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Impact!
Impact is the most important band of the 21st century. It moves beyond genre and planned music. Impact cannot be contained! To be honest, Impact just needs to be heard to be understood.
Members:
Brad's father is also an honorary member of Impact.
Pictures
March 2005 Recording Session
Tunes:
Impact has recorded and uploaded a variety of tunes for your aural enjoyment:
Hit Singles!
I am Impact!
Lyrics
3 minutes
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Brad: Our signature song, this tells all about who we are. This is how we got our name, turned into the people we have become, and learned to eat a ton of pizza and wings to. It's amazing how much a robot who shoots nazal bullets and roller skates over tiny japanese villiages, which, for some reason, have huge pagodas erected in the center of them. Anyhow, I played more guitar parts here than I can remember playing, and am happy with almost none of them. Haines and Brandon rock, though. Also featuring additional background vocals by Big Aq.
Haines: This song is just awesome. It's our first official cover and our second official hit.
Many people questioned my ability to sing in Japanese, but I think I proved myself. This song also has
a really hot bass track and some sweet sweet brass.
Brandon: Honestly, when we finished tracking 'I am Impact', I thought that it would never sound good. It really is amazing
how much a decent mix engineer with good tools can do for a recording, and 'I am Impact' is proof of this as much
as any professional recording. The thing that strikes me the most about this track is how much energy
there is. We sound like we're really enjoying ourselves (which we did...at times), and I think that will really
help to attract listeners. All in all, this is just a great song, and it feels good to get our own interpretation
out there.
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Haines: This track rocks like nothing before it, and like things after it only by Impact! My bass just sounds soooooo beautiful in this mix... and is probably the most mariachi-sounding of all the instruments. And don't listen to Brandon's commentary!
Brandon: Here it is, our first album-worthy track in all of its glory. And for all of the hard work that went into it, the tuning is atrocious, our rhythm is suspect at best, and, quite frankly, the lead vocals suck. Nevertheless, we succeeded in creating something to be proud of (more or less), and something that a lot
of people would find entertaining to listen to, if only for the first time. Vive le perrier!
Brad: This song represents what three no talent guys can do in a day and a half, if, at least, one of them has the incredible knowledge of music theory that brandon does, and the incomparable ear for melody that brandon does. It's clear to see what a little bit of effort does to written music (for example, see the totallly thrown together "Stupid Flange Wall Thing"). Very, very proud of this solo in here, minus a few dead notes here and there. I'm really looking forward to making more music like this with the gentlemen now that I know what we are actually capable of.
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Perrier
7 minutes
Lyrics
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Jams/Raps/Demos/Interviews!
Jam 6
62 minutes
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Recorded in May, 2005
Haines: This is our monster jam. It is over an hour long, and worth every minute. Brad is often off in his own world ignoring what brandon and I are doing... Brandon actually followed along with my ideas for approximately the first time ever in this jam.
Brad: Holy hell jam 6. An hour and two minutes of music. What more needs to be said really. In the first few minutes of this, Brandon and I really started rocking this somewhat Jethro Tull-esque theme and variation that really sounded great through new equipment, courtesy of Dr. Haines, including a really sexy new Fender bass, which really adds to our sudden clarity and composure as a group.
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Recorded in May, 2005
Brad: Pretty h0t overall, starring r. forney and m. aquiline, this jam was born out of boredom on thier part, and aggression on ours. Note to future jam bands; slide whistle; nice in theory, nicer in key. Shockingly, I played some keys on this track, and they didn't turn out half bad.
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Jam 5
37 minutes
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Bad Jam
16 minutes
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Recorded in May, 2005
Brad: I suppose this was abandonned because it sounded too much like something else we've done, or because it sucks a whole bunch. It's really not that bad, it's just hopeless after a certain point to beat a dead horse with a stick, if you follow me...
Haines: This jam could've gone somewhere... but we just weren't feeling it as a group.
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Recorded in January, 2005.
Brandon: This is the best piece of music we’ve done. This is our first work recorded in a decent recording environment, and with (mostly) professional equipment. We each finally had our own vocal microphones, which allowed each of us to sing and play other acoustic instruments (like brass) at will. This makes for some great instrumental and textural combinations that were impossible for us to achieve before. Also, Brad’s vocals are absolutely brilliant, especially during “Levels” and his vocal-improvisation around 18 minutes and 30 seconds into the track. In fact, Brad completely out-plays the rest of us from a creative standpoint. From singing, to vocal and percussive effects, to his great guitar playing (check the scratches he does when the drums come in around 22 minutes), Brad is what really drives this jam. Other notable parts are the Forney-gay rap by me and Haines, the Swedish rap by me, and the brass playing in general.
Brian: This jam is one of my least favorites, despite how much better the recording sounds than the others. We wasted our energy setting up and I feel like we lost our edge. The levels part is awesome, though, and there's some great brass improv.
Brad: I've taken the liberty of dividing this into it's sections for you, the listener, and for you what i'm sure is complete confusion
Intro-Bmano
Levels
Bring out the Jazz
Levels (Reprise)
Classical
Jazz Reprise
Trombone Solo
Rock b/w trmpt
Accapella Bit phasing into chant with guitar
Jazz Turkey
Bmano does Scatman
Disco Scratch Funk Whistle (inc. Forney Rap)
Focus on keys
Guitar Solo
Swedish Freestyle
Haines' Rant
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Jam 4
34 minutes
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Perrier (Demo)
3 minutes
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This is our ode to the delicious bottled water. Beware, this is a demo.
Brandon: Perrier is a work in progress, but I think that it can be seen that this will be Impact’s next truly innovative song. With better recording equipment available to us, we no longer face the technical limitations that used to limit us. Now (and I believe this truly shows in the Perrier demo) we can venture as far, musically, as our talent allows. As a listener, look forward to some truly inspired music from Impact within the next few years.
Brian: This was a bad day in the studio for us. We were very limited in time and had a ton of technical issues. The gaping hole in this demo is the brass section, which we didn't have time to record. Nevertheless, I did come up with the idea to add the marvelous backing vocals which totally make the song, in my opinion.
Brad: This is technically a demo, but i think it comes out like our done-mo will.
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This is our hit rap single, which includes a gregorian chant section.
Brandon: The Lebanon Rap is, honestly, the most ground-breaking piece of music in the 21st century. Its synergy of white-boy ghetto rap and Gregorian chant produces an idiom unlike any heard before, effectively joining the beginning and end of western music in one fell swoop. Another feature to note is the instrumentation. The three bass parts masterfully weave in and out of each other, each providing its distinct texture and flavor to the resulting polyphony. Meanwhile, this complicated, interwoven bass line is brilliantly supported by a deceptively simple drum beat. In both form and style, the Lebanon Rap provides the groundwork for modern music for the rest of this century.
Brad: This was one of those songs that just occurs. We really just kept throwing ideas on top of other ideas, instead of throwing them out. It's been called timeless, so I suppose it must be.
Brian: This is the song that generally gets people hooked on Impact. It simultaneously displays both the best and worst of our musical abilities. The genious is in the lyrics and the gregorian chant.
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Lebanon Rap
9 minutes
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Jam 1
8 minutes
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Brandon: Impact’s diversity is most evident in its jam sessions. Haines favors a more minimalist and rhythmic approach to music, and Brad is down with a very impressionist approach to modern music. I, however, am a romanticist with music. In this jam, it was my style that won out, and Haines and Brad do an admirable job of complimenting my sad, lyrical keyboard melody that returned again and again. Listen, especially, for the brilliant way that Brad’s guitar wails and groans with the melody, while Haines increases intensity with more sub-divided rhythms in the bass.
Brian: This is a very atmospheric piece. For once, our styles seemed to complement each other throughout.
Brad: Somehow, I managed to get that nice feedback just after the intro to go for upwards of a minute without playing through an amplifier. An impossibility for the most part, but it was obviously meant to be.
Stephen: jam1 has a certain melodic quality that is how you say.........missing.
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Brandon: This is probably our most mature home-recorded session, for a variety of reasons. First of all, as Haines says, the beginning almost sounds written… unheard of in our jams. Second, you’ll notice that we are very good about bringing back old melodies and motives throughout this jam, which gives this jam a more structured feel, to an extent. My favorite parts include the timpani-guitar-bass jazz combo, the singing at the end, and the violin solo towards the beginning. Also, Haines comes up with some great riffs in this one; I really think it showcases the best that he’s done as a part of Impact.
Brad: This is a prime example of what Impact is at heart; this started with a basic idea I came up with in about a minute, and half an hour later we had created a beast of a song.
Brian: The beginning sounds almost like it was written. I think we could really make a song out of it if we tried. I firmly believe that this is one of the best things we've ever done. The song is just wonderful until Brandon starts playing orchestra hits and then it just goes down hill. To his credit, though, these are the most tasteful orchestra hits he's ever played. With about eight and a half minutes to go, things start picking up again with a brilliant guitar rhythm by Brad.
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Jam 2
25 minutes
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Huge File
39 minutes
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This seemed huge at the time...
Brandon: This, in my heart, was our first real piece of music. It was with this that Impact set down its philosophy of creating listeners who are active in the listening project. Notice how we intentionally play wrong notes, get off-rhythm, and play out of key. We do this because it forces the listener to sit down and wonder what could have been had the music been played correctly. Is there any other modern band that demands so much from its listeners? I think not, and this is further proof that Impact is at the forefront of today’s new music scene.
Brad: I have a distinct memory of this being the first time I knew that when we actually sat down and got our shit together, we could do something. You can tell by listening to this that Brandon is the glue holding these songs together.
Brian: I completely disagree with Brad... Brandon is what tears us apart whenever we have something coherent going on. We'll get into an awesome groove and then he'll change the rhythm completely and introduce orchestra hits. I HATE orchestra hits. Nevertheless, this track has its moments of brilliance that come out of nowhere.
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Brad: This is the first recorded music we ever had, at our first session together. I may be the only one of the four of us that likes this song, Haines carries us so well. That really is Brandon entering my house. Who knew metal guitar, funk bass, and trombone could work so well together?
Brandon: This piece of ours is not as close to my heart as others, probably because I wasn’t responsible for writing it. In true Impact fashion however, I arrived in the middle of recording and instantly improvised a beautiful trombone part to compliment the smooth bass stylings of Haines and Brad’s soaring guitar lines.
Brian: This song was built on a beautiful bass riff that I came up with and no one seems to want to mention. Brandon's tromboning is awesome.
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Random Shit 2
9 minutes
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Swedish Rap
6 minutes
lyrics
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Brandon: This definitely would be hilarious if I could stop laughing. My problem was that Brad was also cracking up as we were playing this, and the laughter just kept building, not unlike some bad audio feedback. I love the bass part that Brad plays throughout, and I’d love to re-record this soon.
Brad: Just Brandon and I here, Haines was out buying drugs or hustling his ladies or something. Can this guy freestyle or what?
Brian: This would be the funniest thing EVER if only you could understand what Brandon is saying. The jackass won't stop laughing.
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Brad: This has the distinction of being, not only the song we've been most prepared to record, but the one that sucks more than anything else we've done.
Brian: I really like this song, but our playing of it was awful. Brandon fucks up the rhythm constantly, I play wrong notes, and I'm sure Brad does something wrong, too. Maybe now that we're better musicians, we should try this one again.
Brandon: I don’t like this track much at all, but not because the recording is terrible and our playing is off. The music itself is boring. We confined ourselves to one chord progression the entire time and it became a really chore for me to play that hard-ass chord riff while also trying to improvise melodies. The lack of lyrics also hurts this track, in my opinion.
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Stupid Flange Wall Thing
7 minutes
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Interview
11 minutes
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Brad: Somehow, I think this may be the most scripted work we've done.
Brian: I recorded this on my laptop and didn't realize that when the screen saver goes on, Sound Forge stops recording... so it gets cut off pretty randomly. Nevertheless, we found a good excuse to end the interview where it does. This interview will tell you more about us than the web site ever could.
Aquiline: WTF am i doing in more than 1 minute of the impact interview?
Brandon: This gives some great insight into our musical philosophy. Hopefully we’ll get to finish the interview some day when we’re not being over-booked.
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