Come on now folks, we all love some good booty-shaking, head-nodding, air-riffing party and if Masheena’s music is something, then it’s definitely a lot of party with even more depth! Therefore we are very happy that the guys compiled a playlist for us and compiled some classics like Otis Redding, Whitesnake, Rush or Frank Zappa and added some more modern sing-alongs courtesy of Mastodon, Soundgarden, High on Fire or Clutch! The playlist definitely shows where the songs West Coast Hard Rock come from (check out Knut’s review here)! The band`s songwriter describes his process and the playlist the band has put together:
When I start on a tune, usually inspired by a state of mind or a melody that has been spinning in my head (mostly without any purpose), I always start with the guitar (acoustic or an unplugged electric guitar), which makes it much easier to imagine how chorus, bass, drums, and possible arrangements can work, without predetermining how it’s going to finally sound. The lyrics [are] a process as the words have to match the story or feelings, usually managing to get a chorus and maybe one verse in place first. But hey, for me it’s important to make something that is not bound by any specific style or genre, lay it all out there!
Like some artists say that a painting is always unfinished, the great thing about Masheena, is that the demos made are like sketches that get different colors and shapes depending on what assimilations the rest of the band gets from it. It’s like a big sticky rock that gets pushed down the mountain, not stopping before its covered by branches, leaves and whatever it captures on the way down.
The tracks selected represent the variety of artists that mean something in terms of attitude and state of mind for the band: Jimi Hendrix with his guitar, and storytelling skills, making it sound so easy (this song is freakin’ difficult somehow). Soundgarden’s appealing mood and flirt with the abyss, into Otis Redding’s snapshot of “who’s wearing the pants”-attitude from another era, and into great hard “newer” stuff rounding it up into Zappa’s humor and impossible arrangements.
