I was one half of Rocks and Water with a previous partner, Alexis. A talented songwriter and warm soul who introduced me to Gregory, and there was an embarrassing number of instances where I’d ask who was playing on the radio and it would be Gregory.
It became a running joke. But when I met Alanna through the Twitch music community years ago, I experienced the same thing with her music when it’d come on, and wanted to reflect on it more.
Why were there these artists that had pretty distinct styles and voices, and whose music I’d heard many times, and yet they would catch me off guard so often, like it was the very first time I heard them?
If I hadn’t played so much with Alexis, and known her music so intimately, I think she would be another Alanna Alan Isakov in my life – and that was the common thread.
Beauty in simplicity
They all have this incredible ability to wrap so much up in a very simple song. Little 4 note motifs that hit hard, but so subtly, shrugging their shoulders, but they’re a big deal. Some little flutter of one finger on one chord of a 1-4-5 that after you’ve heard it once sounds like how could that song exist without it? It’s one of the hardest parts of songwriting.
Anyone can read a music theory textbook and write some textbook 4 part voice leading. But very few can look at a page of textbook 4 part harmonies, take a pen, make like two changes, and blow your mind. Make you forget who they are, and make you ask your friend who’s playing on the radio. It’s Alannalexiskov, stupid.
— T.D.
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