Welcome back! What do Kevin Morby, Chon, Tom Walker, and The Drums have in common? They all know how to express creative freedom in some way. That means that they know how to incorporate and mix up musical elements to make their music different from other bands and artists yet still listenable to the ears. One of these bands/artists may be very distinctive from the other three, but I’m pretty sure everyone will get my point as you all read on.

Kevin Morby 

Kevin Morby is an American singer and multi-instrumentalist. He plays piano, guitar, and bass. Morby was formerly the bassist of folk rock band Woods. Since 2013, he has been on a solo career path. His style can be best described as indie folk rock. About a week ago, he released his fourth studio album, “City Music”. I always love an album that has the electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and piano in it, and that’s exactly what “City Music” has. You can also hear different styles of guitar playing such as strumming, picking, and fingerstyle. Along with that, the songs have different tempos. For example, “Crybaby” has strumming acoustic at a medium tempo, then it switches to strumming the electric guitar at a faster tempo in the next song, “1234”. “Caught In My Eye” has fingerstyle acoustic, which is always nice to hear. “Night Time” has a palm-muting, strumming acoustic guitar sound along with piano chords. I never thought those two sounds could click so well with each other. All of the songs on this album,  with the exception of “Come To Me Now”, use a basic drumset sound along with some guitar in it. “Come To Me Now” has a synth sound with an echoing drumbeat. Morby’s lyrics in most of these songs are about love. I like this mix because Morby is not limiting himself to a certain kind of sound for a certain topic.

Tom Walker

Tom Walker is a Scottish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His main genres are R & B, soul, electronic, rock, and alternative. His musical influences include Ray Charles, The Police, and Bob Marley. He dropped an EP last month, and then he dropped a non-album single earlier this month.

First, I want to talk about his new EP, entitled “Blessings”. After listening to this, it seems to me that he has an affinity for the mixture of the sound of an electric guitar and synths. For example, “Karma” has some parts where the electric guitar and synths are played at the same time. It also has some moments where only the synths are played, and then the electric guitar slowly weasels its way back in. Vice versa actually happens in “Just You and I”. This EP as a whole has a chill vibe that expresses Walker’s relaxed mood when it comes to making music. If you ask me, I think that’s why “Blessings” is a fitting title for this EP.

Now, I’m going to talk about his single, “Heartland.” Walker seemed to go all out with this song in terms of creativity. It has a brilliant blend of synths, electric guitar, violin, and backing vocals. I especially love the electric guitar riff that leads into the chorus because it’s very catchy. It also has an energetic, alternative-sounding drumbeat to make this song sound whole and full. As the title suggests, “Heartland” is about finding love when all seems to be lost. It’s in a major key (happy-sounding), and it has lyrics such as “Why are you standing in the cold? Here’s a place you want to go”. Both of these aspects tell me that Walker truly strives to provide positivity and hope in this song.

The Drums

Nothing says “think outside the box” like naming your band after an instrument. The Drums are an American indie surf pop band. It consists of a permanent member, Jonathan Pierce, on vocals, and touring members, Danny Lee Allen on drums, Johnny Aries on guitar/bass/backing vocals, and Tom Haslow on guitar. Their fourth studio album, “Abysmal Thoughts”, came out a week ago. “Surf” is a perfect way to describe this album because it sounds like music that could be played at beach parties and surfing competitions. This kind of music is characterized by a medium fast tempo, eighth note runs on the bass, and a fat electric guitar sound. Most of the songs may sound the same to you the first time through, but if you give it a few listens, y’all will notice different elements in each song. There are some songs on the album that sound very distinctive. When I say that, I mean there are a few songs that are different in tempo and instrumentation. For example, “If All We Share (Means Nothing)” has an acoustic guitar sound as opposed to the electric guitar sound that’s in other songs on the album. The tempo also drops a bit in this song as well as in “Are U F’ed” (excuse my French) in comparison to the other songs. I find it ironic that this album as a whole is in a major key even though there’s a negative connotation to the word “abysmal”. As I’ve blogged about before, Paramore employed a similar tactic with their album, “After Laughter”, where the songs from that album are in a major key even though the themes were negative. That just goes to show that it’s possible to tell one story with one aspect of your music while telling a different story with another aspect.

Chon

This is the band that I said would be distinctive from the other three artists/bands. Chon themselves have said that the genre of their music doesn’t matter, and I was actually talking with a couple of friends about this the other day. We discussed what genre we have described them as and whether they say the genre of their music doesn’t matter as a marketing tool or for the sake of creative freedom. One of my friends that I was discussing this with told me that Chon saying that their genre doesn’t matter and not being afraid to break barriers makes him like their music even more. I personally think that both of those reasons could go hand-in-hand. Chon can really be described as an instrumental math rock band. Math rock is a style of indie rock that’s characterized as having irregular and complex rhythmic and instrumental patterns, mostly dissonant chords, and odd time signatures. The members of the band are Mario Camarena on guitar, Erick Hansel on guitar, Esiah Camarena on bass, and Nathan Camarena on drums. They recently dropped “Homey”, their second studio album. Just like their music is generally described, the songs on this album are in a major key, giving it an upbeat tone to go along with its irregular patterns. I specifically hear accents on irregular counts, such as those from the guitar and drum parts in “Here and There”.  I also notice constant switches in the drumbeat in all of the songs. In “Wave Bounce”, it alternates between a rock beat and a jazz beat. As a whole, this album is firing on all cylinders to break stereotypical music barriers, and I love it!

In conclusion, these bands have displayed different forms of creativity in their most recent music that command their audiences to listen to them. That can also tie into other careers and hobbies that you might be into, like poetry, designing, drawing, etc. Think about this as y’all tune in for the next Skinner Music Blog Post!