come from her own unique experiences in life, but can be easily related to by most people. Lines like "simple doesn't mean it's easy" and "I hope someday you learn to see yourself the way I see you" are thought provoking and moving. Her melodic lines in the chorus intertwine perfectly with her words, making the songs catchy and memorable.

Amy has an extremely wide vocal range, she can vary the emotion and intensity of the song by going from hushed lows to almost screaming choruses. She pairs this talent well with her defined guitar playing skill. More intricate than simple, strummed chords, her guitar work helps to differentiate her from the many singer-songwriter clones today.

Music Lit Interview: Brian Robison

Music Lit Interview: Brian Robison

By Emilie Hongosh, Carlie Lyster and Lizzi Hampton

Do people usually compose pieces for the Theremin?

Most players are amateurs, and most are just using it to play soprano arias like I just did, or to play violin pieces. Some people do write for it, but there are very few people writing for it because it’s one of those instruments that you really need to know how to play to write for it well. And it’s very limited in what it can do. It was invented originally in the 1920’s, and when it was first introduced to the world, audiences went crazy over the technology. But almost immediately musically savvy listeners were like, “Wait a minute, everything’s slow”. It’s can’t play rapid articulations. So almost immediately it became obsolete. There’s been a renaissance since the 1990’s partly because by the turn of the century you had tremendous computing power in laptops and you could have all this great real time manipulations of sound, but it’s really boring to watch. And this is really fascinating to watch. And it’s also an incredibly sensitive interface, so part of why I’m playing it so badly is because I’m out of practice. It really takes these carefully controlled, small motions, and it’s not only that my motions aren’t quite carefully controlled enough, but I’m also being a little sloppy with my stance and my breathing. And this responds to your every move whether you want it to or not, so it is very tricky to write for and to use it in interesting ways.

Can you briefly explain how the Theremin works?

It’s actually a science experiment gone wrong. It was an attempt to create a device that would measure the electrical capacitance of gases, like air. And they were using a tone indicator. It was something that should have worked very well in theory, except as they were conducting experiments, one of the experimenters noticed that the proximity of his body was affecting the readings, so they weren’t getting neutral readings. But he had some training as a cellist, so he figured out that it could be adapted as an instrument. So the circuitry is all in here [the middle box], and then there are these two pieces of metal sticking out, and each one is generating an electromagnetic field, so each one senses how close the player’s hand is, or actually any conductive object. It doesn’t have to be the hand; it could be the elbow, it could be the feet, the hip, it could be your cell phone or anything that could hold an electric charge. So this one [rounded metal tube] controls the volume and that’s why it kind of looked like I was conducting an imaginary orchestra. That’s partly just to separate the notes. If I just played the melody without doing that, it would just be sliding all over the place. And then that [the other metal tube] is the pitch controller, so it’s all about how much mass of my hand or fingers are close or far away. So treble is close and farther away is down into the bass.

What got you into Theremin?

At the time I was teaching over at MIT and it was a freshman seminar. I cannot even remember what the conversation was where it came up. Somehow, it got into a conversation about electronic music and somebody mentioned the Theremin. At that time I had only ever once encountered one in person in a music store, and I didn’t understand how it worked. I couldn’t make any sense of it; I couldn’t do anything musical with it. I had read about it, and had some idea that it took a lot of training and practice to learn these very small finger motions to play it in a controlled way. Of course without that kind of control, you can do all sorts of fun sound effects. So it came up as a topic of conversation, and I just made an offhand remark to my students about how it was a nifty instrument, but I tried one out and now I know that I’m too old to learn how to play it. And one of students said, “Really? Do you really think you are?” And I thought about it, and I thought, “Yeah, I’m too old but on the other hand it would be so fun to have one just to make the silly noises with it.” So I decided to get one. Ones like this aren’t actually that expensive, especially compared to getting a good electric guitar. So I bought one just for fun, and it turned out it came with an instructional video that explained the basics of the techniques so I started learning. And it’s a fantastic time now to start learning to play Theremin, because there are now a couple of method books out on the market, where people have detailed photographs showing what you need to do. There are instructional videos up on YouTube and you have so many more opportunities now to just see people playing it and get a sense of what’s involved. And because there’s no one official historically developed way to play it, part of figuring out what you’re going to do is watching people and finding the people whose style you like and study what they do. If you’re really lucky, then you get to meet them and actually ask them in person. So I started playing in 2005, and this past summer I finally got the opportunity to work with someone who’s a world-class player. She helped point out a lot of things that I needed to work on, so now I’m particularly aware of how limited my skills are, but there’s hope! There’s still time.

Aside from playing the Theremin, you compose. When did you start doing that?

I don’t remember when I started exactly, because I would be writing pop songs as a teenager, but I just thought I’d become serious about it when I was about 17, and I spent a summer at an arts camp. It was a summer program for high schools that were talented in the arts. I was actually there in creative writing. I though I was going to be a visual artist, I thought I was going to be some sort of graphic designer or something. But I had been active with music and theater and so on, and I was at this summer program as a writer because that was the easiest way to get in. And I had a friend there who was there as a composer, and toward the end of the summer and I invited him to join some of us for a volleyball game. He said, “Oh, I can’t. I have to make my electronic music project.” I was a really interested, so he invited me to come along and watch. While I was watching him slap together his final project, I just kept thinking, “Oh wait, no! It could be so much more interesting if you did that, and if you changed that like this.” And I realized that even though I didn’t know how to use the equipment, I had these very clear ideas about how to make the music better, so that’s when I thought, “I think this is what I want to do”.

What kind of piece do you compose? Do you have a specific style?

That’s tricky. It’s usually for classically trained players, and it’s usually for acoustic instruments, rather than electronic, or if there are electronics it’s just one additional instrument, like electric guitar or Theremin. It tends to be atonal, rather than tonal, and I like to play with polyrhythm and polymeter, and having a sense of different streams of pulses that are going on at the same time, and some kind of fading in and out or pursuing independent agendas. There are some people who write music where there are very complicated parts that are presented in very straightforward ways, and I tend to do the opposite, of creating very simple motives and very simple elements and then piling them up and combining them in complex ways.

How do you take harmony into consideration?

I tend to start with the harmony. There are some times when I take melodic licks and play with how to distort them, but often it’s about saying, “Okay, how can I achieve a sense of inevitability?” Even though the music I write is atonal, part of what I love about tonal music is the way that a composer like Bach or Beethoven or Schumann can create a sense of motion and then there’s a partial resolution, but we’re not really done yet, and there’s more that needs to happen and how do you create that sense of ongoing ebb and flow that keeps going right through to the end. So and important stage for me is figuring out what’s going on in the piece. It’s figuring out, “Okay, what is the goal? Where is it going to end up?” And then how is it going to get there? Then that determines what kinds of harmonies happen, because if it’s the same harmony for eleven or twelve minutes that gets boring. So I’ll usually figure out a way to mix it up so that some portions will be very dissonant atonal cluster harmonies, but then other things will have a much more open maybe jazzy, or even in some places more traditional chords. Like maybe they’re traditional chords but they don’t follow each other in a traditional way.

Do you play many instruments?

Yes, a lot, but none well. I think that part of how I wound up as a composer is that I was just sort of drifting. When I was young it started on clarinet, and then I had some piano lessons but lost interest, and then switched from clarinet to saxophone, then started learning guitar, and then by the time I got to college I figured out that I wanted to be a composer and felt that I needed to have some sense of how every instrument works in order to write for them well, so that only added fuel to the fire. So I’ve never really sat down and pursued one instrument for ten years in a row to get really good at it. It’s always been kind of bouncing around. So like the Theremin, I don’t think I’ll ever be a world-class soloist, but it’s made me a more expressive guitarist because you have such limited articulation and you have such little control over the timbre. It’s all about timing and especially vibrato. So now I listen to vibrato and I think about vibrato much more carefully when I’m playing guitar. And it’s ruined me for keyboard synthesizers. I used to have a nice little analog synthesizer that I would use for gigging and it would drive me crazy because I would be playing and while you’re playing with your right hand, your left hand has these two modulation wheels – one that you can use to control the depth of the vibrato and one for the amount of the vibrato, but then you need a third one for the speed. There are at least three dimensions to it that you want to be able to control independently and they’re not there on most instruments and even if they are it’s a horrendously difficult thing to control in a meaningful way, whereas with your hand it’s just all about how much you’re moving back and forth. And the fact is it’s just instantly responsive.

Would you say your knowledge of many different instruments helps you with your composing?

Absolutely. Traditionally a lot of composers start off as pianists and that’s really good training in terms of being able to have all of the music in front of you. If you’re playing in a band or orchestra you’ve just got one component. If you’re singing in a choir, you do have the rest of it in front of you but with piano music they typically get to do more complex things than even the choirs do. The catch is that the ones who are really good sometimes have trouble imagining in ways other than pianistic terms, so they end up writing piano music and then trying to transcribe it or arrange it for other instruments. Sometimes they learn the hard way that if they start with an idea that sounds really cool on the piano, they discover that when you translate it into something like a brass quintet it’s really muddy or it doesn’t have the same clarity, or they don’t have the same rhythmic attacks. So I feel like that definitely helps.

Do you ever use computers to compose?

I do often exploit the playback feature in the notation software just to get a sense of how things are going. You always have to filter that, because it’s not a perfect rendition. So another part of the training is getting a sense of recognizing when the computer playback sounds bad but the real thing will sound good. It’s like, in the hands of a real oboist that note will sound beautiful. And the reverse. Sometimes, the computer is playing it perfectly in a way that human beings never will, and does that matter? Sometimes it’s okay because I want it to be a little blurry anyway, I don’t want it to be that clean. But sometimes you do something that sound great but then you realize humans can’t do that. And then for some of those large-scale polyrhythm effects I was talking about, I often wind up using a spreadsheet to calculate. There might be a chromatic line that is just kind of a chromatic scale going up. But instead of going up at a steady rate it starts off slowly and then gradually accelerates. If you’re doing that for a very short time, you can just take a piece of graph paper and sketch a logarithmic curve by hand and then just interpret that. But to do something that’s going to take place over seven minutes or something, then to get it right you really have to use a spreadsheet. It’s a really awkward way to work, but the results are so cool that it’s worth it. So that’s probably the most interesting way that I use computers to help me write.

How long does it typically take you to compose a piece?

Too long! I keep trying to work more quickly. There will be a kind of gestation period of several months while I’m playing with ideas and trying some things out. But then once I know what I’m doing, then I can bash it out fairly quickly. And this is an important thing for me, because as I’ve taught students in composition classes, if you have good players, if you give them a jazz standard, and say, “Here’s the overall structure, just work out the details yourselves” they can do that beautifully on the fly. The hard part is if you say, “Okay, here are some details, now improvise a really interesting structure”. So for me that’s the more important task as a composer, figuring out the overall shape. What’s going to make this hold together so that it’s actually interesting to listen to for twelve or thirteen or seventeen minutes and people aren’t just going to zone out? I still take a little longer than I’d like to to figure those things out, but then once I do, once you have the overall shape the individual details aren’t as important. There are lots of plausible solutions.

Reflection and Analysis

We started the interview by having Professor Robison play a piece on the theremin. We then interviewed him, asking about the theremin, his composing process, and influences. The interview ended with Professor Robison encouraging each of us to try the theremin, giving us a real appreciation for how hard the theremin really is to play.

Animal Psychology Unlike Ours is an atonal piece lasting about 2 minutes. The version we were given was a live recording featuring a flute, and alto flute, clarinet in Eb, clarinet in Bb, and two bassoons. The score says that it is in the key of C major; however, when listening the piece sounds very atonal. The meter is 2/4 and the tempo is quarter note=72. The piece was composed with the intent of sounding like monkeys, which is clear by the instructions to sound like the "distant echo of a pant-hoot" and "quiet grunts" and "squeals and shrieks." Harmonically, there are no solid chords thought the duration of the piece. Melodically, there's no distinct melody, though we would classify the piece as being polyphonic, as none of the instruments have a more important part than the other. It is also polyrhythmic, as the various voices are almost always doing something different rhythmically.

We learned a lot about how the theremin works and how it is used. For example, Prof. Robison spoke about how pieces typically aren't written for theremin, rather theremin players often play along to already written pieces (usually those featuring arias).

The way Prof Robison composes is extremely interesting. He takes a very mathematical approach, which is not something people often consider when thinking about the composition of music. The type of pieces he usually composes can be difficult for some people to digest as they do not follow typical chord progressions our ears are used to; however, we think everyone can agree that his imitation of monkey sounds is extremely interesting and innovative and can be regarded as a unique piece of music.

Video: http://youtu.be/YEs5OpV-yPg