On the wave of Tenacious D’s success the interest for humorous music is growing. Their latest album serves a high quality of rock music melted with a good laugh, and on the music scene, the captivating attitude of musicians who focus on a funny albeit rigorous approach, varying between musical styles, is tempting.

Mad Fantastic is walking this path. The Irish duo, composed of Gary Byrne and Tony O’Neill, focuses its efforts on developing a humorous concept resulting from the mixture of sound and lyrics. The sound is left free, in the sense that Mad Fantastic has not focused solely on a particular style to accompany its expression so far; music adapts to the situation. The duo shows good potential to succeed in this direction, and be part of an important, although sometimes underestimated, niche of music.

Toonari Post had the chance to talk to Mad Fantastic about its project.

Toonari Post (TP): When and why did you decide to start this project?

Mad Fantastic (MF): It’s been said that music can change the world, but for us it was a particular food item. Pancakes! ‘Is love like a pancake’ was the song that started our transition to  comedy music. In February 2012 we sat down to write a novelty song to celebrate pancake Tuesday, after noticing this unsung holiday had no official anthem. Then something happened we didn’t expect: the combination of comedy and music seemed to bring a new level of energy into the camp. So like a breath of fresh air and with a sense of “where have you been all my life,” we decided comedy music  fusion (com-usi-fusion) was what we had to do.

TP: While music, mainly certain genres, is usually taken very seriously, there is an increasing interest in music and bands that are able to make people laugh, such as Tenacious D. Why do you think this is happening?

MF: Society is shifting so fast these days, everyone is struggling, so we need a relief and comusifusion is still fresh enough to be interesting. We take the view that making people laugh is a “serious business.” With comedy music you get two for the price of one, and it’s developing nicely. No longer is it a comedian with a prop or a singer with too many syllables and a swear word; it’s coming into its own creative form.  Also, music and the music business are taken very seriously so when that comes in contact with comedy…well, we’ve all seen spinal tap!

TP: Who would you say influenced you the most?

MF: You would expect us to say, Flight of the Conchords or Tenacious D, and you’d be right; but also the genius comedic performances of Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and the social and edgy stuff that Bill Hicks and George Carlin did, had you thinking ” You’re right!, Why can’t everyone see how silly, war, sex, consumerism etc., is” Holding up a microscope to life and showing how caught up we get with the little things really hit, excuse the pun, a note with us.

TP: How would you define your style? Do you want to stay faithful to a certain kind of sonorities, or you just mind staying faithful to the funny part of your music, moving among different styles?

MF: The lyrics dictate the music. For instance ‘Is Love like a Pancake’ could only be an 80′s rock ballad ’Hero,’ a blues reggae offering, couldn’t have been anything else. Our comedy is based on ideas, so it doesn’t feel like an option to be closed to any style or genre of music that will enhance those ideas. Also, we really want to see what comusifusion can do and where it can take us creatively, because we are only getting started.

TP: How do you want to develop this project?

MF: We want to create a journey for people; entertain the pants off them and then give them their cab fare home. Connect and maybe make them laugh, think and even stamp their feet. Furthermore the music we are working on animated comedy sketches that will hopefully develop into an animated sit-com (think “Flight of the Conchords” HBO show meets “Family Guy”), to give the music a context and back drop. We’re doing it all ourselves so it takes a bit of time.

TP: Do you find it hard to convince people, also in the industry, to take your music project seriously, because of your style?

MF: Not really. The comedy music genre is growing all the time. There might even be an explosion into the mainstream soon enough. The next Kurt Cobain could be hilarious [The real one was hilarious too, Ed.], or the next Jay-Z might have 99 jokes!

TP: What are your near-future plans? An album, a tour?

MF: Well, all of that really. There are enough songs to fill two albums at the moment, it’s just a case of deciding which ones, then of course hitting the comedy clubs to test it out in front of real, honest and drunk people. It’s about gaining exposure at the moment. We are even entering competitions. Incidentally we are in one at the moment, if you don’t mind us mentioning it and if anyone wanted to vote for us they could here.

The article Mad Fantastic Interview: When Music Meets Comedy appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Under The Influence is an intriguing emerging rock band from Cleveland, Ohio, co-founded by Brent Beiling and Anthony DeSalvo. With their music, which mixes different styles of rock such as punk and psychedelic rock, the Under The Influence’s members are trying to give a new shape to youngsters’ angst.

The project is a serious one, with the band members focused on the development of their sound and general expression. Blending the evergreen feeling of angst towards an unfair world belonging to most outcasts, with the technical sonorities pertaining to psychedelic rock, Under The Influence manages to be part of a fresh wave of rock and roll.

The band is going to release their debut album on August 30. Toonari Post had the chance to interview vocalist and guitarist Brent Beiling, for an insight into Under The Influence’s promising idea.

Toonari Post (TP): What is the force that drove you to undertake this music project? What is the core of your project, what do you want to say with your music?

Brent Beiling (BB): This musical project started off as Anthony (lead guitarist and co-songwriter) and me working on material together and coming up with enough songs to start a band. We have been writing together since we were 17, and we have been in a couple of bands together before.

This was the first musical project in which the genesis of the band was exactly what we wanted to happen. It was the sound we had in our heads when we would sit down with acoustic guitars and crank out melodies and chord progressions. Those days were the true roots and core of “Under the Influence.” We want people to decipher for themselves what our music means to them. If we were to tell you, then it wouldn’t be open for interpretation (which any good art always is).

TP: You defined your style as Punkedelic, due to its rock styles mixture. As the word Punkadelic is nowadays used to define different musical approaches, including a particular kind of electronic music, would you mind clarifying the characteristics of your own style for our readers?

BB: Our music has always derived and been rooted in punk rock. We just play what we want and put a lot of passion into it. As we started maturing as musicians though, we started getting more into heavy and psychedelic music. “Punkadelic” is the blend of punk rock, heavy, and psychedelic music accented with pure pop melodies. I mean it’s really just an idea that we haven’t been able to fully transfer onto our album completely how we had envisioned it, but a few songs like “Jesus Will Return On Halloween,” “Common Enemy,” “The Intro” and “Lucifer Satan Devil” [listen to some of the songs here] will give you a little preemptive taste of what we eventually want to do. As long as our fans are enjoying our music, that’s really all that matters to us.

TP: As said, the concept of your sound develops from punk. Would you say that the main presence of punk can be found in the attitude, while the sonorities are cleaner and develop also towards other directions, such as progressive and psychedelic rock?

BB: We’ve always been pissed off about things. Young people in general are supposed to question the world that they are growing up in, and help to change it for the better. So yes, our attitude about a lot of social and political issues derives from a punk rock type of attitude.

We don’t want to be a punk rock band, we just acknowledge that aspect of our music frequently enough so that people are getting that it is something against the grain of mainstream priorities within commercial rock bands. Not many of them have much to say about what’s going on in the country right now. Even though our musical tastes are maturing somewhat into more progressive, psychedelic, and pop music, we still, and will always, have our anti-establishment attitude. It’s our duty as young people.

TP: Who or what are your main influences?

BB: Our main influences are The Beatles, Rage Against the Machine, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Black Sabbath, Simeon Soul Charger, Smashing Pumpkins, Mr. Gnome. We have many more but those are our favorite bands at the current point.

TP: How is it to move within the underground scene, or what is left of it, nowadays?

BB: We are still very much so outcast within the underground scene. We have had some exposure in the Cleveland and Akron scene, but we are still trying to focus on writing music and getting our sound together before we start to tour extensively. I tour much by myself and play acoustic shows to promote the band. Our goals are to eventually get signed to an indie label and go on tour.

TP: What are your future projects besides the album release in August?

BB: Our future plans are just to play as many shows while we can. We are hungry for the stage and we really want to show people what we can do. We really don’t have any aspirations of becoming big rock-stars or anything like that; we just want to have a little slice of paradise within the slums of the underground while we are young. We want to express our anger and angst while we have the chance. We are conversing with a couple A&R people at certain independent labels so we might have a chance to do just that. So watch out for us! We might just make some noise in the underground scene.

The article An Interview with the Rising Rock Band ‘Under The Influence’ appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.