Há questão de um mês e meio atrás, quando coloquei mãos e ouvidos em "A Separate Peace", quarto discos dos heróis do pós punk de São Francisco, The Common Men, o clima de desespero, já conhecido por mim, tomou conta por completo durante as inúmeras audições do trabalho.
Sentimentos como desespero, claustrofobia, tensão, são comuns na música dos caras. E em "A Separate Peace" eles se afloram e afunilam-se mais intensamente. Esqueça a melancolia soturna que usualmente permeiam as obras recentes das banda pós punk atuais, o The Common Men atua em outras esferas.
Os ares melancolicamente soturnos dão espaço para o desespero acelerado, uma sensação inquietante é acelerada pra dentro da mente, sem a menor possibilidade se não ter os sentidos alterados.
Sentimentos como desespero, claustrofobia, tensão, são comuns na música dos caras. E em "A Separate Peace" eles se afloram e afunilam-se mais intensamente. Esqueça a melancolia soturna que usualmente permeiam as obras recentes das banda pós punk atuais, o The Common Men atua em outras esferas.
Os ares melancolicamente soturnos dão espaço para o desespero acelerado, uma sensação inquietante é acelerada pra dentro da mente, sem a menor possibilidade se não ter os sentidos alterados.
Você esta frente a frente com um dos grandes álbuns de pós punk dos últimos tempos, entenda e compreenda como o The Common Men concebeu seu trabalho.
Esta intensidade precisava ser explicada detalhadamente, e o TBTCI foi conversar com seus criadores para entender em detalhes cruéis o que são os doze exercícios de inquietação de "A Separate Peace".
Escute alto.
Esta intensidade precisava ser explicada detalhadamente, e o TBTCI foi conversar com seus criadores para entender em detalhes cruéis o que são os doze exercícios de inquietação de "A Separate Peace".
Escute alto.
***** "A Separate Peaces" - Track by Track *****
Kevin Rollis (Kev2) and myself (KIC) have provided notes and insights into what was perhaps our most personal album to date. Most albums--by our standards--take anywhere from 3-4 months to write and record. This one took nearly 2 years!
We had more than a few artistic differences and you can definitely hear the tension in the music. But, with that tension i feel the songs came out more human--if nothing else.
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1. Burning Son - "Fever"
Kev2: Josh's bass line, based around an Am, is steady revolving rhythm with the slowly rising guitar lines and e-bowed guitars turning the temp up as the song progresses. The only relief comes during the "Your words were never to blame" parts, where the fever break hits, tho fleetingly.
An example of how josh will plug in to get a line check on his amp and just plays something and Kevin and I going "woah! Do that again! Do that again!!" And start a song. First one we wrote with new guy Christian on the drums.
2. Forgetting Her - "Haunted"
Kev2: Wall of feedback turns into moody jangle with a touch of surf. Kevin Ian brought in chords and melody line, everybody adds their particular touches.
KIC: This is probably one of the closest songs to “classic” Common Men. The lyrics speak of a man tormented by memories of his past and a woman he cannot forget. I was heavily into Ingmar Bergman at the time, and “Hour of the Wolf” was the main inspiration.
3. Gripping My Chest - "Panic"
Kev2: 80's jangle influence turned dark thru age. Sounds like Kevin is describing a panic attack and the rest of the band is trying to either relieve or induce the stress...depending on who you ask. Written on the newly purchased Fender Jazzmaster which is where all the jangle n strum come from. Christian happens to mention he plays woodwinds and my mind immediately starts scheming… try and find them in the song. Thrown in for good measure is not 1, not 2, but 4 outro solos in a bit of a blur, sonically enacting the "Hands" from the verses. Kevin, despite some downright brutal influences, adds great sing along lyrics. (And sings them beautifully!)
KIC: This song features a wonderfully chaotic series of solos by Kev2. We threw caution to wind--playing through everything from an overly loud tube amp to a tiny practice amp on the verge of breaking. I’m almost positive we blew out the speaker from playing it for too long on 10.
4. Hand Thru Heart - "Breath"
Kev2: Goth with a small 'g'. Kevin Ian bring us an old school Common Men chord change and we go to town with our best raincoats on. Christian leads us off, setting up the "pea soup" beat nicely with everyone joining in after the mood is set. Josh comes up with Hooky-esque middle, I add a Bond theme feel cause Bond films are great. (Usually)
KIC: This song is primarily about exploitation. I was incredibly inspired by “10 Cloverfield Lane.” The best thing about being in a band with these musicians is that they can take a simple chord change and make them sing. The pe-chorus is pretty standard Common Men fare until Kev2, Josh, and Christian make it incredibly unique to the song--even though we’ve heard it on so many songs before ours.
5. To Repel Ghosts - "Memories"
Kev2: Common Men go Glam! ...sort of. When we did the revenant ep, I was trying to make the memories as ghosts a theme for the album. Didn't get farther than this song, due to...well, life. seems like everybody is plugged thru a fuzz box on this! The queen bits were actually inspired by Thin Lizzy cause they're great and you should listen to them too. ;)
KIC: I’ve had various versions of this chord progression floating around in my head since about 2013. It wasn’t until about early 2015 did it really land while jamming one night with Kev2. We brought it to the rest of the guys and it became a song. The bridge was hard to write because it was almost incredibly democratic in its inception. The character in the song dies momentarily in a suicide pact gone wrong. He wakes up to find his lover has buried him alive.
6. Instead - "Change"
Kev2: During Christian's audition, Josh starts playing bass line, I add the synth line and we play it for a few minutes and then forget about. Good thing we recorded it. Better thing when we find this recording a couple months later, best thing Christian joins! Kevin Ian adds guitar melody and song begins taking shape. I pull a chorus off an older song I had lying around and legos are complete. Everybody claps because handclaps are great.
KIC: Man falls out of love with his lover. They are essentially strangers in bed. Try as he might to rekindle the flame, they are too far gone in their relationship. He just gets up one night and walks out of the house and never returns. I actually recorded this song with a guitar, a delay pedal, and an amp turned up too loud. I didn’t have a tuner with me, so I tuned to the keys in the song. The slight chorus effect you hear is not a pedal--it’s my guitar being slightly out of tune. I triple-tracked the ending solo to make it surround the stereo field.
7. Wall to Floor to Wall - "Rage" / "white" funk meets somber strings.
Kev2: Kevin Ian showing off his 'mark 2 Crimson" influence here during the bridges and solo. Verse bass line written by Kev2 in a "headhunters" mood. Chris already syncopating by 2nd run thru. Fantastic double tracked Kevin Ian solo at end!
KIC: Josh has no easy feat during this song. I think he adds the right amount of disgruntled octave fury. The lyrics describe a man in the throes of a demonic posession. He’s not winning the battle.
8. Empty Vessels - "Statuesque"
Kev2: The fastest song by The Common Men so far! More ripping sax from Christian. Kev2 adding a bit of hardcore to the mix, filtered thru The Common Men esthetic: result: riffs, riffs, riffs! Kevin vocally duels himself between the speakers. Christian thundering thru some pretty heavy drumming, going thru 4 pairs of sticks to get the right take if memory serves... Josh is just a pure demon with the bass on this one!
KIC: The song is about a man constructing his perfect lover--only to find it grows tired of his company. Josh stacked a fuzz and distortion--specifically a Devi Ever Ruiner and smallsound/bigsound Mini--during the interlude for a stupidly massive bass sound. Christian’s drumming is extra furious during this song. Listen to his small drum solo on headphones to catch the full thunder.
9. If And When We Were Then - "Regret" the duality of self.
Kev2: Kevin Ian idea with a 6/4 bar. A good example of the push n pull of the 2 guitar line up. Kevin Ian with the abrasive, harsh, angry lines; Kev2 with the melancholy melodic lines. We had been running thru this one for a few practices before I figured out what to do, but eventually grabbed the whammy bar and never let go.
KIC: For this song I over-dubbed four “atmospheric” guitars: guitars that are almost unrecognizable in harmonic content, but are still present in the mix. Two of them were recorded direct into the recorder. The other two were recorded in our rehearsal studio with microphones on the other side of the room. I cranked the volume to 11 and stacked anywhere from 4-5 fuzz pedals into each other. Including Kev2’s guitar parts and mine--I kept my original take, mistakes and all!--there are anywhere from 8-9 guitar parts not including the bass track. I cannot stress enough how incredibly tight Christian and Josh are in this song. They play off each other well, and Josh’s melodic bass fills contain just enough “not-quite-in-key” notes to make it interesting and incredibly fitting.
10. Fall in Autumn - "Apathy"
Kev2: More small 'g'. I bring in the initial idea, and I suggest it should feel like "sleazy disco rock.” The band takes it to heart. Chorus up to full. Once again Josh's King of Low End mantle needs no defending. Mixed very dry for full panning effect.
KIC: One of my favorite songs in that there are minimal overdubs. It’s a very straight-forward song for us.
11. Between Each Other - "Distance" (Moody idea turned modern epic. )
Kev2: True story: Christian confused practice days and was home cooking lasagna one evening. Amused to bits, the rest of us start demoing this number with myself on drums. I only really know this one beat and it was a little shaky. Upon his return Christian took the idea and shaped it into awesome. Kevin Ian riffs an echo loop of Bm to A, I go all fingerstyle, Christian controls the heartbeat, and Josh holds everything together. Outro idea featuring Christian building on a drum pattern leading the charge. It’s my favorite on the album.
KIC: Perfect example of “less is more” with regards to changes and arrangement. The song speaks of a couple who are beyond mend. Their lives merely touch each other--they are no longer “one.”
12. Absent are We - "Resolve" (Sing the sorrow, then dance the night away. )
Kev2: Kevin Ian brought in a song but after several run thrus, we only keep the D to G outro. I come up with first half after hanging out near the coast in the rain too many times. Josh yells "keep going!!" during outro and has ideas that it should dissolve into everybody playing drums. Then we added some other things for the headphone listener!
KIC: This is my favorite song on the album for nothing else than the gall we had as a band to arrange it, record it, and release it. Josh took the reigns with regards to pushing us to keep playing the song even after we had thought we nothing left in us. He proceeded to grab an extra drum and started playing. From there, Kev2 started riffing on his keyboard and Christian started playing a very tribal-inspired beat. Each time we play the song, it’s different because we primarily looked at each other for cues--led mostly by Christian.
Whereas Josh comes from a more noise/punk/experimental background, Christian comes from a more classic rock/progressive background. Seeing these two people take an active part in arranging the song yielded masterful results.
Kev2’s adventurous spirit is something we cannot stop nor contain. He brought many noisemakers--conventional and unconventional--to the studio. The day we recorded this song, we had saxophones, radios, congas, extra toms, snares, violin bows and a ton of extra pedals ready to go. We had a basic idea in mind with Josh and Christian playing conductor from behind their instruments.
Most of what you hear is happening in real time. Aside from a few overdubs--primarily Josh and Christian playing saxophones (“What do we play?” “Just play” “When do we stop?” “When I say stop...heh!”, what you hear is Kev2, Josh and myself roaming the studio while Christian lays the foundation. The lyric al content of the song is the logic al conclusion of the album: hopelessness and resentment that ends in a spiral of madness.
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Thanks
https://thecommonmen.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/thecommonmen/
