A Few of Questions

[Optimistically Spontanious]

hey guys/ band

I'm new here on the forum.
lately, i was introduced to Sun Caged by some friends of mine.
I have to say that for today, Sun Caged's Artisima became one of my favorite Prog albums ever created... a beautiful masterpiece of pure progressive effort.
I am from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I play bass for the last 5 years. I have a Progressive Death metal band which currently working on our first demos (hopefully this summer we'll finish the first two). More details about myself you can find on my Myspace page or on my Facebook page. if you would like to see my playing you can visit my Youtube Page.

i have, if you mind, a couple questions for the band:

1. Who were your main influences to write this amazing music? i know that anyone has his own great influence which derives him to write some great stuff. who were your main influences?

2. How do you manage to keep an album with a unique style? for a while now, i am writing along with my bands some stuff, but some of it does not fit with each other. it just sound different every time you write something with a different influence each day. how can you manage to keep the balance?

i think think that this is good for now... sorry if i introduced myself here, but i couldn't find the introductions forum here, fool me XD

anyways, you guys are awesome and hopefully ill have the time to continue and write here.

thank you for your time!

 

[Sebassefras]

Welcome on the forum!

I might help you with your second question:
In the end you'll notice that you use the same keyboard and guitar sounds that you like and use certain scales and chord changes.
At first you don't really notice, but when someone mentioned it you hear it all the time.
I'm almost finished with my solo (mainly guitar) record with some metal, prog, ballads and even a bit of fusion. Though I use different guitar sounds they still sound a bit the same because I always have the same sound in my head that I want to create. Because of that and my typical chord changes and scales it still sounds as one style.

Try it. ;-)

Greets, Sebassefras.

 

[Optimistically Spontanious]

Thanx for the help man, really appreciate it

but when you mean the same (obviously not literally) but different, what exactly you mean? the chords? the scales to use? the chord progressions? it could all be similar, but not trying being exactly the same.

Appreciated again

ttyl

 

[Sebassefras]

There might be more artist with the same chord progressions, scales, etc. But that's a problem a lot of composers deal with. Yet your osund will always be a bit different, or your genre will be different. For example: You might compose typical Andrew Loyd Webber songs, but you play it with heavy distortion and old synths. Than that's your style.
Listen to Valensia, he sounds very much like queen, yet he uses a bit different chord progressions, therefor it's his style.

Everyone is different, trust me. ;-)

Greets, Sebas.

 

[Optimistically Spontanious]

thats true, thanx man, ill try to remember that

 

[Sun Caged]

Hello

It is all a matter of using all the personal influences and throw them together and make something out of that which we all like.

I actually do not agree about the same stylystic things in your head, I am actually always trying to find different approaches, to make my writing more interesting and to keep interesting for the crowd, they do not want a second AC/DC who writes te same songs for over a decade Though there are people who want that But it is not my goal.

About the first question: that is really very big, from Pink Floyd, even Weckl (fusion) to Meshuggah, Strapping Young Lad, to Dream Theater (old) to Rush, to Kansas, to Styx, so many actually. We do not limit ourselves to some certain style, we always try to investigate more styles.

What Sebas was trying to say is that when you play for a certain time you will develop a certain sound, a sound which people will recognize as "your sound". It happens when you start writing your own songs, they will always have your personal edge because every person has its own mind and its own feel and emotions.

Marcel

 

[Optimistically Spontanious]

thanks for answering Marcel.
Basically, i have the same influence (especially Dream Theater which are my favorite band) and my approach is from Floyd, Yes, Rush stuff to extreme metal. If its black metal, death metal, i want my stuff to sound pretty much like the adds i did for A Fair Trade, off course not the same as the song itself, but the little adds i did here and there (like the solo at the end). I'm trying to be as creative as i can. if you would like to, and you have the time off course, i can send you some of the stuff I'm currently working on so you'll know what my direction.

 

[carbon]

Very interesting and enlightening!
Thankyou for asking good questions Optimistically Spontaneous and for the reply's everyone.
I wiill keep this in mind as I continue to try and be better at guitar!

 

[Optimistically Spontanious]

no problem