Finding the right inspiration is essential for any songwriter and musician to thrive in the world of music. Sometimes, we as musicians are riddled with creativity and endless ideas. But other times, not a single creative song idea comes to mind! This is completely normal and sometimes the best way to get over musicians block is to listen to artists and bands that inspire you. Below you will find some bands and artists that we at Project Haze listen to for musical inspiration.

Coldplay

Coldplay is without a doubt one of our favorite bands out there. We love Coldplay mainly because of how diverse and emotionally captivating their music is. From hit songs like Viva La Vida to lesser known, niche songs like Swallowed in the Sea, the band is in a constant evolution and are never afraid to branch out to new musical styles. This is something we at Project Haze try and emphasize.

Vancouver Sleep Clinic

Vancouver Sleep Clinic is known primarily for their ambient, atmospheric style sound. However with some of their new music, including their newest album “Onwards to Zion”, they succeeded in producing an extremely diverse record, tying in elements of ambient, R&B, rock, and even some hiphop. This album does an amazing job in producing a sound that captivates us as listeners and produces an immersive experience. With the nostalgic, emotional nature of the lyrics and melodies, this record serves itself as a powerful reminder to be forever grateful for the life you have, as well as providing a road map for finding peace in one’s isolation.

Miavono

The musical duo Miavono, comprised of UK based friends Michael and Brad, are also big inspirations to us at Project Haze. Their music consists of elements of alternative, pop, electronic, future house, and ambient music. What we love so much about Miavono is the way they pour their hearts and souls into every piece they create. The duo are successful independent, unsigned artists like us, giving us a sense of commonality and relatability with the group. A few of our songs, including the song ‘Serenity’ from our Through the Night EP were made using inspiration from some of Miavono’s music.

The Kooks

The British Indie Rock band ‘The Kooks’ offer sort of a grittier indie alt sound than the groups mentioned above. Many of their songs consist of gritty, crunch guitars and naughty lyrics offering a sound similar to popular indie rock legends ‘Arctic Monkeys’. From songs about sex and lovers, to alcohol, drugs and other intense topics, the band certainly has a unique, fun, and energetic sound. Many of the songs contain groovy bass lines, crunch guitars, and catchy hooks and melodies you can never seem to get out of your head. From the use of crunchy distortion guitars, to energetic and somewhat extreme vocals and lyrics, our unreleased single ‘Save Me(The Fire Burns Around Me)’ has a similar, rowdy sort of vibe.

The origins of the band:

Originally, before the band’s conception, we must start out on the members beginning their musical careers.

Andrew being the drummer of the band originally started out playing guitar. He is fond of playing Metallica songs which soon grew to be one of his favorite bands. He joined a Jazz band during middle school where he started to grow a love for percussion instruments which evolved into him picking up the drum kit and learning the kits. He is now the production overseer of the band, drummer, and beat producer.

Adrian is the bass playing but originally played keyboard. He started playing music a little later in life compared to the rest of the band but is definitely the fastest learner. He was determined to learn the keyboard top to bottom which he eventually became an expert at. He then grew a skill of producing on logic pro x using a midi controller and plug in’s due to all the piano skills he’s learned. This then leads him to pick up the bass guitar which is his primary instrument for accompanying the band.

Gabe has been a music fanatic for a long time being a guitarist since middle school. He was a shredder from the beginning playing metal music practicing solos. His infatuation in the pop-punk skate genre of music has elevated his creative outlet to a new level which allows him to write original music from scratch. He then picked up vocals to enhance his skill of music creation. He primarily plays lead guitar and backup vocals for the band.

Jonovan is the lead vocalist and guitarist/pianist for the band. He like Gabe has been a guitarist since middle school which he grew a love for the instrument. He constantly would practice every day which lead him to be comfortable in writing songs from scratch. The alternative style in which he develop would soon carry on to the personality that the band brings today. He challenged himself to learn every instrument from the band in order to better facilitate the writing process for every member.

Songwriting

With every conception of a song, it usually always starts off with a guitar or piano chord procession along with a vocal melody. We tend to use the voice memos app on our iPhones to capture the melody so we don’t forget it. We always establish a concrete structure by sticking with vocals and guitar/piano for writing lyrics and sections for the song. Once that’s complete, the first demo gets recorded on logic which we slowly write parts for each band member. Depending on the vibe of the song, we could start with adding digital instrumentation with drum samples, synths/any digital production, or by having each band member play their instruments along with the demo track. Getting every band member to come up with their parts takes the most time since there is a lot of ways the song direction can go, so it’s up to the musician to pick a balance for the right vibe of the song. Since we use a combination of different sound elements for all our songs, it can take months to complete the instrumentation. 

Recording Process

The recording process is the most fun yet tedious part of making a song. It isn’t uncommon for us to record dozens of takes per recording session to ensure we get a perfect and performance. When recording vocals, we have to use a sound shield in order to keep the audio isolated and keep the vocal takes as clean as possible. For recording acoustic guitars or pianos, we would use two mics in order to capture the dynamics of the instrument. For bass and electric guitar, we would plug a direct input from the amplifiers to the Audio Interface which gets rid of any unwanted white noise in the recordings. For the electronic instruments, we would use plug-ins like Serum or Vocal synth which is all captured through the DAW and played through the Midi Controller. Lastly, recording drums is the most difficult out of all the instruments with the setup alone could take an hour. The drums alone take 8-9 microphones recording at the same time that captures all the pieces of the drum set. In some cases, if we have difficulty recording at home we would go to Hyde Street Studios to record anything we may need to do. 

Mixing and Mastering

Another tedious part of creating a song is mixing. Mixing is important to ensure there is a perfect balance of sound from all your recordings. There are tools such as EQs that help adjust unwanted/wanted frequencies of the source of the recording and Compressors which help squash the sound to get the dynamics much more consistent within the entire song. Techniques such as quantizing are also used, especially for drums, to ensure that recording completely stays on tempo. Our audio engineer Will Chason, who is an experienced producer at Hyde Street Studios, helps us with the mixing process throughout the production of the song by bringing the track stems in Hyde street to use the mixing board to get the best quality out of the recordings. Once the mix is complete, Will takes the mixed project and brings in Hyde street one final time to master the song which makes the song sound radio-ready and released to the public.