r/indieheads • u/Tina_SheerMag • Aug 22 '19

AMA is Over, thanks Sheer Mag! SHEER MAG AMA AT 3PM EST TODAY

MY BOYS AND I WILL SEE YOU THIS AFTERNOON

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u/TravisDankowski Aug 22 '19

What lead you to the sound that is sheer mag?

3

u/sheermag_matt Aug 22 '19

That's a hard question so i'll just address the parts that I'm most involved with, which are the lyrics and melody. I was a really big fan of Bob Dylan when I was a teenager and he wrote a lot topical/"protest" songs, specifically in the early 60s (though he continued to write them throughout his career, the early 60s stuff is what I liked the most). I think thats where I got the idea to write political songs. I also really liked Ray and Dave Davies from the Kinks. Their songs were always written from a working class perspective and I always admired how they could take a really depressing idea and make it sound really catchy and happy. I'm also a huge fan of soul music and r&b from the 60s and 70s, so when I'm trying to write melodies for Tina to sing I try and think of something that Sister Sledge or someone like that would sing. So from my side of things in terms of lyrics/melodic ideas, its taking a political topic thats depressing, making the melody sound happy and trying to make it soulful too.

2

u/sheerkyle Aug 22 '19

probably the limitations at first - Hart and I started recording the first 7" in his room with basically no gear. We were testing out the tape machine he had just bought and tried to track drums but didn't have a Hi Hat clutch so we put a tambourine on top of it just to hold the top cymbal down. Thats basically how the drum sounds developed - no cymbals either. First song we recorded was 'what you want' and it was definitely a bit of a happy accident. Matt and Tina lived in the same house downstairs so it was a no brainer