Ok i’m not just trolling for a few extra plays; i’m legit really curious if anyone here has opinions, criticism, feedback, anything.
As per pretty usual, it’s a general guitars band; i’m the one in the group who’s from vkei. If our goal is just “write a song or two that sounds good” - how well do y’all think we hit it?
Is this style of music something there’s an audience for? Should we continue or pivot?
PV:
Single:
oh and thank you @NewsMan for the mix/master on these tracks!! shoutout to an engineer who’s great to work with & who i’d recommend for anyone’s project if y’all are ever looking.
Lately i’m experimenting with ideas of “a listener must have a box to sort you in before they can hear you” and “to not be placed in a genre is to have failed out of all genres”.
There’s a ballad that i hope gets finished by the end of this month, and two more tracks in this formless amalgamation style.
But for 2025 and on, the songs we’re writing now seem to be asking to be read as late 2000s softer/melodic metalcore.
We’ll see around then if that’s the right approach or not…
I actually thought it was the other way. Every “new” genre is just a mix of existing genres in a new way. So if I can’t put you into a box, then that means you’re doing stuff that hasn’t been done before. And to me that’s way more interesting than hearing the 100th take on 2000’s nu-metal.
I had asked that question of what genre you consider yourselves because I don’t know what box to put you in. I hope that doesn’t make you feel like you failed, but I also don’t think I’ve heard anything quite like this before. No bands I can reach to comparisons for and say “they sound like a diet x”.
Maybe that’s a good thing? But we need more songs first!
Oh no worries, i’ve been on this concept for about half a year now and enjoying the results.
I think i’ve been writing music in one way for the past 5yrs - according to my tastes and interests.
But if i think of say John Coltrane - imagine thinking of his music as something he wrote off-key bc he didn’t know music theory!
Or Sugar in the Closet, which i think is literally the most interesting project to have come out of vkei or vkei-adjacent areas in the 2020s - but look at Yutori’s early career in Pentagon & Meteoroid; he was on about the most by-the-numbers label-friendly, right down the center of the genre 2010s kei imaginable. But if that’s how you get to one day write songs like 幽体離脱 and 1837… that’s a long haul i’d be in for
I guess all i mean to say is, it’d be nice to have a target audience in mind, which is something i’ve not had yet. So this is me looking for feedback on who and how that might be lol
This is really important to consider. It’s a topic that’s been on my mind for a while, ever since I got confident enough to record myself playing and seek feedback. I’ve recorded several snippets of different songs for at least the last six months, and I can confidently say I receive little to no feedback from most people…including the very same people that ask me when I’m going to make a band!
That’s why I go out of my way to provide feedback to others when possible. I know what it’s like to post something I worked hard on and get no response.
The uncomfortable truth is that no one is obligated to an audience just because they make art, and so when you make art you have to consider a target audience! There’s no such thing as an undecided critic. Everyone’s tastes are shaped by what they have consumed and so whatever you put out there has to shadowbox with those expectations, whether you made art for that purpose or not. Unconscious side-effect of humanity’s need for comparisons.
That also means, in some way, that you have to take people’s attention off something else long enough to fixate on you. And that’s why I’m thinking I don’t know who your target audience is, because I don’t know what to compare you to! Which could be a good thing!
Based on all compositions finished and unfinished, what do you think the major hook in your band would be? Catchy choruses? Flashy instrumentation? Atmosphere? Even if you stumble upon it by accident, like John Coltrane, if it sounds good it is good. That’s my rule, anyway.
Oh please send them my way anytime - i have no idea is you’d want this or not but i could do my best to give you neutral thoughts on it the same way as i and this band try to give eachother
And by virtue of who and where i am, i’ve ended up working with four other musicians who don’t know vkei but don’t mind the sound of it - so they seem a good window between this world and Texas metal at large
If that’s at all a perspective you’d be interested in!
Sorry to leave most things you said I responded to - it’s all good points! but i think i’ve gone far enough past trying to take notes neutrally already
I can only give you feedback from the perspective of someone who is obliviouse of music theory. But since a lot of potential listeners are, you might find that also helpful.
I like the instrumental part of both songs. Solid songs. But I can’t get rid of the feeling that your vocalist (the one who sings clears) is singing a diffrent song than band is playing. Maybe that’s just me but it doesn’t really want to fit together in my brain.
Interesting! This track is ten years old and has many people’s melody-writing on it. This could help explain why i like our current works in progress better!
