Introducing “The Lyric” and Kicking Off With Vices I Admire

Introducing the Lyric    By: Angela Kerr

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Highlighting Vices I Admire – …go the spoils

Growing up in a musical family, the ebb and flow of sound, vibration and its communication and messaging was and has always been a significant part of my life.  My mother taught me the essence of being the music.  My father played tenor sax, my oldest brother also played tenor, my middle brother played alto sax who also is a mean guitarist and songwriter and my youngest brother the drums and the flute.  I experimented with clarinet, drums and guitar over my lifetime, but what stuck was voice, lyric and composition….hence my fixation with “the lyric.”

In the morning as we awoke, music was a part of our routine.  To this day, if it is possible, I start out with music – usually in my car as I face the day.  Yes, I am one of those commuters rocking out, singing at the top of lung capacity that everyone stares at as they pass by.  Music is a pulse of life, like blood running through veins – and I for one have no difficulty with that realization!

Prior to the advent of technology which created advancement in our field, people actually wrote lyrics and published them within an album.  A person could get lost for hours with the insert, each songs messaging, and an inside look at who the band was.  Now we watch a video and marketing is pointed.  What we had then – yes old school – was the sound, the words, a few pictures and our imagination. I’m not saying both options don’t have their place – I am suggesting that something has gotten lost.  What are you the musicians and song writers trying to tell us? What is this generation of communicators focused on and why?   What was happening in their lives that made it so important for them to take the time to get out pen and paper, write down a thought and then write music to accompany it?  When you think about the amazing process that must transpire….what evokes the emotion and willingness to make a song happen and then record and publish it?  It is no simple task and not everyone does it.  So what motivates an artist to create?  That’s what I want to attempt to find out.  I hope you will join me on this monthly journey – right here – in the Colorado music scene.

So this is how I see it.  I am going to be out there.  I would like to hear from you.  If you have a song that has messaging that you want people to understand – we need to talk.  That means – I want the lyric sheet.  It means I need to sit down and hear the song – preferably in the venue that you plan on performing it in…there is nothing like a live performance to experience the creation.  I need advance warning  so I can get performance dates on my schedule.  It means I need some time to talk to you and your band about why this song?  Why this lyric?  What led up to it?  How did your band create the end result?  How did you originally get together?  What does your company look like?  How many times do you get together each week to perfect your craft?  What are your goals?  What action steps are you taking to get there?  What venues are you choosing to perform in and why?  Music is art and music is a business.  Let’s explore all we can….together…and share that experience with our community.  There are thousands of bands in Colorado so of course I can make no guarantee that your band will be covered – but as with anything motivation and action counts!!  Here’s how it works:  An email will be sent to me once you have completed the Lyric Submission Sheet which can be found online at ColoradoMusicBuzz.com.   That will start the process.  I will respond back and we will see where it takes us!

This month we start with Vices I Admire.  The leader of the band, Dave Curtis, submitted lyrics for …go the spoils.  Vices, has transitioned in membership over the past several years and through that process has grown.  Dave Curtis on guitar who also owns and operates his own graphics design business (Dave Does Design) has a serious yet extremely fun outlook on the music business.  He is focused on process, discipline, determination and drive.  Dave gets mad respect from all members of Vices for his song writing capabilities. His fellow band members include Dan Battenhouse on bass and back up vocals, an original member of The Fray, who holds the premiere role for sound engineering for the band. Next up, Alex Simpson on Drums also represents Rupp’s Drums, a top notch company supporting drummers in Colorado.  Scott Uhl on guitar instructs at the Colorado Music Institute.  This well balanced group of guys are powering through their next release- a quick follow up of their album Fables released in May of 2013.  They pride themselves in keeping fans participating through personal interaction and feel the quality of their music is also a draw.  I have seen Vices perform on more than one occasion, most recently at Metropolitan State’s Center for Innovation at CREATE MSU’s OWN IT event (www.createmsudenver.com).  The camaraderie of both band members and fans is a significant element for success – connection with audience is mandatory.  So here we go with …go the spoils written in paragraph instead of verse:

I met Vices at “House of Vice,” the bands studio in Denver.  The conversation reminded me of hanging out with old friends…multiple conversations going on at once.  The band quickly updates each other on the happenings for the upcoming Halloween show at Herman’s and coordinates details for their 10/26 GlowMe party at LoDo’s where they will play with Coral Thief, Attic Attack and Midwest Rebellion.  Meanwhile, Alex sticks in hand makes good use of his drum pad to warm up while we talk.  The guys are chiding one another, talking about the “marriage” that exists when you are a member of a band and Scott Uhl thanks the guys for letting him “sleep around.”  They are all quick witted and go to the deep easily.  Yes, we got into a discussion about Psychological disorders and the release of the DSM5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders).  Battenhouse touches on his beliefs regarding the chemical differential between men and women as it relates to the functioning of the corpus collosum and the interaction between the two hemispheres of the brain.  What a night. They handed me earphones and performed the song twice for my listening pleasure.

When I ask each member about the song, I find that Curtis penned the lyrics and the vocal melody around the same time he made a move to Denver from Ft. Collins (2006), but they were not finalized until late 2008 – early 2009.  The song was recorded in April 2009 and released as part of The Politics of Apathy on January 1, 2010.

According to Curtis, in the past, he suffered from a dissociative disorder – where real life experiences have a dream like quality.  He explains that experiencing dissociative disorders can be very upsetting – like being aware the world he was living in was real – but nothing felt solid or concrete for him.  He describes his lyrics as venomous and spiteful – “a letter to, and ultimately a conversation with my former self, a person I will never be again.”  Curtis states:  the old me is “warm and gray, a quilted memory,” layers upon layers of a muted existence being kept alive “the faded company you keep.” The “improbable ghost is the ‘me’ that once was…like feeling divorced from who you are.” Curtis continues “and it feels like insanity, so I long to feel whole again, to feel as myself and at the same time, to feel as I once was,” referencing  “carry me home…rot by your flesh…gnaw on your bones.” 

As he describes each section of the lyric to me, I feel his passion, anger and rage and experience a man fighting with himself – old and new.  He finishes with relating to the anxiety itself, describing it as “that gnawing fear of just being alive – having to live in a world I no longer understand.”  To hear his description of the lyrical content is like being catapulted into a frenzied mind, searching for any semblance of understanding.

Allowing his words to envelop me, reading them over and over and listening to the song late into the evening – I feel he is not alone.  People all over the world are feeling separate from “being” and are desperately seeking a peace they feel is outside of their grasp.  I believe people do sense they are living in a world they cannot begin to understand.  The Power of NOW by Eckhart Tolle comes to my mind….it is what hits me personally…my interpretation of the “feel” of the lyrics.

Approaching the subject of lyrics from the perspective of the other members, I found each had a very specific reaction about the song and related to it on different levels. Battenhouse (joined in 2009) related to the line “you are dead; I know that you’re dead, were you ever really alive?” He explains, “We live in a world full of zombies who live life like a form of consumption.”  He explains “it is why friendships and relationships fail.”  Although not in the case of the Curtis lyrical compositions, Battenhouse suggests that in his experience” lyrics can often be influenced by the bass and the drums.”

Simpson (joined in March 2012) chimes in and says “I don’t connect with lyrics at all.”  He suggests he doesn’t even know what the lyrics are to the song …so I offer him a copy of them.  As he reads them he states: “I have massive respect for Dave’s music and lyrics”, emphasizing that he feels the phonetics and the passion of Dave’s performance, which in the end is what influences him.  He doesn’t need to read or understand the lyrics – he bases his drum composition on the “feel” of the music.

Uhl (a member since September 2013) seconds that motion communicating he does not focus on lyrics as he believes they “belong to the singer.”  He states that “it is the singer that needs to connect with the lyrics.”  He then speaks to the subject of people who try to give singers lyrics to consider and how uncomfortable that can be.  Uhl then states that he did relate to the line in the song “I want to drive a nail through your eyes so I can get a better view,” suggesting that he connected with that expression the most.  I have to admit, that line penetrated me as well – demonstrative and chilling – the visual stops you in your tracks.  In speaking to Curtis about this expression, he suggests it is meant to convey his willingness to “see through his eyes again (his former self) so he might discover how he arrived here.”

I also must admit I was intrigued by the line: Elutriate and evanesce which according to dictionary.com is defined as: Elutriate – to purify by washing; to separate the light and heavy particles by washing and evanesce – to disappear gradually, vanish, fade away.  What can I say? Incredible….bearing ones soul.  Welcome to the Lyric.

Check out Vices I Admire at:  http://www.vicesIadmire.com

Discography:

Plan B (2005)

Politics of Apathy (2010)

Venom & Pride (2011)

Fables (2013)

Upcoming Events:

NOV-DEC              In Studio to Record Follow UP Album (Album Title TBA)

Please use this photo:  Photo credit:  Ralston Photo.   Pictured left to right:  Alex Simpson, Scott Uhl, Dave Curtis, Dan Battenhouse.

Tags: vices i admire, Angela Kerr, The Lyric

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