Meeting the Band: Draft

Brrrrring! Brrrring! Brraaaaai! This is the sound (not the most pleasurable) of a Telecaster guitar strummed by an extreme novice of the guitar. “That’s not the way to play. Here let me show you how to do it. You have to feel the music in yourself.” With this, Alex takes the guitar in his hands and begins to play lucid, swooping notes that while ephemeral sonically, linger in the mind’s ear. Asked to categorize his music, Alex, nearly blanched, stares incredulously, before responding “post-punk samba with a hint of bluegrass”. This obviously sarcastic remark shows The Oaks’ clear refusal to be placed in any particular genre and also aptly shows their caustic sense of humor. The name of the band may seem a bit particular but Alex, the lead singer and primary guitarist, explains it as deriving from “a desire to make songs that would be sturdy as oak trees and also able to blow around and be done in different ways”. The songs of The Oaks can only come from musicians who feel the music in themselves and are determined to create a path in the hard and often cutthroat world of coffeehouse bands and the larger music industry.
This is a new band. In fact, the name isn’t even a permanent one but rather, one that they needed to be able to both play gigs and to book studio time. There is even the suggestion amongst that the band members that the band name could be constantly in flux and changing. This is a band that does not take seriously the idea or the hope for wide-spread fame. Changing your name every few months or so is certainly not the way to be the next Beatles. But even more important to the essence of a band than its name is its music and what exactly is The Oaks’ music? It’s very hard to describe music, especially music that seeks to be as free of genre restrictions as this band’s but it certainly comes from folk and jazz influences and impressions. “Some of our most recent songs came around after listening to a lot of Mississippi John Hurt, Django Reinhardt, real authentic stuff like that. We tried to be authentic and maybe we got a bit of that ‘Rolling Stonesy’ rich white boy act goin’ on”. Here, Alex describes some of the artists that the members listened to before composing some of their recent material and while the comparison to the Rolling Stones doesn’t seem the most appropriate because of The Oaks’ less propulsive and sexually driven material, the connection to “rich white boy[s]” trying to act down and out is striking and something that can be seen throughout much of popular music over the past half-century.
The band members will excitedly tell you music and musicians whom they enjoy but they are extremely reticent to proclaim that their music is clearly influenced by these artists. In fact, the only artist who each of the band members claims to love is the soul singer Sade who would seem to have little in common with the music that The Oaks play. Zach, the bassist of the band posited a remarkable manifesto that the band may hold “Bands today hold too much to the past and care way too much about the past. Sure, cover songs and listen to older music but not to where you lose creativity”. This fascinating statement cuts to a fundamental of the changing dynamics of the music industry. Band, especially small, mostly unknown ones such as The Oaks are formed usually either as covers bands or primarily serve as them until their own songs become well-known enough. The Oaks, however, strive to perform mostly their own songs and only include a cover in their set on a special day. The Oaks have been playing and writing together for nearly two years but only within the past half year, have they begun to take paying gigs and record. One fascinating fact from speaking with the band is that record demos are required to obtain gigs at many small venues, as the venue owners want to ascertain the likely demographics for the music the band plays. Getting these record demos can be quite pricey as studio time needs to be rented and to do this, the band has to go through a variety of hoops and needs to be recognized by the studio, hence, the necessity of a band name as shown before. The Oaks have been managing to score some gigs without recording but now are beginning to prep ten songs for studio time. The sheer amount of preparation that is necessary for recording is daunting for the novice musician and seemingly involves nearly as much time as the recording and learning of the songs itself.
It’s a hard life trying to be a professional musician. The struggles are many while the profits may often to seem to have little to no fiscal reward. There is certainly a romanticism to it, however, that actively appeals to many young men and women who try their hand at it. Alex has a peculiar way of putting his reasons for being in music “Everyone wants to be great. Every little kid with a guitar or a piano wants to be Mozart or McCartney or Jay-Z but how many really are? The ones who succeed are the ones who have confidence that they are geniuses and that their music is worth listening to and being replayed for years”. This belief is one that Alex certainly seems to hold constant in The Oaks’ music. Each of the members has great confidence in the music that they have written and are continuing to write. Zach describes a song currently in progress as “Complex and catchy and crazy good”. As The Oaks prepare for what they are considering “The maiden show of our new incarnation”, they continue to evolve but in less shallow ways than simply changing their name; they are a band that consistently flouts industry conventions and seeks to challenge the audience’s expectations. There are not many bands that create works that linger in the mind over time but this is absolutely one.