Posted March 22nd, 2007 08:21 AM by McD’s Guy (Wes). 

I recently got a bit of access to high-speed internet & have been able to check out a few things on YouTube & the samples on ITunes & on the MySpace page & am, uh, intrigued by what I've heard.

Kevin, your musicality is fascinating. There's a particular thing that's pervasive in your composition, a chromaticism, for want of a more definitive term, which simply isn't in pop music, at least to the extent that I'm familiar w/pop. There are, of course, specific moments we could point to in many things from the beginning of the Bacharach/Beatles era until today which lean toward harmonic edginess, but those are the exceptions to the rule for their creators, and as I'm hearing it, your stuff is coming from a consistently different place, musically. There are ideas (I'm talking notes & chords) in much of what I've heard so far that simply can't be explained by reference to most of what's on that list of influences on the MySpace page.

    Another thing I noticed is the dramatic intervals in the melodies, what a friend used to call "intervalactic leaps". This isn’t necessarily unheard of, being in fact a hallmark of great melodies, but your particular jumps (moments in “Normandy” and “Helpline” come to mind) seem somehow unique, unexpected. So the question that came to mind is whether you're at all connected to 20th-century (post Romantic-era) orchestral music. Did I miss any composers' names on that list? Are there particular composers you're connected to, and if so, who are they?     The point being that your music seems simply too intelligent (forgive the apparent implicit conceit - but I mean that completely sincerely) to have been born exclusively of the milieu to which you indicate a connection on that list.And, by the by, apart from the strictly musical elements, your voice and your singing blow me away. There's something haunting about your singing and your sound - I can't put my finger on its effect, but it's there. The accent, the vibrato, the slight break at the right moments; it could be all or none of these, I don't know. But combined with the musical seriousness, it's very powerful. Everything indicated on the ODS/HHYT single all those years ago is confirmed in the other of your recordings I've heard so far.

    A lot of reading, but I wanted to check in & say Hi. All's well here in Americanta. I would suggest a Big Mac w/ extra pickles, & take out the top patty, it just doesn't need to be there. What remains is the perfect burger. Your buddy Geo. Bush would approve.