In a recent review (see the March 14, 2010 post) my voice was compared to the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce (pictured left), front-man and founder of the influential 80s punk band, The Gun Club. It’s not the first time I’ve been compared to punk artists, and while I’m not an avid listener of the genre, there is a lot that I respect about the early punk movement of the 1970s and early 1980s.
First and foremost was the emotion. Many punk acts eschewed musicality in favor of emotion, and while the emotions themselves may be different (anger and rage vs. desolation and despondence), it’s something I’ve often done with my voice. It’s more about the need to express something, or tell some story, instead of about musical virtuosity. This isn’t to say that all punk bands lacked musical ability, Pierce was rooted heavily in reggae, blues and country while The Clash pulled elements from a wide range of genres into their music, they just didn’t let it get in the way of what they were trying to say. You could go into the effects of dissonance and intonation on emotional response, etc. but you’d be over-analyzing it; there’s an emotional response, because there’s nothing in the way of the honest emotion - no effects, no frills, and no patched together takes.
The artists usually had a strict DIY ethic and minimalist approach. In a way, the early punk were also some of the earliest indie lo-fi musicians, featuring stripped down instrumentation and straightforward songs. The recordings were often self-produced, sometimes recorded on home-tapes or four-tracks and were usually intentionally unpolished, with the sole intention of sounding “real”. They were often distributed solely through word of mouth and informal, underground channels.
While nobody could ever mistake me for a punk artist, these are some of the elements that inspired me, and which I have drawn on for my own music and in particular for “Elegy”.
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