Soul Rebel Sound

Awesome intro!

SOLID BASS GUITARIST! The bass line in the verse is a great follower after the pause. Tight fills before the chorus. Also very tight with the dummer.

Drums: Very tight all around, and a good creativity with the fills. A perfect mix between skill and not over-doing it. I thinK there should be more percussion work during the bass solo, simply the ride/hihat jazz-4-count is not enough. You should fill that space up with some tight kick/snare(possibly rim shot) action beats. DOn't get me wrong, i Love the swing concept, i just hear room for a great, tight part. Almost too simple for the rest of the song.

Guitar work: Very tight. Recording could be better, but that's aside from the point. I like the strumming patterns, very suiting.

VOX: Good style. I like the theme. The hook lies within the vocalist. It's not exactly a chorus that most guys could pull off well, but seems your singer has nailed it.

PROPS

Extra Credit: Male Vocals, Mood.

- gregfpoapst
Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada
March 8th, 2008 - garageband.com

-During The Riot-

TENSION, I love the use of Tension and the clearness of vocals. Very original. Perfect use of nuances. Genius, fucking genius. I have to point out that the very end of the song includes a subtle yet perfectly placed guitar hand slide against the strings. very nice touch.

Extra Credit: Male Vocals, Best Feel Good Track.

- fitsoftheseason
-Buckhannon, West Virginia
-January 12th, 2008 - Garageband.com

Tell me a little bit about Soul Rebel Sound; how long have you three been in a band together?

Andreas: Since July 2005

Ricardo: Wow, that’s pretty exact.

Andreas: Yeah, the afternoon of Saturday July 14th we decided to play.

How did it all come together?

Andreas: Ricardo and I had a punk rock blues band that our first drummer copped out of so we met up with Marko.

Marko: They recruited me all the way from Calgary. I had known Ricardo for 15 years. He called me and said, “Hey man, lets play in a band!” and I was like, “Really? That’s so cool!” Amidst the turmoil of an on and off relationship we’re still here.

There’s always a story behind a band’s name; what’s the story behind yours?

Ricardo: Well soul is what everything is made of. Rebel, well, as far as I’m concerned you have to fight for what you believe. Sound is music, which just encompasses life. Soul Rebel Sound is just what it’s all about.

Andreas: Well we play different kinds of music in our band, and I think as a rock and roll band there has to be some rebellion in it, that’s for sure. If a band has no soul it kind of sucks. Why not have a band with soul, rebellion and some good sound.

Your sound is all over the place in a really positive way and I’m sure your influences drastically vary. What genres of music or artists in particular do you find your inspiration from?

Ricardo: Funkadelic and Sly and the Family Stone.

Marko: I come from more of a Rage Against the Machine background with a lot of hip-hop and some rock, like Nirvana.

Andreas: Sonic Youth, punk, thrash, and I listen to really good musicians like jazz musicians. If I didn’t listen to anyone good I probably wouldn’t be any good.

Soul Rebel Sound has been described as “an experimental funk rock fusion act that’s concerned primarily with the proper articulation of the soul.” Can you elaborate on this proper articulation of the soul?

Ricardo: Everybody expresses themselves in different ways, right? Some people are painters, some people are artists, and some people are serial killers. These are all expressions of how we feel about ourselves and how we relate to the entire universe. As far as I’m concerned, anytime that you can articulate or very precisely say what you mean then you’re doing what you’re doing to the best of your ability. If Ed Gein was like totally in love with what he was doing and he cut up people in a very specific and precise way then he was living his life to his best ability and expressing his soul to his best ability. And that’s personally what I try and do. I mean, I’m not the greatest musician but I try and bring across all the emotions I possibly can for a certain song. Whatever you do, you do it with purpose and focus and pride.

How do you develop your new music ideas, is it mostly improvised, or is there more structure to it than that?

Marko: It’s kind of a mix of everything. Some things start in our brains and we bring it out and say, “Hey, listen to this!” And it starts from there and just goes on to maybe a ten minute improv session.

Ricardo: Well the song The New Communication is kind of a blend of a bunch of improv tracks. That’s the one side of us, then there are songs like “Desperate Relations”, or “Shake It On Down” that are very structured, and we sat down saying, “Ok, you do this, I’ll do this and so on.”

Do you ever find that you limit yourself musically, intentionally or not?

Ricardo: I dunno about these guys, but I certainly do.

Marko: I don’t like to, I like ideas to just come out, but if we’re playing a funk song, I’m not gonna go all fucking Buddy Rich on these guys. There’s a time and a place for that and it’s not all about me, it’s about us.

Andreas: There is some limiting but it’s usually to make our music sound bigger and better.

Ricardo: I know there are sides to all of us that we hold back.

Do you think in the music industry today artists tend to limit themselves to appeal to a wider audience?

Andreas: If they want to go anywhere, yeah.

Ricardo: Bands are an investment, right? If a band is not groomed, there’s really no room for them except in the independent scene.

Marko: You’d think there’s a lot of room at the top, but there isn’t.

Ricardo: The key is sticking with the underground. If people like you, people will continue to like you whether or not the mainstream likes you.

You guys are definitely a riot to see live. Your set in early March at the Smiling Buddha Bar ended with Andreas and Ricardo duking it out. Is this something we can expect at every show?

Andreas: There’s definitely a lot of that.

Ricardo: Sometimes we just get a little too crazy. I remember one time in 2006 when I jumped onto the rafters, swung and tried to drop kick Andreas. That started an ongoing fight.

Andreas: It all started one day when I wasn’t really satisfied with how we were playing on stage and I just took my guitar and smacked it into something that I didn’t realize was Ricardo’s head. He came up with the “I’m gonna get you” look with the guitar in his hand like a lance.

Marko: It’s also reflective of the song. The end of the song “During The Riot” is really a mix up of a musical riot. The whole song is up, down, up, down with a jazz part, rock part, punk part and calypso part and at the end you just “get it”.

You’ve said that all of you contribute in different ways to the sound you create. What does each of you bring to the table?

Marko: I’m a pretty modest guy, so I don’t know what to say. I know Andreas is one of the best bassists I’ve ever seen or played with. He’s just, what’s the word. unorthodox and pretty ballsy. We just work together as a rhythm section. Ricardo has a good, no, great sense of song writing skill.

Ricardo: What? News to me!

Marko: No, you do.

Ricardo: I would say I bring direction and conceptual ideas. I wouldn’t say in terms of song writing I’m the number one guy. I wouldn’t say that.

Marko: Well I did! As for myself, I tend to hear everything and see what fits. I’m the guy that often says: “Okay, let’s do this again and again and again.”

Andreas: Marko is the solid backbone.

Ricardo: Marko keeps us on point. When we’re at practices Andreas and I tend to fall into these times of self-indulgence when I’m just making noise on my guitar and he’s just playing leads on his bass. We could do this for hours, but Marko will say, “Seriously, we got shit to do.” Without Andreas we wouldn’t be doing anything. He’s probably the glue; actually he’s definitely the glue that holds the band together. There was a time when we totally broke up and I was like, “Fuck this, fuck you, and fuck the world.” Andreas was like, “No, fuck you!”

Andreas: You’re coming back to practice Monday at 5 p.m.!

In an interview on thatradio.com you said that you are emerging artists on the brink of something special. Ideally, what would you like that special something to be?

Marko: Just the ability to share everything that we’re trying to share, and also being true to yourself in an industry where being true is one of the lowest priorities. It’s all about money and fame. Those are great things, but at the end of the day it’s back to the other side of the page.

Andreas: I guess from a vain point of view, you want to bring something that you think is good and special to the table, and I think every musician has that side to them. We want to have our music noticed and see attention be put on good, artistic music.

Ricardo: The brink of something special kind of feels like we’re getting better at expressing what we want to express. I think that’s the most special thing. Being able to again, properly articulate exactly what you mean emotionally into music. From your heart, to your head, to your hands, that’s the special something I’m trying to get to. - http://www.torontoindie.com/?p=273