Okay, I kinda-sorta lied. I'm not actually writing about “all things” Breathe Carolina, but more about how hard it can be to pin a musician down in today's music world. Breathe Carolina just happens to be what I'm listening to at the moment, and I wanted to share a motley mix of thoughts about this fantastic group. Check out their Youtube video of “Anywhere But Home.” What a great song! The video isn't a piece of art, but more on that later.
It's no longer an era when record labels dictate everything, including marketing and music releases. Breathe Carolina got its start creating music via Garage Band, of all things. Yup, if you have a Mac or an Iphone, you, too can create. You, too can upload to Soundcloud. You, too can have a non-plan for your music endeavors, and your success might resemble the success of thousands of musicians out there with the Big Plan and the Big Label.
In short, you just never know.
Here's a more recent release, definitely on my current short list of writing music:
However.
When one of my concert apps notifies me that a favorite group or musician is in the area, I have to ask myself–do these guys even play instruments? So, is this a concert or just a giant dance party? Cuz, I'm a mom with teenagers…so I'm not going to a rave.
Breathe Carolina is “performing” in my area this fall and I had to do a massive search to try to figure out what exactly they were going to do. I saw that the venue was a club, which sort of told me what I wanted to know already. But when I did more checking, it was clear to me that while the genre is electronic, these guys still sing, play instruments, and do what musicians do. It's just that when you compose with the help of electronics, it's hard to actually live-perform the gazillion things that go on in order to create a piece. But these guys aren't just spinning songs by other people. They are creating and composing, which is what makes them interesting to me. Unfortunately, if their “concert” isn't “live,” then it is going to resemble a rave, at least in form. While I'm sure that's fun for the 21-30 crowd, I'm certainly not going, and my teenaged kids can't go at all. Bummer.
So I spent some time on Youtube trying to figure out what-all these guys do at their concerts! Are there are instruments? Guitars, drums…? And that gets back to their official music videos. They are largely concert videos:
Breathe Caroline released an EP called “Sleepless” last week, and for one of the songs they actually released a more artistic music video than they usually do:
But the thing about an “artsy” video is that you have to shut your eyes for a moment and ask yourself if you love the song without the visuals. Hmm. Not sure. Interesting video, but it's not my very favorite Breathe Carolina song.
That honor goes to…
Photo credit: Alex Tinder, CC BY-NC 2.0
