Final Revision

Brrrrring! Brrrring! Brraaaaai! This is the sound (not the most pleasurable) of a Telecaster guitar strummed by an extreme novice. “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, slender and scruffy, amply clothed in flannel, 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 their caustic sense of humor. The name of the group may seem a bit particular but Alex, the lead singer and lead 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 are compelled to make music for the sheer joy of it, 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 it is one that they needed in order to play gigs and book studio time. There is even the suggestion among the four members that the band name could be constantly in flux and changing. This is a band that does not take seriously the hope for widespread 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 that seeks to be as free of genre restrictions as this band’s, but it certainly comes from folk and jazz influences. “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.” 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 something that can be seen throughout music of the past half-century and indeed, Jake, the drummer of the band, comes from a very affluent family and helps to pay for much of the band’s expenses.
The band members will excitedly tell you about music and musicians that they enjoy, but they are extremely reticent to proclaim that their music is clearly influenced by these artists. In fact, the only artist that 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 “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 the changing dynamics of the music industry. Bands, especially small, mostly unknown ones such as The Oaks, are formed usually either as cover 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, comprised of twenty year olds, have been playing and writing together for nearly two years, but only within the past half year, have they begun to take paying gigs in Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor and record. One fascinating fact that differentiates The Oaks from other bands 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. The first time, they attempted to enter the studio, they weren’t allowed to record but having changed their name since they applied, the studio didn’t realize that it was the same band that had already paid for the time. 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 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, tugging at his striped polo shirt, 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.