Music and Musical Influences

Our band whitewolfsonicprincess played a set outdoors yesterday, on a big stage in a parking lot. It was a cloudy, rainy day, but it didn't rain during our set.  We played with energy and got lots of positive feedback after the show. It felt good. The sound onstage was excellent, we could all hear each other.  That's probably the most important thing.

Lots of folks told us we have a "60's vibe," that we are somehow channeling the late 60's thing.  I can't deny that we have absorbed lots of those musical influences - people brought up other artists like Fairport Convention, Bob Dylan, Buffalo Springfield, Jefferson Airplane. 

Still you hope that you are not just the sum of your musical influences, that you can incorporate them, and then transcend them. At least, that's how I think it should work.  But then again, maybe you should just be whatever you are, as much as you can be, and then damn the torpedoes. We aren't trying to sound like anyone else.  But the way people experience music is by drawing upon all the other things they've heard, and then putting you in some kind of context.

It's just the way people listen to, and try to understand music.

People do want to put you in a musical category, even if you are trying to create something that transcends categories.  Maybe totally incorporating, totally absorbing your influences is the best way to transcend. Maybe it's not our job to think about where we fit within the musical spectrum, just do what we do, and then let others draw their own conclusions.