After taking essentially their whole careers to do so, the entire catalog of De La Soul‘s is finally back in their possession. And, finally, the legendary trio’s first six albums — 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), De La Soul Is Dead (1991), Buhloone Mindstate (1993), Stakes Is High (1996), Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2000), and AOI: Bionix (2001) — will be released digitally for the first time ever on March 3, 2023 (or, “3-3-23”).
Posdnuos, Trugoy, and Maseo celebrate the end of their long and arduous journey with the DSP debut of “Eye Know.” The song, actually a focus track from their 1989 debut, the trio also dropped a high definition version of the original video.
De La Soul Debut “Eye Know” Single On Streaming Platforms was last modified: February 3rd, 2023 by Meka
Despite the way things are, music was not meant to be the background to chores. The art form evolved as a way of communication that demanded attention and absorption from the listener. In no genre of the art is this more prevalent than in ambient music. The quirkily named Mystery of the Bluebon by Anand Iyer under the moniker Opsyllate offers a meditative escape from the heavy percussive rhythms into something more reflective.
A student of the Berklee College of Music, Iyer picked up the guitar in college. “I was into hardcore thrash metal,” says the composer who was guitarist for several bands. But slowly the drive to find something different drew him to the perspective of exploring ambient sounds. “My work as a music producer requires me to constantly listen to all kinds of music. The genre of psychill and ambient music just felt calming. After all, you cannot listen to thrash metal for hours on end,” he says. It was in college that he also discovered the genre of psychill. “I started listening to composers and producers like Simon Posford,” the composer recalls.
Psychill is the latest nomenclature to enter the psychedelic music genre. “From its start, psychill has always been associated with world music,” Iyer shares, adding that the genre has seen many in Europe and the United States attempt fusion-based progressions with Indian rhythms. “But there are very few in India trying it,” he notes.
Mystery of the Bluebon is a gripping listen. Made of seven tracks, the album grows on the listener with its interpretative time changes, movement and mix of Indian, Western and even African rhythms. Songs like Darase bin lage and Psynapse stand out; even tracks such as Deep dub, Attune to the moon and hoppity capture the feel with their rhythmic shifts without being too indulgent.
A unique point that stands out is the inventive use of classical Hindustani and Carnatic vocals and sounds in the album. Iyer grew up around traditional Indian music with his uncle being a Carnatic violinist. “Even my wife is a Carnatic vocalist. So, it is natural for me to choose these styles into the mix,” he notes.
Despite the growing pressures of balancing work as a commercial producer and engineering tracks for games, Iyer plans to push his Opsyllate project further. “The idea is to keep making a song every 15 days or a month. It should help me get another album ready soon,” he asserts. The next work, he promises, will see him venture further into the Indian heartland with music from different states in the country finding their way into the mix. It looks like there is music brewing in the atmosphere.
KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. (AP) — Dale Lieser believes in blooming where he’s planted.
He likes to say that you can find fertilizer wherever you are.
Blind since the age of 9, he trained as a classical pianist and uses his skills to encourage and uplift others.
Recently, a half dozen people gathered in the choir room at the H. Lawrence Patrick Senior Center and began running through a repertoire of songs for upcoming performances, including a Valentine’s Day program.
In the corner of the room at the piano, Lieser’s fingers fly over the keys, a joyous tune erupting from the instrument as the group sang “The Crawdad Song,” and then moved on to “She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain.”
One of the members said you have to meet two requirements in order to join, you have to laugh and you have to be a little crazy. But you don’t have to know how to sing.
“You don’t have to be able to sing,” Lieser said. “It’s not a qualification for this group.”
As the group throws out songs, Lieser types the titles on his Braille typewriter.
When the group is done practicing, Lieser says a prayer and they disperse.
Lieser, who has always been passionate about the piano, began playing at the age of 5 and started lessons at 9.
“It’s something I’ve always gravitated to,” he said. “I can’t quite express it. I just remember that it’s something that always came quite easily to me.”
He felt as if he were meant to play the piano.
When he became totally blind as a child, his parents made the decision to have him attend a residential school for the blind and one of his teachers insisted he learn to read Braille music, which he was initially reluctant to do, but it became a valuable tool when he began to play classical music, which can’t be learned by ear.
Born and raised in Minnesota, he left his home state in 1989.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College in Minnesota and got his master’s degree from the University of Arkansas and got 95% through a doctoral degree from the University of Oklahoma. He said he did all the coursework, recitals and exams but just didn’t do his dissertation. He said he got behind on bills and decided to work instead.
Over the years, he has worked as a staff accompanist for the ballet department of the University of Oklahoma and then at a large choir at Oklahoma City for 12 years. He also taught music classes at a small Bible college.
Eventually, Lieser ended up in Kings Mountain and about a year ago, he discovered the Kings Mountain senior center and learned he was eligible to join. He got involved as much as he could and drifted into playing the piano for the choir.
He said the choir performs at various nursing and retirement homes within a one hour radius as well as at the center itself.
“It’s a delightful place,” he said. “It’s a very active place, very positive.”
Lieser also volunteers in the kitchen and helps load dishes in the dishwasher each week after the Friday lunch.
“It feels good to be involved,” he said.
He also spends his time playing the piano for his church, teaching private lessons and reading, which he said is his number one hobby.
He is able to use the digital files on his phone to listen to ebooks.
“I think of blindness as a nuisance,” he said. “We’re all handicapped in some way.”
Lieser has never let being blind stop him from living a full life and pursuing all his interests from competing – and winning – a fishing tournament for the blind, to going bowling, skiing and rock climbing.
“You don’t have to see to do all that,” he said.
He said his education at the residential school for the blind taught him the skills he needed to be independent and fully engaged in life.
Living with people who had visual impairments and being taught by teachers who knew how to work with the blind or who had impairments themselves, made a big impact on him.
“We were just never taught you shouldn’t or couldn’t do something,” he said.
He said he learned just as much outside the classroom as in it, such as making his bed, cleaning, going out to eat at restaurants and shopping.
“You learn how to do that. No reason not to,” he said.
He was thankful his parents had the foresight and courage to send him to a residential school.
Lieser also has a guide dog named Pepper.
His third guide dog, he said they’ve been together for two years, and she is the one who has bonded with him the best.
“Pepper is the best match I’ve had so far,” he said.
“When I’m walking, she helps me avoid obstacles,” he said.
When he’s in a parking lot and has no orientation, she’ll help him find the door.
But when Pepper is home, she’s just like any other pet dog and is not expected to work.
He also uses a cane to get around but said having Pepper gives him more confidence than just using a cane.
Lieser said he was born with cataracts and had them removed as an infant but then he developed glaucoma.
He had to have many surgeries after that but he had too much scar tissue and ultimately lost all of his vision.
He doesn’t feel sorry for himself though.
“There’s no reason to complain,” he said. “We all have things we wish we could change.”
He said one of his goals is to make others’ lives easier in whatever way he can and be a blessing to those around him.
“I’ve been given too much to keep it to myself,” he said.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Journalist Joe Edwards, who chronicled country music and helped “Rocky Top” become a Tennessee state song during his four-decade Associated Press career, has died. He was 75.
Longtime AP colleague Randall Dickerson said Edwards’ wife called him to share the news that her husband died Friday after a lengthy illness in Nashville.
Edwards documented the ascent of country music through interviews with stars ranging from Dolly Parton to Taylor Swift. He wrote the AP’s Nashville Sound country music column from 1975 to 1992 and did commentary for The Nashville Network cable TV station in the 1980s.
When Edwards retired in 2012, Reba McEntire said in a video tribute: “I’ll never forget the first time you interviewed me at the very beginning of my career, and I’ll never forget how sweet you were always to me.”
In 1982, a story Edwards wrote about the popularity of the song “Rocky Top” led the General Assembly to declare it a state song.
“He got the ball rolling,” Boudleaux Bryant, the song’s co-writer, said at the time.
He also covered sports and a variety of other topics during his AP career, which was spent entirely in Nashville. He worked most of the jobs in the Nashville bureau, including sports editor, broadcast editor and day and night supervisor.
Edwards was among those covering the death of Elvis Presley in 1977. He also reported about or edited stories from more than 20 Country Music Association awards shows.
He was nominated for several AP writing awards in the 1970s and 1980s.
“I just show up on time and do what I’m told,” he once said.
He wrote often about the syndicated TV show “Hee Haw,” and he once appeared on camera with its cast members.
Edwards began his AP career in 1970 after graduating from Eastern Kentucky University. Prior to that, he attended Vincennes University in Indiana.
While in college, he worked for the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Crawfordsville, Indiana, Journal-Review.
Shortly after taking the job in Nashville, he periodically played basketball with Al Gore, then a reporter for The Nashville Tennessean. Gore later became vice president.
“He was a pretty good rebounder,” Edwards recalled.
Country music stars he interviewed also included Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, Barbara Mandrell and Loretta Lynn. For several years, Edwards voted on nominees for the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
He specialized in writing obituaries, including those for music stars Johnny Cash, Porter Wagoner, Roy Orbison, Bill Monroe and Carl Perkins.
In 2010, he wrote extensively about the Nashville flooding that left much of the city submerged for several days. But he preferred reporting about more light-hearted topics, such as the taster at the Jack Daniel’s distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee.
Also, Edwards traditionally wrote a year-end story annually wrapping up Tennessee’s offbeat happenings of the year.
“People call and ask if I’m going to do the weird story again,” he said.
In the early 1970s, as bureau sports editor, Edwards spearheaded an effort to include girls high school basketball scores on the AP wire and to have a girls poll join the one for boys.
Here is a closer look at a club that celebrates great music in movies, TV shows and video games.
On Thursday nights at 9:30 p.m., students head over to the business building and climb up to the second floor. There they gather in a room, switch off the lights and listen to music — in particular, film music. So goes the typical night with Film Music Guild.
Film Music Guild (FMG) is a club for students who love learning about how the intricacies of music scores enhance the whole story. Though the club’s name highlights film music, they also listen to a range of television and video-game music scores.
CURRENT LEADERSHIP
FMG president Alique Malakian, a senior kinesiology major, has led the club since 2020. She first joined in 2019 — her first year at Biola — and when the club sought for new students to take up leadership positions, Malakian decided to give it a shot.
“I said, ‘You know what, I think I’m interested, I could take on some minor role,’” Malakian said. She ended up becoming the vice president. “I was kind of stressed about it at first because I didn’t know what kind of commitment it would be, but I grew to really like it.”
Kobe Burton, a senior music composition major, joined FMG as vice president the year after Malakian began.
“I’d been talking with Dr. Denham [a professor in the Conservatory of Music] because he wanted to get more music involvement in the club,” Burton said. “So he was like, ‘If we can get anyone from composition to be on the leadership team, that’d be really cool.’”
CLUB ACTIVITIES
In the regular club meetings, the president and vice president take turns or collaborate making a presentation for club members to enjoy. They analyze the melodies and harmonies, as well as particular instrument choices and how that creates the atmosphere to enhance a film, show or video game story. Occasionally, the club members themselves get a chance to present on music they like.
For one meeting, Burton created a presentation on music theory with the idea of going into depth on how musical characteristics contribute to a film — for instance, why a certain harmony works, or why a particular melody is intriguing.
Malakian and Burton also collaborated on a presentation about language and music.
“There were some scores out there where someone’s singing, and you don’t really know what they’re saying,” Malakian said. “Sometimes it’s just a different language or a created language. So seeing how those words actually have meaning [augments] how good the score is, so that was a really cool thing to look at.”
FMG hosts a variety of other activities.
“We try to do some outings and some on-campus events. Covid has [made things] interesting, so I don’t think we’ve gotten on a perfect roll yet, but a constant after Covid has been going to see movies together. Last fall, we went to see ‘Dune,’” Malakian said. “In times when we weren’t able to do that, we’ve done movie showings. We’d just reserve a room and watch a movie. We’ve done ‘Inception’ after Covid [and] ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ this past semester.”
This semester, the plan is to have at least one movie-outing. Malakian also hopes to revive a FMG tradition of going to the Hollywood Bowl to see John Williams’ concerts and possibly host an Oscar Awards viewing party.
A MUSIC-LOVING COMMUNITY
Burton especially loves FMG for its passionate community.
“It’s really cool to be around people who are similarly interested in any game or TV or movie score, and it’s really interesting for me because I don’t know every film score that’s out there, so I’ve learned a lot from Alique and from the other presenters,” Burton said.
Malakian also appreciates the diverse membership within the group.
“In recent years it’s been a big mixed bag of people from everywhere,” Malakian said. “[We have] the film students, the music students, and the ‘casuals,’ which is what I would be, because I’m not [a film or music major]. So it’s really fun to just see people from every field at Biola enjoying the same thing.”
If you are interested in joining Film Music Guild or have questions, you can join them on the Biola app or email [email protected].
The Daily POP Crosswords is a daily puzzle game that challenges players to fill in the blanks of a crossword puzzle with words and phrases related to pop culture. Players can test their knowledge of current events, movies, music, and more while enjoying a classic word game format. The game is available online and can be played anytime, anywhere, making it an accessible and convenient form of entertainment for crossword enthusiasts of all ages. Below, you’ll find the answers to the Daily Pop Crossword for February 4 2023 below!
There is a new puzzle to work through each day of the week. This crossword is considered to be balanced between being fun and engaging with some challenge but entirely solvable without tearing one’s hair out!
Daily Pop Crossword Solution Guide
Here are all of the answers for the Daily Pop Crossword Answers. The clues are in alphabetical order as we think that might be easier to find any specific clue you’re looking for.
Click/tap on the appropriate clue to get the answer. (We have done it this way so that if you’re just looking for a handful of clues, you won’t spoil other ones you’re working on!)
If you’ve enjoyed this crossword, consider playing one of the other popular crosswords we cover, including: New York Times Crossword (and Mini), Daily Themed Crossword (and Mini), LA Times Crossword, and USA Today Crossword.
The post Daily Pop Crossword February 4 2023 Answers (2/4/23) appeared first on Try Hard Guides.
You need to listen to “Wanted Man”, the newest single from Boston-based artist George Woods. Appealing to our hopeful sensibilities, the folksy indie-pop song is about overcoming one’s inner loneliness.
Musically, it’s an upbeat blend of acoustic guitars and melodic synths. George’s lyrics are steeped in honest storytelling and his vocals so captivating.
“Wanted Man” is such a beautiful song. As a release, it’s the first taste of the musician’s upcoming EP called Reflecting the Light.
Many people associate sleep music with slower, low-tempo songs, but a new study suggests that upbeat pop songs also work well for some.
Experts say familiar music can help ease anxiety and distract people from their thoughts.
Incorporating music into a consistent bedtime routine can also be a good way to improve sleep hygiene.
When thinking about what kind of music might help you enter a deep, restful slumber, there’s a good chance soft, ambient, instrumental music might come to mind—and for good reason.
Previous research suggests that slower, low-tempo music with non-danceable rhythms is most likely to aid with sleep, but a new study offers a different perspective. The study, conducted by researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark, found that more upbeat, catchy pop songs are often featured on playlists that people use to help them fall asleep at night.
The researchers analyzed a total of 225,626 songs from 985 playlists on Spotify that are associated with sleep before separating the tracks into six distinct subcategories.
Three of the subcategories align with the typical characteristics of sleep music: slow, low-tempo, acoustic instruments, no lyrics, etc. The other three subcategories, however, feature music that is faster and higher-energy, including pop songs such as “Dynamite” by BTS—which appeared on the sleep playlists 245 times, the most of any song—and “lovely” by Billie Eilish and Khalid.
“It was surprising to see the degree of variation within the music that people use for sleep,” Kira Vibe Jespersen, PhD, a co-author of the study, told Verywell. “Based on previous studies, we were expecting the music to be from many different genres, but I had not anticipated that much variation in the music characteristics.”
How Can Music Help You Fall Asleep?
According to Michael K. Scullin, PhD, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University, one of the main reasons music might help someone fall asleep is fairly simple: it can help you relax.
“Music listening could serve as a distraction from internal thoughts and ruminations,” Scullin said. “[It can] fill your head with tunes rather than your worries. Some people also live with roommates or in noisy environments, and playing music could help to mask other noises that would keep someone awake.”
Tana Bao, FNP-BC, an expert in sleep medicine, told Verywell that music is also known to improve anxiety, which greatly impacts sleep.
One 2016 study found that music helped reduce stress and anxiety, and yielded better sleep quality for sleep-disturbed pregnant women. And a 2022 meta-analysis of 21 controlled studies showed that music listening had a significant effect on alleviating anxiety.
“People naturally feel happier when listening to music they enjoy, and these positive feelings subsequently set the stage for a better night’s sleep,” Bao said.
From a sleep hygiene perspective, it’s well established that maintaining a consistent bedtime routine is extremely important, she added, and incorporating music into said routine might help someone sustain their nightly regimen.
Why Does Pop Music Work Better for Some People?
According to the study, while some may argue that music with high energy and danceability would be counterproductive for relaxation and sleep, research shows that the brain is better able to relax when it can predict what’s coming. If someone has heard a song repeatedly, as many people do with pop songs, listening to the track requires minimal focus and energy from the brain.
And if a song is very repetitive, as pop songs tend to be, it is predictable by nature and quickly becomes familiar, which could also facilitate relaxation, the study explains.
“If we think about music helping sleep because it distracts one from internal worries, masks outside noises, or is otherwise a comforting part of the bedtime routine, then it makes sense that one would listen to familiar music at bedtime,” Scullin said.
And, according to Bao, it might also simply come down to personal preference. The kind of music that might relax someone likely has a lot to do with whatever kind of music they genuinely enjoy listening to, she said.
Perhaps this is why studies that have tried to pin down the most effective genre for sleep have resulted in inconsistent findings: An Australian survey found that classical music was the most frequent genre mentioned as a sleep aid, while this new study found pop, ambient, and lo-fi to be the most popular among sleepers—with classical music ranking as the 7th on the list.
But if you’re experiencing insomnia, Scullin said listening to music shouldn’t necessarily be the first trick you try. Instead, it’s best to give stimulus control practices a shot.
“Put simply, only use the bed for sleep,” he said. “Any type of activity that is exciting, stressful, or otherwise counter to drowsiness should be kept to a different room. Smartphones and other technologies are great tools and sources of entertainment, but if you’re having difficulty sleeping, it’s best to keep them out of the bedroom.”
If that doesn’t work, however, you could always try incorporating music you enjoy into a consistent nightly routine.
“Optimizing a sleep routine to help promote a routine at bedtime can, for many, likely be improved by adding music guided by personal preference into the mix,” Bao said.
What This Means For You
If you’re having trouble sleeping at night, you should first try reserving your bed solely for sleep and removing all devices from your room. If that doesn’t work, you could try incorporating familiar music that you enjoy—regardless of genre—into a consistent bedtime routine.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Dickson GT, Schubert E. Musical features that aid sleep. Music Sci. 2022;26(3):497-515. doi:10.1177/1029864920972161
Scarratt RJ, Heggli OA, Vuust P, Jespersen KV. The audio features of sleep music: universal and subgroup characteristics. PLoS One. 2023;18(1):e0278813. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0278813
Liu YH, Lee CS, Yu CH, Chen CH. Effects of music listening on stress, anxiety, and sleep quality for sleep-disturbed pregnant women. Women Health. 2016;56(3):296-311. doi:10.1080/03630242.2015.1088116
Harney C, Johnson J, Bailes F, Havelka J. Is music listening an effective intervention for reducing anxiety? A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled studies. Music Sci. Published online January 10, 2022. doi:10.1177/10298649211046979
By Mira Miller
Mira Miller is a freelance writer specializing in mental health, women’s health, and culture.
While it’s normal to feel a sense of familiarity returning to a festival year after year, it was stronger than usual at the 2023 Dark Music Days in Reykjavík since it was only 10 months since last year’s festival, which had been delayed due to the pandemic. It also served to emphasise the sense of continuity that this festival has, effectively picking up where 2022 had left off, showcasing some of the best of Iceland’s broad compositional spectrum, in an eclectic range of chamber, orchestral, ensemble, choral and theatrical performances crammed into a more than usually busy week.
While the theatrical events were among the most visually arresting, they also tended to be the most inscrutable. Anna Halldórsdóttir‘s closing night chamber opera for mezzo-soprano and cello Love a nervous wreck, no dance at Ufsaklettur was a casualty of being sung entirely in Icelandic without any translation provided. Perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered, considering the work (actually a singspiel rather than an opera) stuck so slavishly to a pretty basic diatonic language, often bordering on pastiche, but it would have been nice to have had just an inkling of what any of it was actually about.
Much more involving was Mörsugur, a piece of music theatre (described as a “poetic tale”) by Ásbjörg Jónsdóttir and Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir, given a tour de force solo performance by singer Heiða Árnadóttir. This time a translation was provided, offering an insight into the work’s mix of intimacy and myth, tapping into the country’s legends. Progressing more according to shifting emotional currents than a linear narrative, the performance was a marvellous way for Heiða to conclude her 3-year residency at the festival. She moved between close-up reverie, bathed in and transfixed by light, later (interacting with large video screens) appearing to touch the clouds.
In one startlingly powerful sequence, having played imaginary bells with her fingers, she seemingly began to transform into a raven. Heiða’s rendition of this was remarkable: what emerged from her mouth was more than mere imitation, a complex form of vocalise – either sub- or super-expressive, depending on your perspective – continually tilting between dual impressions of bird and woman. Both musically and visually, Mörsugur was primarily about atmosphere and texture, with a strong emphasis on the natural world, though its earthy, folk intimacy took a surprising turn later on, entering a beat-laden stylised frenzy with strobes and swirling purple lights. It all made for a strange but unforgettable experience.
The festival opened with an event featuring performance group quartet Personal Clutter, that was for the most part dismally superficial and prosaic. The one exception was Our Favourite Things by Berglind María Tómasdóttir, receiving its world première. As the group slowly entered and moved about the stage, articulating a recurring phrase about how they “would love to be a flower”, its tone was hard to read: bliss? wistful? wishful? There was something curiously beguiling and intriguing about the piece, held in check at a liminal point between emotional containment and a trance-like dreaminess.
One of the members of Personal Clutter, Rosie Middleton, gave an impressive solo performance later in the week, the highlight of her recital being Esin Gunduz‘s en-he-du-an-na-me-en. Created as part of Middleton’s voice(less) project series, the piece continually played with our perceptions of what sound was emanating from her mouth or from the fixed media part. The initial impression was that nothing we were hearing – tentative, peripheral, provisional and preparatory sounds – were coming from Middleton, though that was soon challenged, expanding into a radiant chorus of complex avant-song. Yet even here, Middleton covered her mouth: exposing the ruse? indicating an implied shame or embarrassment? or simply one half of an electroacoustic dialogue opting out for a while?
The latter half of the work maintained this uncertainty, growing from halting syllables over a burbling mumbletexture to something altogether more demonstrative, as if Middleton were gradually asserting the power of (her?) song, climaxing in ululations that, to the end, defied attempts to pin-point her precise vocal role and contribution. A mesmerising performance of a stunningly powerful work.
The first and most important thing you need to know about Lakeview is that they want crowds to stage-dive at their shows. Once you know that, everything else about this country rock band makes sense. Hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and currently based in Nashville, Tennessee, Jesse Denaro and Luke Healy are taking their passions for metal and Americana into an emerging genre that really doesn’t have a name. “Blue-collar County Metal,” “Yallternative,” or “whatever your flavor is,” these guys just want to annihilate stages with their heavy country jams just like their idols in bands like Hatebreed and The Acacia Strain.
“People are saying that we make heavy country music,” Denaro told PopCulture.com via Zoom. “We just write what we feel like writing. Sometimes it’s not very heavy, sometimes it is.” With decades in the hardcore and metal scene between them, the pair connected and began writing music together, with their sound eventually evolving into some guitar-heavy country songs. “It’s just a byproduct of us,” Denaro said. “It wasn’t one day we were like, ‘Hey, we should make a heavy song.’ It was just kind of as we started to write more songs with each other. If you listen to the songs we’ve put out, it’s almost like a roadmap of just an exponential growth of me and Luke both finally finding where we fit the most comfortable.”
“This all started with us just kind of screwing around writing songs anyway,” he continued. “It wasn’t like, ‘Let’s go be musicians and be famous.’ We were like, ‘Hey, I want to write these songs,’ and ‘Yeah, let’s try it.'” Healy adds, “We were like completely not touring. We were like, ‘Yo, we’ve already lost everything to music in our lives. And we’re old and men now, and we’re still just now starting after all these years.'”
With the prospect of getting “real jobs” and a looming future where they’d each “settle down,” they guys realized they “had to scratch the itch” and see where it led them. “We were just writing country songs together,” Healy recalled, “and like Jesse was saying it just kind of progressed from that point on. Heavy songs, doing the heavier stuff. It was kind of like a riff idea comes along and we’re like, ‘Yeah, we can make that work. We like this stuff.’
“It comes a lot more natural when we write,” he went on to say, then noting another heavy metal musician they often work with, “like with Cody Quistad from Wage War, and he’s always bringing some really good a— beaters to the forefront. And we’re like, ‘Yo, no matter what, we’re going to find an idea in our notes somewhere that is going to work for this type of song.’ And that’s how ‘Loser’ came about.”
The song Healy mentions, “Loser,” is a 2021 single that Lakeview released. Lyrically it’s the story of a guy who has to face the fact that his girlfriend has come to the realization that she is out of his league, which is something he seems to have known all along. Musically, the song is structurally similar to many of the songs played on mainstream country radio, only with the added element of a heavy metalcore-esque guitar riff that perfectly compliments the song’s rhythm.
“Come coming out of the label, too, helped a lot,” Healy confessed about how their band sound’s has evolved after they got out from under label representation. “I’m not saying the label completely dictated everything that we were allowed to release or not release, but…” Healy and Denaro then noted that both “Loser” and its follow-up “Song of A” were both older songs they had written that never got released.
“We truly get to do whatever we want now,” Denaro said. “And I think I’m grateful for people understanding what we’re doing. I think it helps that it’s just kind of a natural thing that’s happening for us as far as this is just the music we make. It’s not like we saw somebody do it and we’re trying to recreate it. It’s just like, we don’t really know what else to do, and this is the stuff we make.”
“I think we’ve been blessed for people to actually connect with it,” he added. “Some people don’t understand it, which I’m not confused about that at all. It makes sense to me… It’s been a cool six or seven months of me and Luke just kind of doing whatever we want, writing whatever we want, and we’re really excited.”
Healy then noted that one crucial factor in the evolution of Lakeview has been performing for audiences and seeing crowd reactions. “Playing live, really a lot of that guided that,” he said. “Finally, after COVID ended and everything was kind of opening back up, with being out on the road a lot more often, it was like, ‘Okay, these songs are fun to play. This is what we grew up playing, this type of vibe and doing this stuff. And then these other songs are still really great because we love songwriting.'”
He added, “We love the sadder songs. We like the more chilled stuff, too, just as much. But playing it live, it’s just like we’re not used to going out in front of a whole bunch of people and they’re just kind of sitting there or just standing there. It’s kind of like, ‘Yo, what are we doing?’ And everybody still loves it, but we don’t love that. We don’t like that.
Denaro then noted that Instagram and TikTok have been helpful for Lakeview to figure out what fans are enjoying, saying they basically use the social media sites “as market research” for their music. “When we go play shows, there’s certain songs that we’re really stoked on, and then we play them live and we’re like, ‘Oh, this is something that we’ll just put on an album and maybe not highlight very much.’ And it’s a really cool song, but it’s not something that these people are connecting with.”
@lakeviewcountry
We are THE masters of 2nd verse chugs. “BY NOW” PRESAVE IN BIO #countryrock #countrymusic #rockmusic #foryou #fyp
♬ original sound – lakeview
He continued, “At the end of the day, we don’t really care who here, ‘the important person here in Nashville,’ if they like it or not, because the actual people that listen, buy the music, support you, they’re in the middle of Kansas and Arkansas and wherever.” Healy chimed in, “The real-life people, the real-life folks that are out doing what we’re doing. You know what I mean? We still wake up at 5:30 and go out and work a full day… Every single day. We’re hoping that will change at some point. But this is what we write the music for. It’s the regular Middle America folks out there that are fighting to survive every single day working their asses off this. That’s what Lakeview’s for, not to cater to Nashville.”
As we’ve established, Lakeview doesn’t put too much stock into labels, but they did note “Blue-collar country metal” as something that they feel could accurately sum up who they are. This is something that Healy believes is strongly represented in working-class culture among music fans. “I always said, [fans at] a Lamb of God show, they’re at Jason Aldeen the next weekend wearing different shirts. I’ve always said that. I’ve said that my whole life because it’s so true. Because I’m that same dude.”
Noting the crossover fanbase for both country music and rock music, Healy added, “It’s like, ‘This is good. And also this is really good. This is all so good.’ And you can’t put yourself in a box. If you put yourself in a box, as even just a consumer, not just a creator, dude, you’re just missing out. You’re missing out on good times on both of those spectrums. Both of those spectrums bring a completely different atmosphere. And we’re kind of trying to blur those lines. We’re like the Hatebreed of the country community.” Denaro then quipped, “Hatebreed country.”
Healy continued, “We’re like those dudes who, are at a show. And it’s like, yeah, we’re kind of like that of this genre right now. It’s like, yo, we are not doing the whole standing around thing anymore at country shows. And it’s working. It’s fun…Our generation comes from that and they want that. They always wanted the stage dive out at a country show. They just know that it was never a socially acceptable thing. Well, guess what? Now that’s changed.” He added “We want to let them know that that’s allowed… that is more than welcome at any Lakeview show. That and beyond.”
With a wealth of experience behind them, and an unwritten future ahead, Lakeview is only worrying about grabbing the bull by the horns and living in the moment. On Friday, they dropped their new single, “By Now.” Speaking about the new track, Denaro shared, “We wrote that with one of our best friends, Quin, who also wrote songs like, ‘Hits Different’ [and] ‘In Case You’ve Forgotten.’ Almost everything we write with him.”
He continued, “It just comes from an idea of basically in the chorus, we say, ‘By now going out on the town, she’ll be looking like around with a girl I just met.’ And that just means I should be over this person by now. I should not be picking up that phone call when I get that phone call. And I think we’ve all been through a relationship or a hookup or whatever with somebody, and your conscious brain is like, ‘This is bad.’ But what you do is not that. You’re like, ‘I’ll just say hey,’ or ‘I’ll respond back,’ or ‘I’ll pick up the phone, meet him out for a one drink,’ and it always turns into something more. It’s just about that, about that whole situation.
Healy offered, “It’s a hitting it without quitting it, even though you should have quit it. It’s that. And it’s very frustrating… Coming from a man, it’s like we all know that women totally have control of us… And that song is about that type of frustration, that relationship you have with somebody that you just know, ‘Crap. Soon as they hit me up, it’s the game over. I’m definitely going to end up back at your place because I can’t say bye. I can’t.'”
The band has lots more on the horizon, as Denaro revealed, “We got more singles coming out. We got a bunch of festivals, a bunch of just our own headlining shows. It’s hard being in the genre and being so, I guess left of center.” He added, “It is that it hard for us to get those nice opening tour opportunities. We’re basically just like… We tested it out in California where we flew all the way out to California, played three shows, and we ended up selling some of them out. People came, it was shocking to us. I was like, ‘Oh, people actually want to see us play.'”
Denaro continued, “So we’re just basically going to test that throughout the whole country. Hit markets that we’ve never been to, and just go to your hometown and play a headlining show and, hopefully, people will show up.” They also have a few really exciting festival slots lined up, playing alongside some big-name bands and artists. “We got some really cool festivals like ‘Tailgates and Tall Boys’ where we’re playing with Nickelback and which is a dream… and playing with Colt Ford and some other folks like that. I think it’s going to be a really, really fun, eventful summer and the rest of the year for us for sure.”
Fans can check out more of Lakeview’s music by clicking here. The band’s official website also offers more info about what they’re up to and where they’ll be playing soon. Keep it locked to Pop Culture.com for more exciting country music news, reviews, and interviews!
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