MUSIC IN MOTION, CONTINUED FROM PG. 22
African diaspora. That’s a really great way to get people involved. SO IT’S SAFE TO SAY THAT WEST AFRICA HAS A LOT OF INFLUENCE ON YOUR MUSIC. WAS THAT JUST FOR THIS PARTICULAR ALBUM OR WAS IT ON YOUR SOUND IN GENERAL? Yeah, it affected a lot of my musical thinking, because I went to school as a composer and I wrote concert or classically styled music. After being in school [for] 10 years, I felt like I had to get out of that world. I went to Ghana for six months, and ever since then it’s influenced almost every piece that I have written. Also the approach to West African music-making is just more of a communal activity, and inviting people to participate affects my music and what it could be. My time in Ghana was a really important experience, and I’ve been fortunate to return a couple of times. I hope to keep going back to continue to listen to and study the music there. WHAT DO YOU WANT AN AUDIENCE TO PULL FROM HEARING AND SEEING KINETIC? I think just getting a positive and exciting feel from the music is what’s most important for me because we are exposed to so many negative images in the media. It’s easy to get a perception that the world is all falling apart. I think that [perception] has existed in every era. There’s always gloom and doom, but we forget that music can simply make you feel good, and at a basic level I’m cool with that. But, I also admire music that is more thoughtful and has a little more depth than a lot of commercial music. Much popular music is appealing, well made, and very clever, but I find the musical content to be lacking depth. By its nature, commercial music should appeal to the moment, but often it wears itself out quickly. So I hope that with Kinetic’s music, the more you listen to it, the more it pulls you back in. WHERE DID THE NAME KINETIC COME FROM? I WENT TO SEE YOU LIVE AND MOVED THE WHOLE TIME. That’s exactly why: because I was thinking of music that had energy and a propulsive spirit with a beat that might catch you. I chose “Kinetic” because it also implies dance, and a lot of the music I encountered in West Africa was linked to dance. Lots of traditional music in Ghana is not complete unless there is dancing, and music and dance are often inextricably linked. Usually if there is music there is dance, if there is music then somebody is singing. INF O @PGH C IT YPAPE R . C O M
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 02.11/02.18.2015
NEW RELEASES
STAGE HANDS STAGE HANDS (MY IDEA OF FUN) WWW.MYIDEAOFFUN.ORG/STAGEHANDS
Wildly prolific local artist Brandon Locher is fascinated with finding ways to fill the space. On his selftitled debut LP as Stage Hands, with drummer/producer Gerald Mattis, the songs are brimming with ideas to overwhelm the space. Stage Hands is in a constant state of motion — most tracks start with quiet, ambient passages, before picking up speed with jittery, throbbing pulses, glitches and clicks. Mattis’ drumming serves as a reliable anchor, adding a steady, jazzy backbone to much of the LP. Like most of the best current experimental electronic music, Stage Hands smoothly blurs the lines between jazz, ambient and IDM. BY SHAWN COOKE
WESTERBURG WESTERBURG (SELF-RELEASED) WESTERBURG1. BANDCAMP.COM
Westerburg brings 12 tracks of classic poppunk on its self-titled release, which came out in the latter half of last year. Simple and sometimes silly — “You’re out of luck, you stupid fuck / She’ll make you feel like you totally suck,” goes a line in “Pure Rat” — but that’s clearly the intention. Most songs deal in the standard ’90s pop-punk musical tropes, though there are nods to glam-rock and early rock ’n’ roll peppered in as well. There might not be a ton of new ground broken here, but at the same time, the whole thing is done with skill and intention, and there are tracks (like “Need Some Air”) that are sweet and mixtape-worthy. BY ANDY MULKERIN
WESTERBURG with SHIP CAPTAIN CREW, HARBOURS. 7 p.m. Sat., Feb. 14. Ink Division, 218 Braddock Ave., Braddock. www.pittpunk.org