While the 8 and 16-bit revolutions have already crept their ways into the 'post hoc ergo propter hoc' twenty-first century cauldron of pop sounds; it was always a mystery why the portable devices from those days have been tragically overlooked as musical opportunities lost. While those ubiquitous home console audio MIDIs can be heard in everything from underground white label dance track pressings to the radio ready electronic production fabrics; the original world of mobile gaming music from devices like Game Gear, Lynx, TurboExpress, Tiger Electronics, and so on, have been tragically overlooked. Overlooked that is, until now.
Purchase, NY trio Crying premieres “Bloom”, a floral audio blizzard from their upcoming Double Double Whammy Get Olde EP available September 3. A trio comprised of Elaiza Santos from Whatever, Dad, with guitarist-Game Boy controller Ryan Galloway, and LVL UP and Spook Houses percussion commander Nick Corbo; together these 3 pack an audio punch worth more than a thousand 'that moment when' memes in a codified sound. A few weeks back we were rocking and running to Crying's breakthrough with, “Bodega Run“, and today “Bloom” has us springing and sprouting forth; regardless of where we have been planted.
The evolutions, pains and trials of growing up, and giving up those old routines and former environments can be heard in full blistering force on, “Bloom”. Nick bounces his rhythm like azure racquet balls off the court walls of Ryan's alchemistic guitar and electronic adventure keys of passion. Amid the side scrolling arrangements, Elaiza sails and sings out those familiar seas of doubts from DMV waiting rooms, and into the student-driver interiors of anxiety and fear-met with a flight of fancy type of escapism. “I can't bring myself to do it, can't operate a car”, Santos laments with the gear locked pressure of sitting frozen in the driver's seat with the second hand automobile parked safely inside the parents' garage. Taking on the self-uncertainty of “I'm no good…I can't bring myself to learn it”, and “I'm too afraid to try again”; Elaiza bursts through the impossibilities with the reinforced unbound confidence of, “bloom, get up”, and “escape before it erupts”. Backed up through the infectious DIY creativity of the drum-guitar-hacked Game Boy programming; the driver's licence dilemmas of places that cannot be reached by bike are traded in through the merits of the MTA's Q38 line and the surrounding generosity of friends.
We caught up with Crying's Elaiza and Ryan to get into the creative photosynthesis behind “Bloom”, it's 'grass is always greener' vibrations, 'evolutions' and Fred Durst, songwriting processes, and much more.
Through your pop-rocking adventures in 8-bit, tell us about the making of “Bloom”.
Elaiza: Last summer, I was sent a rough recording of Crying songs to mess around with. 'Bloom' was one of them, but I hadn't written for it until January, and everything except for the last verse was completely different from the set of lyrics we have now. One night back at school, Ryan and I were brainstorming over packets of Vinacafe in my common room. Sometime between making weird Photobooth drafts and playing our first show, we got it together.
Ryan: Yeah, it was an old song I mostly wrote in high school before I even knew about people using video game hardware to make non-video game art. I think it was one of the only songs in my high school backlog that I was saving for a full band.
I get the feeling like there is a coming of age motif, with the anecdote about learning to drive, and referencing the EP title of Get Olde. Is “Bloom” a metaphor of the human experience of blooming into new maturities?
E: I don't think we wrote the songs with the clear intention that each one would contribute to some unifying motif, but I guess growing up and leaving old routines and environments behind was something that resonated within each of us. It was important for me to write about something we could all relate to that wasn't about love (gross), because otherwise it'd just be another version of my solo stuff.
Given the ambitions of Game Boy fused-power punk rock, does the song title reference the way your sound itself blooms through the archaic electronic processor and through the guitars?
R: Most of these songs started as guitar + Game Boy compositions with titles that mostly reflected the overall mood of each song. I thought this one sounded especially flowery and upbeat compared to the other stuff I was writing.
Is your upcoming Get Olde EP a reflection of generational growth and development?
E: Maybe not generational growth, but definitely regular growth.
R: I've been reading and watching recent Fred Durst interviews and he seems really interested in 'evolution,' which he's kind of using to refer to one's personal life journey and development. I don't want to say that it's close to that, but…
Given the retro electronic gaming portable and rebellious drums, guitars, and vocals, is there a kind of fear of getting old that is also being addressed? Could this fear of responsibility and adulthood also be reflected in your band's title of Crying?
R: To me, it has more of a 'grass is greener' vibe. There are a few things in there about wanting to grow up, but there's also a lot of stuff about someone just not wanting to be where they currently are. With the Game Boy, we're not really using it to evoke certain time periods. We just genuinely like the sounds it makes.
Crying's Get Olde EP will be available September 3 from Double Double Whammy.
Their release show will be September 6 in Purchase, NY at SUNY with Pity Sex, Ovlov, LVL UP and Slow Warm Death. For more details check out Facebook.
