Back in February, Denver, Colorado-based musician Colton Kooker debuted his new solo project, Comet Lenny with his first single, “Main Street.” A little over a month after dropping his second single “Running Home To You,” he has returned with his third, titled “It’s Not Me.”
The song begins with a synth, an instrument prominently featured throughout the entire song. It guides the verses alongside the bass and drums, and the overall instrumentation is very upbeat.
Prior to this project, Kooker was the frontman of pop-punk band The Mazlows, and those influences can still be heard on this track, as the vocal style feels reminiscent of the early 2000s.
Cleaner guitars and a gradually crescendoing synth lead the pre-chorus before the song launches into a much bigger chorus where the other instruments join back in, accompanying melodious vocal hooks. Catchy lead guitars drive the post-chorus, while vocal harmonies create a sense of dissonance in the bridge. The drum fills do a great job of building up that section before it transitions into an anthemic final chorus.
In Conclusion…
On “It’s Not Me,” Comet Lenny provides a wave of nostalgia through the song’s pop/rock crossover, and the track is worthy of a spot on your summer playlists this year.
“It’s Not Me” is available now. Listen to it here:
I first discovered Penny Bored nearly a year ago with the release of their third track, “Emerald Green.” Now, the Dallas, Texas-based musician has released their latest track, titled “Conversations.”
The song’s hard-hitting intro hints at how much emotion will be shown in many of the performances to come throughout the track. The chugging guitars in the verses let the vocals take the lead, and noteworthy drum fills gradually prepare for and drive the rhythm of the song’s huge chorus, where more instrumentals are highlighted in addition to the vocals. This chorus contains some extremely catchy vocal hooks (as does the second pre-chorus later on).
Lyrically, the song is about dealing with social anxiety. In the second verse, Penny Bored vocalist Faith Alesia asks, “I wonder if I was myself, would you treat me like someone else? Can you please just prove me wrong?” and describes the physical and mental aspects of the anxiety (“Constant fog, stitched around the frame / heart beats so fast, I start to shake”).
In Conclusion…
“Conversations” brings together candid lyrics, emotive performances, and a strong fusion of pop-rock and modern pop-punk influences to create another anthem for Penny Bored.
“Conversations” is available now. Listen to the track here:
Highwind has returned with two more new tracks – “Never Sitting Pretty” and “Reds & Blues.”
“Reds & Blues” opens with ambient guitar riffs and softer vocals at first before the louder guitars quickly take over, instantly bringing catchy riffs to the table, and alongside those guitars, the drums build the song up to its uptempo chorus where the melodies are just as unforgettable. These sections are followed by a soulful guitar solo during the bridge, and overall, this is a really solid pop rock track that will have Highwind fans and first-time listeners singing and dancing along in no time.
“Never Sitting Pretty” is the latter of these two tracks, and the hard-hitting drums and guitars in the intro drive the song’s more uptempo rhythm, followed by catchy melodies and riffs throughout the verses. The soft synths added in are a nice touch, and the anthemic chorus is even more memorable than the sections prior to it, and contains an emotive vocal performance that really stands out in the mix.
In Conclusion…
“Reds & Blues” and “Never Sitting Pretty” combine the various pieces of pop, rock, and alternative music found within Highwind’s sound, and are two of his best tracks to date.
“Reds & Blues/Never Sitting Pretty” is available now. Check out the tracks here:
After debuting with the “Sacred Town” EP last year, Lovewell is returning with their sophomore EP, titled “Some Songs.”
“Sightseeing” initially delivers a sense of ambience with the delayed guitars that open it and the EP up. The drums kick in after about 30 seconds to finish out the outro, and that tone continues in the verses, which contain softer vocals and more minimalistic instrumentation. Louder guitars kick in to help drive the chorus, bringing more dynamics to the song in regards to its volume, and those choruses have some really catchy melodies, which are also found on track two, “Keep In Mind.” This track is a bit more upbeat in comparison to the EP’s opener, and it shows a lot more of the rock and alternative elements within the band’s music at first before the shouted vocals and energetic instrumentals hint at influences of punk and pop-punk.
“Bother” slows things down quite a bit and the mix of acoustic guitar and delayed electric guitar brings back the more laid-back vibe that the opening track initially had. The guitars quickly get louder and pair up with the drums shortly afterwards to help drive the rhythm and turn the song into a ballad with hints of emo influences, similar to those found in certain material from bands such as Turnover.
In Conclusion…
With the three memorable songs on the “Some Songs” EP, Lovewell display the various different sides of their sound.
“Some Songs” is available now. Listen to the EP here:
How did you first get into music and what made you want to start this project?
Blake: I remember being like 12 or 13 and my favourite band at the time was Linkin Park. I watched their “Live In Milton Keynes” DVD and the end of their show ended with this drum solo. I was amazed by it and it made me want to start playing the drums. So that’s where it started. Then in high school, all I did was music… at lunchtime, I’d be in the music rooms playing guitar or piano and playing drums, and then I’d come home and go into my little music studio in the garage and hook up a Singstar microphone to a guitar amp and scream along to Parkway Drive and Make Them Suffer. So music has been in my life for quite a while. The way this project came about was really from me playing around and writing riffs on Guitar Pro and finally deciding to actually try and record them. I can’t even count how many GP files I have on my computer that’s like “awesome riffs”, “cool weird low tuning thing”, “Deftones riffs” and actually one of the riffs used in “Chapter I” was actually titled in my GP “Riff so heavy it could make me bench press my house” ahaha. So while on uni break with not much else to do I started playing around on a bootleg version of Logic to see what it would sound like and it started to come together pretty nicely so I pushed myself to actually go through with it, and I’m excited with what I’ve created.
You’re releasing your new EP “The Tragedy Chapters.” The title suggests that it’s centered around some darker topics – can you elaborate on what’s discussed in the lyrics and what the main lyrical themes are on this release?
Blake:“Chapter I – Nothing Left In Me To Save” was a song that was influenced by an experience I went through as a young kid. I won’t go into it as it is quite heavy but it tells the story I guess of what I was feeling and the trauma and depression which has been with me ever since. So it definitely does use the heavier and darker themes to portray the story and just what the whole experience was like for me. “Chapter II – Don’t Let Me Go” however is completely different. That song is centered around me and I guess the insecurities and anxieties I have when I fall in love. I think the line “the things I fell in love with became the things I was running from” is a good way of demonstrating this and really sets the mood of the song.
You’ve noted that Counterparts’ 2015 record “Tragedy Will Find Us” is a huge inspiration for “The Tragedy Chapters.” By any chance, did the title of that album inspire the name of this EP in the same way that the music found on that record inspired the overall sound of the songs you’re putting out?
Blake: No, not necessarily. The title came about a strange way when I was cleaning out my bed and found papers from my childhood, one of which had the line “The Tragedy Chapters” written on it. So I kind of just went with it because I thought it sounded pretty cool. I think TWFU was the biggest influence for TTC as that record was one which I was listening to quite a lot during the writing process and even before the idea for TTC came about. Counterparts have always been a band which I have strongly connected too and I always find myself constantly yelling their lyrics out (especially one line) so definitely both TTC and TWFU share similarities.
“The Tragedy Chapters” consists of two tracks “Chapter I – Nothing Left In Me To Save” and “Chapter II – Don’t Let Me Go” – what were the writing processes like for each of these songs? Were they similar to or different from each other, and how so?
Blake: They were very different from each other. Both songs were recorded instrumentally first and mix before I recorded the vocals and mixed again. “Chapter I” probably has 3 or 4 different versions and variations of riffs and the version which was released was actually the final version I came up with. When I first sat down to write that song, originally I wanted it to be in Drop C tuning but I thought that some of it sounded better lower so I tuned down to Drop E and started playing the riffs over and over and it just flowed better with the vocal layers I was going to add on top. The biggest struggle I found with this song was recording that low on a 7 string with a standard scale. It was a nightmare but I’m glad I could work it out in the end.
“Chapter II” is a funny story. Originally I had written another song that I was going to use (which I might release later) recorded for TTC however I didn’t feel my voice suited the style that I had written. I only noticed it wasn’t going to work too well after I started recording vocals. So I scratched that song and started just playing around on my acoustic guitar. Once I came up with that little chord progression I added a layer of strings and a bass line and loved how it sounded. Chucked the vocal layer on it and mixed it. I think I wrote and recorded “Chapter II” in about 2 days.
Those two songs contrast quite a bit from each other musically, with “Chapter I” being a lot heavier and “Chapter II” being a lot softer and more melodic in comparison. What/who influenced the sound of each of those songs?
Blake: The two big influences were definitely Deftones and Loathe. I always wanted to write music similar to what they do because I love it so much. I like to think “Chapter I” is what it would sound like if Loathe and END recorded a song together and chucked some orchestral layers on top. I think it would sound pretty decent. “Chapter II” definitely took a major influence from Imminence and all the acoustic covers they were releasing. I was also listening to a lot of shoegaze and even Billie Eilish which kind of was the influence for the type of vocals for that song.
Would you say that “The Tragedy Chapters” is a concept record, in a way? Do you intend to tell a story with the songs on it?
Blake: Yes and no. I feel like TTC tells a story of my life and showcases two vastly different sides. In terms of a concept record, I definitely did not have intentions of releasing it like one but it is funny how some things work out. It can feel like a concept record or it could also not feel like one. I think the way it is organised, although only being two songs it is open to interpretation and people might get different ideas about things. Will there be more chapters? Who knows… maybe… maybe not…only time will tell.
Dissonants Magazine 