TONIGHT JULY 2 at the Aquarium: Colourmusic

This Band Will Color Your World
Colourmusic is a very unexpected band.  Though they have been known for their quirky stunts on stage when they toured the southwest, in a recent swing through the West and into Canada they realized that their carefree sound, even played straight, raised more eyebrows than their antics. There is a sweet naivety in their music as if you were transported back to the 60s and had just discovered a new British band. That feel is clearly intentional. 

“We’re not influenced by anything happening right now. We’re influenced by music in the 60s because it was the most organic rock music ever made. It feels great. It’s melodic, and there’s a simplicity there that we were wanting to capture,” says Ryan Hendrix (guitar/vocals), who co-founded the band in 2002 with Brit Nick Turner (guitar/vocals).

That choice of band focus though wasn’t clearly that simple. Hendrix was an aspiring grunge musician back in Oklahoma City. He was fulling into hard core and alternative metal bands. “I think you have to be a sexually repressed boy,” Hendrix says about the appeal of metal. “When I was 17, I never had dates. Metalica was one of my favorite bands in high school.” When he went to college, he made a paradigm shift musically.  “I was listening to music while I was studying. I couldn’t listen to hard music when I was reading,” he says. “So, I changed my tastes. I just started listening to everything.”

Then in 1998, he met Nick Turner, who had very distinct tastes in and opinions of music. Turner was into British glitch electronic music that came out of Manchester. They made a connection when Turner found out that Hendrix was a fan of Aphex Twin and others on an English label called Warp Records. From there on however, the pair were at loggerheads when it came to songwriting. “He and I really don’t see eye to eye as songwriters. We always disagree with each other on just about everything,” Hendrix says. “We love each other, but we’re pretty hard on each other when it comes to writing music.” But they did agree on two kinds of music. One was 90s glitch electronic music and the other was 60s British rock.

“When we started the band, we said. ‘Let’s write 2-2 ½ minute songs. Let’s write songs that are incredibly melodic and pretend we’re in the 60s and we’re trying to write music from that perspective,’” Hendrix adds. So, Colourmusic began to form. They found Colin Fleishaker to play bass and sing and Cry Sater to play drums. Multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Ley came in to play guitar, drums, and keys, as well as sing backup.

The songs that were written and the live shows and the album that will be out this fall did not come from a retro or tribute band. It came naturally from a five-piece band that effused themselves in the perspective and life view of another era. “It’s not like we’re trying to sound like we’re from the 60s,” Hendrix insists. “We’re just think in that mind set and kind of come up with new ways of hearing music again.” The result is a fresh new take on those musical ideas done by a fresh new band.

Come out and feel good with the sounds of Colourmusic tonight at the Aquarium. They will paint rainbows all over your blues. The cover is only $5. Singer/songwriter Riesage and the bass and drum duo, Chlamydiot, will open for them.