Tag: music
Australians Do It Better: Introducing Sam Lawrence
Over the years, Australia has given us a host of legendary bands from the Bee Gees to AC/DC. More recently, they’ve produced such gems as Miami Horror, Kimbra, and Tame Impala. Amongst these new-age musical talents is Melbourne native, Sam Lawrence. He’s been a figure in the Melbourne music scene for years and has forged collaborations with both Kimbra and Miami Horror as well as with a host of other local artists. Now Lawrence is preparing to drop an album called ‘Rheo- I Flow Away’ and has been putting out live performance videos of some of the songs from the album on YouTube.
Lawrence is an incredibly talented musician accomplished at guitar, piano, and vocals in a way that many musicians can only aspire to be. This innate musicality has lent itself well to his songwriting and makes for a style that is at once complex and intuitive. Though some of his songs may initially feel inaccessible to untrained ears, as a musician, I have developed a strong appreciation for Lawrence’s songs and am writing this article to share my love for his unique musical style with all of you.
Instrumentally, his choices are unprecedented. He uses a wide variety of chord voicings that are much more difficult to process than the average major or minor chord, forcing his audience to listen closer to what he’s doing. His unexpected chord progressions never allow listeners to let their guard down as he weaves strange vocal melodies around chords whose complexity makes them challenging to accommodate vocally. This tactic gives his songs a certain ambience and otherworldliness. His voice evokes a combination of Kevin Parker’s dreamy falsetto and Townes Van Zandt’s soulful, folk style. He is clearly a highly capable vocalist and casually displays this through his fluctuating melodies, never resting on any one note for too long and constantly searching for the next one in its key to transform what could be a straightforward vocal lick into a strange, modulating labyrinth of notes.
His instrumental mastery rivals his vocal prowess, though the two go hand in hand in the live videos of his recent songs. Initially recognized for his skill as a pianist through songs like Kimbra’s ‘Wandering Limbs’ in which he’s featured, Lawrence surprises listeners by playing acoustic guitar in his new songs. The decision to do so lends an earthy quality to the songs that would be difficult to accomplish with a piano or keyboard and is a wise choice for songs that are meant to be quasi-celebratory hymns. Not surprisingly, he is also an insanely talented guitarist. His knowledge of piano theory and chord formations help him to make unconventional yet informed choices on the guitar that add incredible emotion and depth to his music. Having this dual-instrumentality is a distinct advantage when creating music that both surprises and intrigues listeners, and that’s precisely the effect of his recently released songs.
Below is my personal favorite of his new songs and an excellent example of all the qualities I’ve discussed. Though his music is complex and at times unorthodox, I think it can touch the hearts of a lot of people. You don’t have to be a musician to appreciate Lawrence’s songs, but I hope this analysis helps you to form a better understanding of his general stylistic choices. Check out more of his music by following the link to his YouTube channel below and prepare to cry tears of every emotion on the spectrum.
Sam Lawrence YouTube channel
525,600 Times I Listened to Musicals This Week
Recently, I went to my friend’s house to help him set up for a party. He and his roommates were getting a little drowsy, so they put on their hype song. As they started belting out Wicked’s “Defying Gravity,” I realized just how much I missed listening to musicals. I wouldn’t exactly call them my “hype songs,” but they certainly have something to them that really gets me energized. I missed that. From the moment Elphaba picked up the tempo and hit those beautiful high notes we all know and love, I knew I was hooked. I found myself joining in, pretending I was a much better singer than I am, serenading my friend.
That night, I opened my computer and went straight to my musicals playlist. I turned up the volume to full blast, hit shuffle, and let the music begin. I sang and danced to myself until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. Then, I went to sleep with the sounds of Finding Neverland floating around my mind. When I woke up the next morning, I did it again.
And again.
And again.
Instead of jumping around to One Direction or Justin Bieber’s new albums, I listened to musicals all week. And I’m not even the slightest bit upset.
You see, there’s something very magical about putting on the soundtrack to your favorite musical. You can listen to a whole story in just one sitting. You can feel the ups and downs of the characters without even watching their motions. Musicals have the ability to just make you happy, and as my roommate puts it, “there’s something about singing along that’s different than singing along to normal music.” Who doesn’t want a change up every once in a while, anyway?
So whether you were first turned on to musicals watching Julie Andrews run down a hill with her arms outstretched, or Gene Kelly’s umbrella twirling and splashing got you on your feet, a musical has the ability to make a bad day better. There’s one out there for everyone, so go find the one that makes you smile and make it yours!
Bringing Classic Rock to Millenials
It has become the sad reality that classic rock is reserved to the small sub-groups of zealous fathers at tailgates and epic movie montages. This occurrence is not only unfair to the legions of talented musicians that are being forgotten, but also to the millions of people in the world missing out on critical stepping stones in the development of music as we know it. Although how we somehow went from Led Zeppelin to Calvin Harris in the Top 40 escapes me.
I am fortunate enough to say that my dad exposed me to Steely Dan, Boston, Black Sabbath, and tons of other classics as a kid on a regular basis. I became a musician, attended a music school for several years, and started a handful of bands over the years, which also helped drill a ton of musical knowledge into my brain. I’ve heard pretty much every Zeppelin, Floyd, Bowie, and Hendrix song a hundred times, and the music I listen to daily includes Heart, the Allman Brothers, Frank Zappa, Rush, and Yes. I recognize that this is a little unusual and I find this to be a major issue for today’s youth. People are losing the ability to mentally process anything other than computerized, electronic sounds and are missing out on a ton of rad guitar solos, earth-shattering vocals, and real musical innovation that changed the face of music completely.
To claim to be “into music” and not be able to name a Beach Boys song is not okay. Though this music is from decades ago, it continues to be every bit as revolutionary now as it was when it was created. We have to remember that these classic rock pioneers completely redefined music and influenced more social and cultural movements than we can imagine. When you listen to The Ocean by Led Zeppelin, you immediately recognize their influence in pretty much every modern rock band. The Beach Boys were clearly the influence for the current beach rock movement, Hendrix ‘s raucous style inspired Jack White and John Mayer, and Pink Floyd was the beginning of psychedelic rock, a genre now championed by Tame Impala. There are countless ways in which rock legends continue to influence modern music, and there are also countless ways in which their contributions are overlooked, leading to the mass production of utter shit music (sorry, Pitbull & co.).
Maybe if everyone just went out, bought themselves a copy of Dark Side of the Moon, locked themselves in their rooms, and listened to it on repeat until they understood the true meaning of music we would live in a world without synthetic, soul-less, over-produced, falsified pop music that puts a completely altered idea of music in the brains of the masses. So many people have grown up knowing only this, and it is my hope that some far-out guardian angel comes into their lives and introduces them to Janis Joplin and The Doors and allows them to see the light. Peace, love, and rock ‘n’ roll.
The Singing Ringing Tree
There is a tree in a little town in Lancashire, England, but unlike the trees outside my window, this tree does not shed its leaves or sway with the breeze. This tree is made out of galvanized steel pipes that hum when wind flows through them. It is my new favorite piece of sculpture/experimental music and I constantly find myself captivated by its haunting sounds in videos like this:
What an absolutely incredible silhouette, and an amazing way to see the sun rise. As part of a project to rejuvenate the landscape of the area, artists Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu completed the Singing Ringing Tree in 2006, adding to a series of sculptures built along the countryside.
What I love about this sculpture is how it harnesses the natural energy of wind and translates it into sound. So many of the forces and phenomena of our world can be expressed creatively through sound, and in many cases these types of translations provide us with a new way to understand and experience the world. For instance, here is a talk by artist Robert Alexander in which he uses sound to represent data collected from space:
#socool
What he touches on that I find fascinating is how digital data sets translated into frequencies often sound like organically produced sound. How cool is it that all of the music that we listen to when we’re walking to and from class, when we’re trying to cram for an exam, or when we’re busting moves at a party, is a string of code that is translated into sound? I think that everything in the world can probably be sonified, and I think this would be such a cool way to experience the world. Who needs commodification….why should we monetarily quantify things when we can sonitize them?
The Mixtape
As a sort of conditioning or pep-talk to myself, I’ve decided that my sophomore year of college at UofM will be a year of self-love, a year of self-acceptance, self-exploration, self-embracement, and being unapologetically “me” and all the things that coalesce into a hazardous, but lovely, marbled sector of “shared space” on the “Me” Venn Diagram. In an act of naive but confident resolution, I’ve decided I know who I am now and I am not willing to compromise that for any one person or any amount of necessity to capitulate who I am to the Sheeple Effect here at Michigan. If we’re coming down to brass tax, what I mean is I’m a boss-ass bitch. I’m a cool lady and I’m gonna “do me” this year. Sorry, mom.
Here are a few songs by female artists that are also bad ass bitches. These ladies belt and play their hearts out unapologetically in the face of a male-dominated industry that wants to shrink them into sexy, solo acts in lieu of Pop Top 20. These fierce musicians play on in their own unique styles that range from freak-folk to spoken word and kick ass the whole way there.
