Letters from the Road: Roman Candle

Following in the Outlandos tradition of Letters from the Road, our guest post this week comes from Skip Matheny of my new fave band Roman Candle:

Dear Fanny,

I saw your band/show last night. Thanks for putting me on the list and asking for advice, critiques, etc.... I'm not sure what to tell you exactly. You all were great. In fact, I imagine you will be very popular, and maybe better --- very quickly. I don't have a critique in the world about your show or aesthetic. You all seem to have nailed that down pretty well. However I might say the same thing to you I usually tell any writer, including myself, which is: think in terms of "songs" and listen to a fair amount music made before the year you were born.

Off the bat, that might seem like a nostalgic thing to suggest. It's not. It's about finding and learning about good art. Your band's songs are great but if you want to make records for the next 10 or 15 years, artistically speaking, you will likely find more substance in songs than in guitar tones. I think there's a lot to be learned by realizing you are a writer in a long tradition that stretches back before your own time, even (way) back before recorded sound --- and the "thread" or the common thing through all of that tradition is the form of the song. It's an interesting and mysterious thing, and it repays the attention you give it.

If you go listen to any of the records that came out last Tuesday and then listen to, for example, Joni Mitchell,"The Gallery" or David Bowie, "Life on Mars," or Stevie Wonder, "Do I Love Her?" you'll probably hear some similarities (verses, choruses, 3 minutes long). In contrast to the new records which, for the most part, are a bit vacuous [...]

A Triple-A radio programming veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentation of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.