Interview Reflection
by Mike Charbonneau
by Mike Charbonneau
Exiting the Fall is a melodic hardcore band from northeastern Massachusetts. The group consists of five teenagers, ranging from sixteen to nineteen years old. Individually, each member is a devote Christian. Collectively, the band considers the most important aspect of their music to be the faithful message behind the songs. They feel that God chose them to spread his faith through the medium of music. The message that they hope to instill in the hearts of listeners is not their own message, it is the message that Jesus Christ told them to give. Their Christianity is purposefully and meaningfully inserted into every corner of their music.
After meeting up with Exiting the Fall in their home studio and practice space above a two-car garage in a lonely corner of Beverly, Massachusetts, it was quickly learned how dedicated and talented each member of the group is. Having been around to witness their almost three year existence, spanning multiple lineup changes and setbacks, it is clear that any obstacle that gets in the way will only make the unit stronger. For example, after losing their vocalist to college in Florida, the band did not panic. Instead, they simply took advantage of the pipes found in their guitarist, Matt Vacaro, and had him take over the lead vocals position. Matt can transition seamlessly from a guttural scream to a light falsetto. After moving Matt from the rhythm guitar position, they decided to move their then-bassist Felipe Inacio up to handle the rhythm guitars. Finding a new bassist was not an easy task, but a fan of the band from Pennsylvania, DJ Williams, was so passionate about their music that he relocated to Massachusetts about one month ago. The band is now at the top of their game, and at the top of their garage, writing songs that they hope to produce a full length album with in early 2011.
Being at their practice, I got to witness some of their writing techniques. Being in a band myself, their writing process was fully admirable. While I did not get to witness the onset of a new song, I did get to witness putting the finishing touches on a new song. The band all gathered in one room and fed off of each other’s ideas. They worked not as five individual musicians, but as one collective unit. I think this is so easily done by them because they are not just five musicians, they are all best friends who grew up with each other. They may all have different influences and stylistic devices to incorporate, but they do so without clashing. Any problems that are discovered throughout the process are cleared up within seconds of the problem being addressed.
After working on some new material, the band went over their planned set list for a show that they have in Manchester, New Hampshire this upcoming weekend. They played newer songs, such as The Prodigal, and fan favorites, such as The Beginning of a Love Unending. They did not have a working PA at the moment, so their vocalist sat out, perhaps even to rest his vocal cords for the upcoming week. The band may have made a few minor errors, but that is the point of practice. Their guitarists have a chemistry that cannot be found walking in and out of clubs in Boston. Many guitar pedals are also incorporated in the live performances, creating an atmosphere that not many heavy bands can attest to.
Overall, the entire meeting with Exiting the Fall was an extremely pleasant and rewarding one. I was able to observe a fully functional and successful band in their element, writing new music. Also, I had the opportunity to be around musicians who may know more than I do, which provided me with a chance to learn as much as I could have in a class. All five of the members are accepting, considerate, and overtly kind. They are some of my good friends. Personally, do not think this field project would have been as smooth and beneficial if it was performed with any other group.
Analysis of The Prodigal
by Victoria Wei
Transcribed by Margo Henderson
I’m Matt Vicarro and I’m the vocalist of Exiting the Fall
I’m DJ Williams and I play bass
I’m Jon Miller and I play percussion
I’m Filipe I play guitar
My name is Kevin and I play guitar
What was your musical upbringing?
Matt: I started to play guitar in 7th or 8th grade. I eventually loved it so much I quit hockey and everything else in my life. I started a band freshman year with my friend John Cissel, who is no longer in the band but we still love him, and eventually that became my life.
DJ: My dad used to play guitar in a country band so I wanted to be like him. I started playing guitar in 7th or 8th grade and I’ve played everyday since.
Jon: My whole family pretty much plays music and I pretty much had a musical upbringing. Definitely in church. I played music in church ever since I was a little kid.
Filipe: I started playing guitar when I was 11 I think. I used to play soccer, that was all I used to do, but then I was like, “Wait, I really like music,” so I quit soccer and put everything into music and started making little bands. I finally got into this band, and it’s finally working out.
Kevin: I started playing in 7th or 8th grade a well. I used to play a lot of baseball and listen to a lot of rap, and I hear that all the time. My freshman year I joined this band.
How old are you guys in general?
Matt: 19
DJ: 19
Jon: 18
Filipe: 18
Kevin: 16
What is the message you hope to get across through your music?
Matt: As a Christian band we try to write all of our songs to reflect the love of Jesus Christ. Even though we are playing a hardcore, and sort of a pushy subject, we want to show people that God’s love can work in almost any area of anyplace in the world. That the message we can convey to people is that God’s love is bigger than what this world has to offer us. So that we are continually trying to show that our faith is something that takes control of our lives, and it’s not something that we do on the side, it’s who we are individually, it’s what we do and what we are going to do for the rest of our lives. So we are going to be showing God’s love to what we do so why don’t we commit everything we have to it in the first place?
Kevin: Like Matt said, the message we have as a band is not really our message but a message Jesus told us to give a 2,000 years ago- that is the good news, that is the gospel – that’s the message we are trying to send. If music is the medium we use, that’s awesome, but really as a band I feel like we try to put the message first and then the music because that’s the reason why we do everything we do.
Mike Charbonneau: I know I've played with you guys and I know that towards the end of your set you guys say what you think or what you are thinking, what you are feeling; it’s not like you are shoving it on everyone, you are just letting everyone know.
Matt: We try to present our faith to people, we try not to shove it down their throats because there are so many fire and brimstone Christians who are like “you are going to burn in Hell” if you do this and that you know that’s not it, people forget that after the most important verse of the Bible, right after it says “Jesus didn’t come to the World to condemn the World but to save the World through his love”. So I mean, showing the love for Jesus is the main thing for us. We don’t try to shove - why would be trying to shove a religion down someone’s throat if they don’t want to hear about it. We try to just show them the love.
Filipe: Yeah, we basically try to be really honest and have people see Christ in us without us really having to preach to them.
Do musical elements, other than lyrics, carry the message on their own?
Kevin: To go along with the musical side of things and our faith, I think that a lot of times a band writes the song and the lyricist puts whatever he wants over it with the message on it, but we really try and write the song as one, with Matt coming in and working his lyrics into it musically. For example, in the Prodigal, the screaming in that song is supposed to be a human screaming out to God. Screaming out what he thinks it should be and all the singing is God’s response to it and that’s one tactic of how we use music to get across our lyrics and stuff.
Filipe: Yeah, some of our songs we write the music according to the lyrics. This part should be really angry so this should be a heavy part or this part is more hopeful so this should be a more hopeful part of the chorus. All of our choruses tend to really be more hopeful and that would be a solution to a problem in the song. So yeah, we always try to combine the music with the lyrics so it wont just we like everything with the lyrics- blah I don’t know what I’m saying
What is Soulfest?
Jon: Well, the past 2 years we have had the opportunity to play in Gilford, New Hampshire, Gunstock is a big ski resort, they have a huge music festival called Soulfest and it’s like 100 bands that show up to that. They get really big bands. Just this past year we played twice on two different stages and the year before we played on the inside-out stage, its really honestly been, I don’t know about you guys, but my favorite time of the year, my favorite show.
What instrumentation is involved in your music?
Matt: In our band we have 2 guitarists, a drummer, a bassist and a vocalist. We decided on that because for our style of music its very tradition for there to be 2 guitarists, a drummer, bassist and a keyboardist. We decided we were going to go a little less hardcore. I mean the keyboardist does synth; we decided we wanted to be melodic with less fake things added.
Filipe: Less synthetic and computer stuff. We try to make it really natural and not crazy stuff with we try to make it more natural.
What music influences you stylistically?
DJ: A band that inspired me most musically is a band called Copeland and its ironic because Exiting the Fall is definitely a heavier band and Copeland is more acoustic but their music is such an art to them, they aren’t playing just to make money. They aren’t sell-outs, never did a huge headlining tour, its just beautiful music and such an art and that’s the reason I want to make music because its an art.
Matt: I like listening to August Burns Red because they take hardcore music and turn it into an art form. As much as we are a hardcore band we try to make our music into art and not just hardcore. I want my screams to not just be monotone. I want to show them that screaming isn’t just noise, its actually pain being sent through your lungs. You are actually screaming because its something that is on your heart.
Kevin: I think a band that really influenced us, as a whole is this band called For Today. Their music is probably more hardcore than our music ever will be but as a band they set the example as people and influence us the most, I feel like. As Christians they are not ashamed to speak their faith, to say through their lyrics and live, and I think that is a standard of a “Christian band” that we all live up to, and try to live up to.
Filipe: My two favorite bands that have really influenced me would be Mae just everything about them: musical, structure, instruments just everything and this other band called As Cities Burn I think they are amazing just really honest lyrics, just so artistic and really good. Love them and they broke up.
Jon: We like fooling around with different styles like blues and jazz.
Kevin: My favorite artist is John Mayer.
What influences you lyrically?
Matt: August Burns Red really influences me because they make people really think about their lives. They make people think that these lyrics aren’t just saying things they are actually meaningful phrases that are catchy and stuff like that. Not to make hooks that latch on to people but more importantly lyrically my influence comes from the cold, hard Bible. Just reading it. I’m reading all the synoptic and gospels right now which is Matthew, Mark and Luke and I’m reading John. Because we’re writing a song...Right now our album is all about the Parables of the Bible. When we are reading about the Parables we have to realize what Jesus was saying and what the Parables mean. What we do is we take these songs and interpret them and write songs based on certain aspects of the Parables of the Bible. For instance, our song the Prodigal is all about the Prodigal son which is the Parable of the Prodigal Son and there are different songs like Pharisees, which is another one of our new songs which branch off of it and we have another song, we don’t have a name for it yet but its based on the Parable of the Pharisees. So pretty much all we do is we read the Bible and we say what is on our minds and in our heart and we put it down on paper.
Can you describe your general writing process?
Kevin: So most of the time me and Felipe get together on a song that someone has already previously put together or either he has a riff or I have a riff and I was like oh that’s cool and we work on it building off of it. Then we come in and we show Matt and we work on the structure and work out different part like the same key and I think as this band we think a lot in keys. There are a lot of bands who have a lot of songs in the same key so we try to use different keys, I know that sounds weird but that’s the way we think of songs. So we get together, we do structure, and then we kinds finish the song as the structure and then with the whole band we go to each part and we tie it together individually, little transitions and then the last thing we do is working on is transition like smoothing out the whole thing making sure it flows well which has been something we have struggled with in the past as an early band just having part after part after part. Now we are trying to work really well on transitions.
Matt: Also sometimes the way the process starts they have a riff but I have a lyrical idea and I say this is how I want this part to go and I want it to sound like this and I want this screaming part here, and then this melody here and they are like ok, we see where you are going with this. And then they will take my lyrics and they will not only take what I gave them but they will take the rest of it and be like I have an idea for this part your wrote, and I have an idea for this part, this could be a really powerful screaming part and an ever more powerful screaming part and we can throw in a catch there and we repeat it and stuff like that so its more like it could go either way with me writing lyrics to what they write or them writing parts to what I write.
Kevin: And then another thing is that recently we have been using this thing called Guitar Pro and Matt wrote 2 whole songs on Guitar Pro and its been really kind of different and weird but tabbing out a song and listening to it before we even play it. We haven’t experimented much with that yet and we still have to really learn the songs fully but we’ll see how that goes because they sound great. We still have to learn how to play them. They are no good if we don’t know how to play them so sometimes Matt writes a part where its like, me and Felipe are like I don’t know if we can play that.
Matt: I don’t know I will write it and it makes sense music theory- wise like it will resolve but to be able to play that on the guitar you have to be like Tae Know Do master, you need extra hands basically.
So when you write would you say that theory is always in the front of your mind or would you say that it is a guideline in the back?
Matt: Me and Kevin took music theory. Ms. Hopkins represent. We always think of time signatures a lot, time signatures and different keys and scales and stuff like that, we work off that. We try our best to make out chord progressions make sense and to make things resolve. It kind of funny to hear like local bands who don’t know anything different and they are like lets just go to a C here who don’t know anything different. You know C, F Am, and then F well throw in a little Dm there, you know whatever fits. Whatever sounds great, you don’t know what you are playing just whatever chord sounds good but we actually know what we are playing. We have been experimenting with 17/ 4 -recently 24/7.
How do you guys make time for the band now that you are spread throughout the area?
Jon: Well we are all from different places and it’s really hard and Matt is able to pick up Kevin because he is on the way and we all can get rides. I don’t have my license yet and everyone hates me for that. Honestly it all works out because we have this place we are in right now, its just a meeting place, one place i'm so glad we don’t jump around from place to place. Its like home base for us we just come here on Saturdays and we’ll be here. Even if I have to walk here I’ll be here.
Filipe: It really tough to balance work and school but we are managing it somehow.
Matt: It’s all about sacrifice things that we aren’t normally going to sacrifice. We all really love this, which we truly do, we are willing to travel 45 min drives to be with this band because its something we all love and something we want to see happen so its something we are very passionate about.
What are Exiting the Fall’s goals and where do you see the band going?
DJ:: Right now we have 2 main goals. One is to record a full-length album and we are trying to do that this winter like February. Our second main goal is to do a tour throughout the summer- end of June, all of July and throughout August. We have 25 dates and we have 4 or 5 confirmed. Eventually we just want to tour and become a touring band and play music for the rest of our lives or for as long as we can at least and live life.
So… What do you think of Mike Charbonneau?
Filipe: What do I think about Michael? Hahaha ohhhh honestly ever since I was little in like middle school I used to like look up to Michael because he in All Flags Flying and they were the biggest band in Peabody. Aww and I used to be like holy crap I want to be in that band, they are amazing and like I used to listen to them and they are wicked good and I love Michael.
Kevin: Michael taught me how to ride my first bike and play basketball.
Matt: Mike taught me how to slam and he is like a foot and a half shorter than me and no I love him. Michael is the cutest kid I know
DJ: Michael has the stench of a thousand cowboys. I love it
Jon: I think Michael is a jerk.
by Victoria Wei
The Prodigal is a song by Exiting the Fall, which features vocals, two guitars, a drum set, and bass guitar. (The recorded version of this song includes vocals, but the live version in our video has excluded vocals).
Unlike songs of many other bands, the instruments in The Prodigal play a larger role in the melodic function of the song. In most bands, the guitar and bass play the harmonies while the vocalist is singing the melody. The drum set is still driving the beat for the other instrumentalists. In The Prodigal, the drums also accent certain beats with the crash cymbals. Later in the piece, the crash cymbals also serve the purpose of keeping the beat of the song. In this song, the lead guitar plays a melodic line throughout most of the piece while the second guitar mainly plays chordal harmonies. The second guitar will play a counter melody along with the lead guitar.
Thus, the texture of The Prodigal is polyphonic due to the multiple layers of melody and harmony being played one on top of another. At points, the texture of the guitars becomes heterophonic when the lead guitar and second guitar are both playing a melody and counter melody at the same time. Also, as mentioned before, while these melodies are occurring, the drums will accent certain beats of the melodies to give the song more variety, and prevent it from becoming a continuous flow of noise.
The Prodigal is in common time, which is indicated by the constant beat the drummer plays on the cymbals and snare drum in between fills and accenting notes. The time signature is undetectable from the guitars due to the fact that the sound is being distorted, and the guitarists are playing a constant stream of eighth and sixteenth notes. Along with the drums, the bass is also providing a constant driving rhythm for the song. Also, it is frequently playing a counter melody along with the guitars.
The melodic structure of the song is conjunct, and the notes move up and down the C minor scale. The conjunct melody allows the piece to sound as if it is constantly flowing. The only way the listener knows the song is moving on is when the drummer pauses and plays a fill. When the section changes, the melodic contour and rhythms also change, indicating that the song has moved into a new section
It can be noted that the composers did not use the V chord in The Prodigal, which allows for the song to sound as if it is seamlessly moving. The Bb chord could be used to substitute for the dominant, but the movement to and from the VII chord is not as prominent as the V chord would be. The use of III, IV, and VI gives the indication that the entire piece is just a prolongation of the tonic, which makes the harmonic structure of the song sound as if it is continuously flowing.
As a result of the underlying harmonic structure The Prodigal sounds as if it is in a continuous flow from beginning to end. The multiple layers of melody also make it more difficult for the listener to distinguish stops and starts throughout the song. The main indication for a change in the song is when the drummer stops and plays a fill to lead into the next section.
Interview TranscriptionUnlike songs of many other bands, the instruments in The Prodigal play a larger role in the melodic function of the song. In most bands, the guitar and bass play the harmonies while the vocalist is singing the melody. The drum set is still driving the beat for the other instrumentalists. In The Prodigal, the drums also accent certain beats with the crash cymbals. Later in the piece, the crash cymbals also serve the purpose of keeping the beat of the song. In this song, the lead guitar plays a melodic line throughout most of the piece while the second guitar mainly plays chordal harmonies. The second guitar will play a counter melody along with the lead guitar.
Thus, the texture of The Prodigal is polyphonic due to the multiple layers of melody and harmony being played one on top of another. At points, the texture of the guitars becomes heterophonic when the lead guitar and second guitar are both playing a melody and counter melody at the same time. Also, as mentioned before, while these melodies are occurring, the drums will accent certain beats of the melodies to give the song more variety, and prevent it from becoming a continuous flow of noise.
The Prodigal is in common time, which is indicated by the constant beat the drummer plays on the cymbals and snare drum in between fills and accenting notes. The time signature is undetectable from the guitars due to the fact that the sound is being distorted, and the guitarists are playing a constant stream of eighth and sixteenth notes. Along with the drums, the bass is also providing a constant driving rhythm for the song. Also, it is frequently playing a counter melody along with the guitars.
The melodic structure of the song is conjunct, and the notes move up and down the C minor scale. The conjunct melody allows the piece to sound as if it is constantly flowing. The only way the listener knows the song is moving on is when the drummer pauses and plays a fill. When the section changes, the melodic contour and rhythms also change, indicating that the song has moved into a new section
It can be noted that the composers did not use the V chord in The Prodigal, which allows for the song to sound as if it is seamlessly moving. The Bb chord could be used to substitute for the dominant, but the movement to and from the VII chord is not as prominent as the V chord would be. The use of III, IV, and VI gives the indication that the entire piece is just a prolongation of the tonic, which makes the harmonic structure of the song sound as if it is continuously flowing.
As a result of the underlying harmonic structure The Prodigal sounds as if it is in a continuous flow from beginning to end. The multiple layers of melody also make it more difficult for the listener to distinguish stops and starts throughout the song. The main indication for a change in the song is when the drummer stops and plays a fill to lead into the next section.
Transcribed by Margo Henderson
I’m Matt Vicarro and I’m the vocalist of Exiting the Fall
I’m DJ Williams and I play bass
I’m Jon Miller and I play percussion
I’m Filipe I play guitar
My name is Kevin and I play guitar
What was your musical upbringing?
Matt: I started to play guitar in 7th or 8th grade. I eventually loved it so much I quit hockey and everything else in my life. I started a band freshman year with my friend John Cissel, who is no longer in the band but we still love him, and eventually that became my life.
DJ: My dad used to play guitar in a country band so I wanted to be like him. I started playing guitar in 7th or 8th grade and I’ve played everyday since.
Jon: My whole family pretty much plays music and I pretty much had a musical upbringing. Definitely in church. I played music in church ever since I was a little kid.
Filipe: I started playing guitar when I was 11 I think. I used to play soccer, that was all I used to do, but then I was like, “Wait, I really like music,” so I quit soccer and put everything into music and started making little bands. I finally got into this band, and it’s finally working out.
Kevin: I started playing in 7th or 8th grade a well. I used to play a lot of baseball and listen to a lot of rap, and I hear that all the time. My freshman year I joined this band.
How old are you guys in general?
Matt: 19
DJ: 19
Jon: 18
Filipe: 18
Kevin: 16
What is the message you hope to get across through your music?
Matt: As a Christian band we try to write all of our songs to reflect the love of Jesus Christ. Even though we are playing a hardcore, and sort of a pushy subject, we want to show people that God’s love can work in almost any area of anyplace in the world. That the message we can convey to people is that God’s love is bigger than what this world has to offer us. So that we are continually trying to show that our faith is something that takes control of our lives, and it’s not something that we do on the side, it’s who we are individually, it’s what we do and what we are going to do for the rest of our lives. So we are going to be showing God’s love to what we do so why don’t we commit everything we have to it in the first place?
Kevin: Like Matt said, the message we have as a band is not really our message but a message Jesus told us to give a 2,000 years ago- that is the good news, that is the gospel – that’s the message we are trying to send. If music is the medium we use, that’s awesome, but really as a band I feel like we try to put the message first and then the music because that’s the reason why we do everything we do.
Mike Charbonneau: I know I've played with you guys and I know that towards the end of your set you guys say what you think or what you are thinking, what you are feeling; it’s not like you are shoving it on everyone, you are just letting everyone know.
Matt: We try to present our faith to people, we try not to shove it down their throats because there are so many fire and brimstone Christians who are like “you are going to burn in Hell” if you do this and that you know that’s not it, people forget that after the most important verse of the Bible, right after it says “Jesus didn’t come to the World to condemn the World but to save the World through his love”. So I mean, showing the love for Jesus is the main thing for us. We don’t try to shove - why would be trying to shove a religion down someone’s throat if they don’t want to hear about it. We try to just show them the love.
Filipe: Yeah, we basically try to be really honest and have people see Christ in us without us really having to preach to them.
Do musical elements, other than lyrics, carry the message on their own?
Kevin: To go along with the musical side of things and our faith, I think that a lot of times a band writes the song and the lyricist puts whatever he wants over it with the message on it, but we really try and write the song as one, with Matt coming in and working his lyrics into it musically. For example, in the Prodigal, the screaming in that song is supposed to be a human screaming out to God. Screaming out what he thinks it should be and all the singing is God’s response to it and that’s one tactic of how we use music to get across our lyrics and stuff.
Filipe: Yeah, some of our songs we write the music according to the lyrics. This part should be really angry so this should be a heavy part or this part is more hopeful so this should be a more hopeful part of the chorus. All of our choruses tend to really be more hopeful and that would be a solution to a problem in the song. So yeah, we always try to combine the music with the lyrics so it wont just we like everything with the lyrics- blah I don’t know what I’m saying
What is Soulfest?
Jon: Well, the past 2 years we have had the opportunity to play in Gilford, New Hampshire, Gunstock is a big ski resort, they have a huge music festival called Soulfest and it’s like 100 bands that show up to that. They get really big bands. Just this past year we played twice on two different stages and the year before we played on the inside-out stage, its really honestly been, I don’t know about you guys, but my favorite time of the year, my favorite show.
What instrumentation is involved in your music?
Matt: In our band we have 2 guitarists, a drummer, a bassist and a vocalist. We decided on that because for our style of music its very tradition for there to be 2 guitarists, a drummer, bassist and a keyboardist. We decided we were going to go a little less hardcore. I mean the keyboardist does synth; we decided we wanted to be melodic with less fake things added.
Filipe: Less synthetic and computer stuff. We try to make it really natural and not crazy stuff with we try to make it more natural.
What music influences you stylistically?
DJ: A band that inspired me most musically is a band called Copeland and its ironic because Exiting the Fall is definitely a heavier band and Copeland is more acoustic but their music is such an art to them, they aren’t playing just to make money. They aren’t sell-outs, never did a huge headlining tour, its just beautiful music and such an art and that’s the reason I want to make music because its an art.
Matt: I like listening to August Burns Red because they take hardcore music and turn it into an art form. As much as we are a hardcore band we try to make our music into art and not just hardcore. I want my screams to not just be monotone. I want to show them that screaming isn’t just noise, its actually pain being sent through your lungs. You are actually screaming because its something that is on your heart.
Kevin: I think a band that really influenced us, as a whole is this band called For Today. Their music is probably more hardcore than our music ever will be but as a band they set the example as people and influence us the most, I feel like. As Christians they are not ashamed to speak their faith, to say through their lyrics and live, and I think that is a standard of a “Christian band” that we all live up to, and try to live up to.
Filipe: My two favorite bands that have really influenced me would be Mae just everything about them: musical, structure, instruments just everything and this other band called As Cities Burn I think they are amazing just really honest lyrics, just so artistic and really good. Love them and they broke up.
Jon: We like fooling around with different styles like blues and jazz.
Kevin: My favorite artist is John Mayer.
What influences you lyrically?
Matt: August Burns Red really influences me because they make people really think about their lives. They make people think that these lyrics aren’t just saying things they are actually meaningful phrases that are catchy and stuff like that. Not to make hooks that latch on to people but more importantly lyrically my influence comes from the cold, hard Bible. Just reading it. I’m reading all the synoptic and gospels right now which is Matthew, Mark and Luke and I’m reading John. Because we’re writing a song...Right now our album is all about the Parables of the Bible. When we are reading about the Parables we have to realize what Jesus was saying and what the Parables mean. What we do is we take these songs and interpret them and write songs based on certain aspects of the Parables of the Bible. For instance, our song the Prodigal is all about the Prodigal son which is the Parable of the Prodigal Son and there are different songs like Pharisees, which is another one of our new songs which branch off of it and we have another song, we don’t have a name for it yet but its based on the Parable of the Pharisees. So pretty much all we do is we read the Bible and we say what is on our minds and in our heart and we put it down on paper.
Can you describe your general writing process?
Kevin: So most of the time me and Felipe get together on a song that someone has already previously put together or either he has a riff or I have a riff and I was like oh that’s cool and we work on it building off of it. Then we come in and we show Matt and we work on the structure and work out different part like the same key and I think as this band we think a lot in keys. There are a lot of bands who have a lot of songs in the same key so we try to use different keys, I know that sounds weird but that’s the way we think of songs. So we get together, we do structure, and then we kinds finish the song as the structure and then with the whole band we go to each part and we tie it together individually, little transitions and then the last thing we do is working on is transition like smoothing out the whole thing making sure it flows well which has been something we have struggled with in the past as an early band just having part after part after part. Now we are trying to work really well on transitions.
Matt: Also sometimes the way the process starts they have a riff but I have a lyrical idea and I say this is how I want this part to go and I want it to sound like this and I want this screaming part here, and then this melody here and they are like ok, we see where you are going with this. And then they will take my lyrics and they will not only take what I gave them but they will take the rest of it and be like I have an idea for this part your wrote, and I have an idea for this part, this could be a really powerful screaming part and an ever more powerful screaming part and we can throw in a catch there and we repeat it and stuff like that so its more like it could go either way with me writing lyrics to what they write or them writing parts to what I write.
Kevin: And then another thing is that recently we have been using this thing called Guitar Pro and Matt wrote 2 whole songs on Guitar Pro and its been really kind of different and weird but tabbing out a song and listening to it before we even play it. We haven’t experimented much with that yet and we still have to really learn the songs fully but we’ll see how that goes because they sound great. We still have to learn how to play them. They are no good if we don’t know how to play them so sometimes Matt writes a part where its like, me and Felipe are like I don’t know if we can play that.
Matt: I don’t know I will write it and it makes sense music theory- wise like it will resolve but to be able to play that on the guitar you have to be like Tae Know Do master, you need extra hands basically.
So when you write would you say that theory is always in the front of your mind or would you say that it is a guideline in the back?
Matt: Me and Kevin took music theory. Ms. Hopkins represent. We always think of time signatures a lot, time signatures and different keys and scales and stuff like that, we work off that. We try our best to make out chord progressions make sense and to make things resolve. It kind of funny to hear like local bands who don’t know anything different and they are like lets just go to a C here who don’t know anything different. You know C, F Am, and then F well throw in a little Dm there, you know whatever fits. Whatever sounds great, you don’t know what you are playing just whatever chord sounds good but we actually know what we are playing. We have been experimenting with 17/ 4 -recently 24/7.
How do you guys make time for the band now that you are spread throughout the area?
Jon: Well we are all from different places and it’s really hard and Matt is able to pick up Kevin because he is on the way and we all can get rides. I don’t have my license yet and everyone hates me for that. Honestly it all works out because we have this place we are in right now, its just a meeting place, one place i'm so glad we don’t jump around from place to place. Its like home base for us we just come here on Saturdays and we’ll be here. Even if I have to walk here I’ll be here.
Filipe: It really tough to balance work and school but we are managing it somehow.
Matt: It’s all about sacrifice things that we aren’t normally going to sacrifice. We all really love this, which we truly do, we are willing to travel 45 min drives to be with this band because its something we all love and something we want to see happen so its something we are very passionate about.
What are Exiting the Fall’s goals and where do you see the band going?
DJ:: Right now we have 2 main goals. One is to record a full-length album and we are trying to do that this winter like February. Our second main goal is to do a tour throughout the summer- end of June, all of July and throughout August. We have 25 dates and we have 4 or 5 confirmed. Eventually we just want to tour and become a touring band and play music for the rest of our lives or for as long as we can at least and live life.
So… What do you think of Mike Charbonneau?
Filipe: What do I think about Michael? Hahaha ohhhh honestly ever since I was little in like middle school I used to like look up to Michael because he in All Flags Flying and they were the biggest band in Peabody. Aww and I used to be like holy crap I want to be in that band, they are amazing and like I used to listen to them and they are wicked good and I love Michael.
Kevin: Michael taught me how to ride my first bike and play basketball.
Matt: Mike taught me how to slam and he is like a foot and a half shorter than me and no I love him. Michael is the cutest kid I know
DJ: Michael has the stench of a thousand cowboys. I love it
Jon: I think Michael is a jerk.
No comments:
Post a Comment