So, the idea was to help the young musician to excel at whatever genre he/she wanted to. As to Miller – a member of the Alloy Orchestra and someone always willing to venture far afield – he should have no problem with this bill. He’ll be playing acoustically.
How’d it come about? Berklee faculty advisor Jeff Dorenfeld hatched the concept for the record while talking to his son one day. He was listening to My Bloody Valentine and Husker Du. "It dawned on me that these bands have become more popular because of the bands they influenced," said Dorenfeld. The students researched the bands to choose the artist pairings for the album. Added Dorenfeld: "We also decided to cover the bands in different genres than the original recording, which led to picking a bluegrass band to cover punk bands Husker Du and Green Day," he added.
Ben Ash is the director of Heavy Rotation Records. Or, he clarifies, "I'm the director but I'm heavily involved in social media marketing and oversee all other aspects to make sure each person is connected and talking. As far as the album, I brainstormed what artists and songs should be covered considering my knowledge of 90's music, helping find artists (especially finding Pinn Panelle for the label) and helped a lot with handing out flyers, doing the table and anything to promote various projects.
We asked him some questions.
JSInk: What did you/do you like about this era of music?
It's the 90's; what's not to love?! It was a great decade of eclectic types of alternative music. Much like the album itself, it was full of multiple types of styles that broke new ground. Not too much where you didn't know what to focus on and not too little where you had no choice but to listen to one or two bands; just enough for people to get a little taste of everything
Did you know any of the music growing up? Or, how were you turned on to it?
Absolutely! It's all I listened to! Believe it or not, I have to thank "Weird" Al Yankovic because he did his "Bad Hair Day" album focusing on parodies of early 90's stuff and as a kid I wanted to hear the real versions and my love only grew from there. I became infatuated with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer and many other even to this day!
Did it represent a different era in terms of how music was made?
No question. CD's were the big format so fan bases were based on albums, not singles. When a kid walked into a record store (believe it or not, there was a time we had said "record stores"), if he liked a single by an artist, he would have no choice to by the whole album and therefore didn't want to waste their money so they'd listen to the rest of the album in which case they'd realize the artists full image of what they wanted to represent with their sound, not just the single. This resulted in people seeing them live not only excited for their big hit, but actually knowing and enjoying the rest of the set list.
What about it appeals to you now?
As far as songwriting goes, it was a time where technology was helpful in the recording process, but didn't make the writing lazy. They didn't have autotune to fix their voices, some people still recorded analog and because CD's were still popular, the artists would make a point to make sure they put their heart and soul into every song, which is evident on records like Weezer's debut album or Smashing Pumpkins' "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness." Nowadays, people put too much focus on a single and just make filler music with the rest of the album. That's not necessarily true for all bands, but in the 90's, you know that the album for the most part would be a work of art, at least in the alternative genre.
Why did you choose the song(s) you did?
We wanted to show the influence that one artist had on another. For example, with the original versions of Gang of Four's "Not Great Men", you can see how musically it shows a sound the Red Hot Chili Peppers ended up being, well, influenced by as shown in Red Hot Chili Pepper's "Give It Away". When R.A.Y. covered both songs, it showed that with the similarities in sounds between the artists, she could use her sound to easily give her take on both of those songs, making it and influence upon influence upon influence. It's a really beautiful concept when you think about it!
What did you want to do in reconfiguring the songs?
Our original intention was to have the artists cover them if they sounded like them, but it didn't add anything. Rather, we chose unique sounding artists to give their fresh take on original songs. Who'd ever thought you'd hear punk bands like Green Day and Husker Du in a bluegrass feel? With this album, we gave the listeners the chance to hear that and other new takes on how a song can sound, melodically and genre-wise. The beauty of this album is it gives the artist multiple avenues of discovering old and new music; they learn who influenced their favorite mainstream bands, they become educated on where bands developed their sound, introduce them to new, groundbreaking artists from Berklee, discover new ways to hear their favorite songs and discover new and old bands, and plenty of other avenues of music. Most albums only give one perspective on how to look at music but this album offers so many layers few albums can give. This is a project I can say I'm absolutely proud to be a part of and one that few people will ever have the opportunity to be a part of.
Da'Rayia Wilson covered the Red Hot Chili Peppers "Give It Away" and Gang of Four's "Not Great Men." We asked her to expound about what she did and she answered by e-mail.
"The Red Hot Chilli Peppers was/is a 90's band and Gang of Four is from the 80's. I love both eras of music really. Rock and Punk Rock/Disco can pretty much go hand in hand. Both kinds of music have a high energy, dance, rebellious effect to it. The song 'Give it Away' by the Peppers is a song I remember from the 6th grade, just flipping through channels, this was in 2000 even though the record came out in 91'. What attracted me most was fast rapping vocals and crazy rock back beat. I do hip-hop so I'm a sucker for strong drum patterns and catchy melodies, or even just the spontaneity in any track/song. But I didn't know about the band Gang of Four until Jeffrey Dornfeld suggested I cover their song 'Not Great Men.' It was a little challenging because that song has a lot of space in it. The melody by Jon [King] was very simple and repetitive. Did the best I could with incorporating some of my own flavor and we came up with something great. I like to rap/sing and be creative. Give me any song or genre of music and I'll flip it, and you'll like it."
I really just wanted to have fun with putting my own spin into the music, which is mainly hip-hop. But with these records we managed to put some soul into the stew. 'Give it Away,' the original, is very guitar driven. The energy is high and in your face. On the Influence album the record it's almost complete opposite. Its a bit more subtle and soulful, but I still captured the energy of the song with my rapping vocal performance. I made sure my voice had character so the listener wouldnt get too down on the music because it is COMPLETELY different, yet VERY groovy. With the help of Coran Henley, who's the drummer on the record and who produced the tracks, Jonathan, Dennis, and Marco, we managed to mix different grooves and riffs. Dennis didnt use crazy distortion during the guitar parts for the 'Give it Away' record on the 'Under the Influence' album. We added a keyboard that pretty much carries you through the song. The drum patterns are simple and tasteful; that is the foundation for the groove. The bassline on the track isnt as aggressive as how the original sounds but it works as a cohesive musical blend. Overall we had fun ripping these songs to shreds and completely showcasing our talents as musicians. Under the Influence is about musicians being inspired, taking what they can identify in other artists and telling their own story (lyrically and/or musically). Thats why I'm happy to be apart of this project."
The concert is $8 in advance ($12 day of show) and begins at 8:15 p.m.
zz, but over time it has defined itself more broadly as a school of contemporary music, all the way to hip-hop and ethnic music around the world. We’re about helping young people create the music of the future, rather than just learning about music of the past. Whatever they want to create is what we want to build."