Not a snobby subgenre, we promise
I’m getting Post-Rock 101 lessons from the members of down, raw, and straightforward version of what the musical genre is about. To define post-rock could actually be easy in one name-drop-filled sentence. They mention some names in the local post-rock scene which include Encounters with a Yeti, Sleepwalk Circus, Legarda and Jeebus; and for the rest of the world: Sigur Ros, Explosions in the Sky, The Album Leaf, Toe, Te’, Mogwai, The Mercury Program, El Ten Eleven — but this article is hoping to be primarily music-snob free, and that sentence was pretty uncomfortable for many.
In the beginning post-rock always struck me as kind of a snobbish genre, only capable of appreciation by the very emotional, musical and free-spirited. What with its non-conventional music structure and the lack of an image of a solid lead singer (or lyrics for that matter), post-rock music is mostly instrumental and ambient. But Cholo attests that you needn’t “be anything” to appreciate post-rock because “if the music sounds pretty… it sounds pretty.” While David retorts jokingly that it was a “nice answer, but sounded kind of girly,” in the end they all admit — it’s absolutely true.
David describes the music as unstructured, highly emotive and experimental. He says it’s the kind of music people will appreciate because they can “feel it.” Like an earth-shattering, mind-blowing music that triggers some kind of catharsis perhaps; the added bonus, he says, is that it becomes good background music to listen to when trying to study. Even the band’s writing goes by feel, a very casual process which involves someone coming up with something good, and the rest building up from there. During gigs, they say much is played by memory, with lots of eye-contact-coordination with one another, and an investment in really just “feeling the music.”
Icelandic charm: One of the more prominent bands of post-rock, Sigur Ros, who sing in their native tongue and whose songs have been used for many TV and movie soundtracks and trailers. http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/ Gabby says post-rock, being mostly lyric-free, is mainly left up to the audience’s imagination to interpret however way they want. Cholo says it’s the kind of music that isn’t carried predominantly through vocals; the essence of the music is what drives the energy of the songs. It’s true appreciation for the ambient sound in its purity without the distractions of lyrics or a singer. They all agree it isn’t that hard to pull off. Guill warns, however, that not everyone can play good post-rock just because it’s instrumental. He retells the story of a horrible one-man-post-rock-band some time ago whose performance was drawling, boring and trashy. A garish performance I would imagine, by the way they were enthusiastically talking about it.
Having played together since high school, they say it was hard going through the Battle of the Bands phase with the kind of music they do since audience reception was a little bit awkward. Imagine being a high school band playing gigs for schoolboys and girls who are looking for, say, a note-perfect rendition of Everlong. After playing full-length instrumentals, they describe the audience as lot of wrinkled noses watching and faces that seemed to say, “What’s that?” The band eventually had to move on from the Battle of the Bands phase, but with legendary performances like Encounters With a Yeti who have an incredible local following today, there is definitely space for post-rock in the local industry. Gabby says over time, he believes post-rock will pick up because nowadays, “people are looking for something new.”
The genre, after, all consists of a highly climactic and beautiful music, screaming with all sorts of emotion perfect to listen to when you’re feeling reflective, or just trippy. I personally think it incredibly enjoyable without being too much. It’s the overwhelming kind of music that can become philosophical, or not at all. There’s a mystery because we don’t really know what the music is trying to say when it isn’t saying anything in words or concrete images. Kind of like the abstract expressionism of modern music.
Post-rock lessons from the boys of Hatchobanko also taught me that the music is no-bullshit, down to earth, honest, humorous and distinctive. It’s music with more soul than heart, easy to fall in love with if you are just in sync with this thing innately human thing called “feeling.”
