Fife based band, Sonorous Breaks rock hard enough to please, with melodic female vocals adding depth and meaning to well crafted, catchy originals to their own take on well known covers. Andrea, originally from California, provides a much needed feminine touch to Sonorous Breaks in the male dominated scene.
Sonorous Breaks are Andrea (Violet Whybrow) who plays ,as she says, her “vocal awesomeness”, Martin (Biggus Asbrink)at the drums , Dale (Chupacabra Beaumont) who plays just bass(even if he’d like to learn the trumpet though),Angus (Geo Yohogania) plays mainly guitar but dabble on the keyboard, (“II would say drums -he says-but my band members would debate that “)
They play in SL for the love of music, just for tips...respecting maybe the pristine sense of SL as the perfect place to create and share creativity with others.
Andrea only is from Petaluma California, while the others band members come come directly from Sunny Fife in Sunny Scotland .
They’ve been involved in music from different time:Andrea has been playing music for 25 years,Martin almost 7 years Angus about 18 years, while Dale got his bass for Christmas 2002, but he never really started 'playing' music until 2004.
They describe their style basically as a sort of grunge rock with a bit of metal melody and madness mashed together:definitely their sound is just energetic and lively,not too flashy, but at the same time a little unique.
Since I’m always very interested in the process of musical creation Ia asked them how long does it take to write a song or piece of music.
“It depends,-Andrea says- sometimes it ‘s fast and some take months and some songs evolve over time.” Dale instead just usually needs about 30 minutes to create a new song, even if of course it takes longer to perfect it though”
“It all depends on how inspired I am or how we feel.-Angus says -I can have an idea for a whole song just pop into my head and that's it but some take a little more development with help from the guys when its just an idea for a riff”.
Angus thinks of himself as being a good but not great songwriter,although he’s versatile ,as he was classically trained, so he finds he can switch styles of playing very easy. He’s quite proud to be one of those rare breeds of rock musician that can actually read music!
Except Dale, who just writes music (“ I wouldn't be trusted to write lyrics!”) the others band members are equally involved both in doing lyrics and music
Then I asked which acts have most inspired them.
“As a child Madonna -Andrea says-as I got older I would say the Black Crowes, Hole and Nine Inch Nails.”
Without any false modesty Martin says “Me personally(he laughs) but also Foo Fighters, Tool, 36 Crazyfists, Rage Against the Machine”.
Dale has been inspired by Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave but soon he learned to play bass and develop his style by listening to them.
Angus says:” The Black Crowes, is my favourite band ever, but also Rage Against the Machine, Skunk Anansie, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Faith No More, 80's/ 90's cock rock ...oh and not forgetting the musical powerhouse Britney Spears!!! (he says laughing)”
For these guys everything can be a source of inspiration and ideas for songs or pieces of music just come up with things, their lyrics come from experiences and other peoples stories.
Angus says :”Anywhere really can inspire me:I could be doing the most mundane thing and an idea just pops in there and I've gotta go get something down before I forget it. Most of the time I find things just happen when I'm just messing around on my guitar and Annie says she likes what I did....then I have to work out what that actually was “
For Dale everything starts from the music “ I usually just try to work around the guitar..”:”Playing gigs and seeing people enjoying our music inspires to play more..Angus got his inspiration from his mood and Dale says:”My source of inspiration are...peanuts. I suffer as Charlie Brown suffers!”he jokes
Definitely they influence each other as a band, “When it works it’s magic and everyone can feel it in the room.
they play together because they feel a sort of urgency that shows through Angus words:”i have a need to play. If I'm not in a band making and playing musical I get a bit stir crazy!!! I just need to do it.
Then i asked which song would they most like to have written, Andrea chooses Evenflow by pearl jam its song perfection!! Martin: Everlong - Foo Fighters.
Dale’s choice is Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14, also known as the Moonlight Sonata. (I wish I wrote that.he says)
Angus: Ooh this is a tough one but probably "Groove is in the Heart" by Deelite, I love that song it makes me happy lol Shocking choice as it's not a rock song but hey it's my song yo!!!!
Then we started spending some words about SL first I asked them how did they discover it.
Andrea is the one who first discovered it off a music forum and then she introduced this amazing virtual stage to the others band members and shelped her band mates to create their avatar as well.
What basically brought them inworld has been their urge to do music on another platform.The idea of live musicians playing in virtual clubs intrigued them all so they had to check it out.
When they are not on stage they love exploring all around SL:
Andrea is a model, a designer, a builder and she wrote for a magazine and fashion stuff all as my r
Angus tends to go see other musicians play and that's about it.
“Concerts mainly or any cool sims that people suggest to me, I like well built and creative things.-he says”
All the Sonorous Break agree that SL can be a valid showcase for their oRL works because of its worldwide audience!!
“It's a good promotion tool for people to listen to your music all round the world. an-Martin says-and to top it off its free to do that!”
“It has potential... -adds Dale-people have shown an interest, so if we work hard I think it can be.
Angus: Absolutely. It's an outlet to a worldwide audience and we tend to get more attending our SL shows than RL ones l”
The main reason by the way is just that they have a lot fun and they like to let people hear theirmusic,.”Of course Anrdrea says-if we can gain anything from it,that would be awesome. AySorry for the cliché”
Finally my last question:”Where do you see yourself a year from now:will Second Life still exist?”
“Second Life will still exist and we will conquer the world!!!-Andrea says and Martin: I “hope the band will be more established in real life and in second life. Yeah i think it will till be around as more people hear about it everyday.”
Dale adds“Definitely! I think we'll still be playing on Second Life - maybe even more often. The more we play, the more people will hear us. The more people that hear us, the more fans we'll acquire! And the more we play, the more fun we'll have. “
Angus ends our conversation with a personal wish!”A year from now we will rule the world playing mariachi music and SL will still exist!!!”
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