There's a handful of bands that were my entry into the local music scene. One of them was Glare. From listening to "Blank, Into Me, Void in Blue" and seeing them at Yerberia Cultura. Glare has recently released their latest EP "Heavenly" which shows their progress which is filled with numerous emotions and sounds. This week's feature is Glare, @glarestexas and let's see what they have to say.
We start off with the members of the band being "Rez and I play guitar and sing terribly, then we’ve got Toni on guitar/vocals, Austin on guitar, Homer on bass and finally Jes on drums." They also go to give out a couple of shout-outs "Worst Behavior @worstbehaviortx, Reinforce @reinforce_hc, Riley! @rileytheband, High Regard @highregardtx, La Ratera @larateramusic, Ruben Farias, @human5000 and finally Grimes’ baby." I'll be sure to check out these artists! More music to add into the local playlists! I've been wanting to see worst behavior as well, but Friday 4/1/22 will be the day along with high regard.
What does the band "Glare" mean to them? What do they wish to evoke from their listeners as well as they explain "I’d say Glare is an alternative rock/shoegaze band to put it simply. To me Glare is a way to express myself through sound and try to evoke emotion through it." When I listened to Glare for my first time I needed to find more. More sounds like this which lead me to My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. I want to say it was my first time experiencing a sound like this before and finding out it was called "shoegaze." The sound really speaks words, it's something totally different that I'd say with "Heavenly" even with the messages/themes of the album the sound speaks for itself.
Seeing that Into You was released in 2017 how and seeing Heavenly was released in 2021 how do they feel the band has grown? From the description on their bandcamp "Glare has managed to iterate and build upon their heavy, shoegaze" what can be said about the direction they are taking? As they say "Well, Into You being the first songs we wrote under the Glare name, we really didn’t put a lot of thought into them, we wrote the songs and decided that’s what we wanted to sound like and had a clearer path of what was to come in the future. There’s no real clear direction we’re taking, I think we’re just trying to do whatever we want to do within the means of the genre." I can see that. In a sense of experimenting and building a foundation with the early releases. Even though they are great songs and they mention "we really didn’t put a lot of thought into them, we wrote the songs and decided that’s what we wanted to sound like." I want to say with 4 year gap between these songs and "Heavenly" they have released an EP that they "we’re just trying to do whatever we want to do within the means of the genre" and that's what matters.
Going through the titles of the tracks on "Heavenly" such as "Bloom, Floating, Soft, Heavenly, Ghastly." The first few words are just well "Heavenly" while the final being the direct opposite. From the sound to the transitions. Was this intentional due to what is being said in the lyrics as they explain "It definitely was intentional, we were originally going to release a different record with a different set of songs but decided to write 'Heavenly' due to everything going on around us at the time, especially the pandemic. While writing 'Heavenly' we really thought about what we wanted to say and tried to emulate that." Listening to this EP on repeat then following along on repeat with the lyrics. With what they wanted to say and emulate it did evoke feelings out of that follow the titles and the lyrics. Even if its from my perspective. Just laying down in my bed after awhile and listening to "softly" and hearing "Soft as a petal falling Glistening sun-kissed golden skin Your voice my name is calling Lead me indulge in sin" and following it with "Take your time Close your eyes Pull me close Decompose All flowers bend towards the sun." As the drums pound and the guitar goes off. You have these soft vocals, while the instrumentals tell another story. Transitioning to "Heavenly" from the 43 second mark to 1:03 just HITS in the moment. As they say this really was "intentional."
On the topic of the lyrics on Bloom " Your smile blooms one on me Its all I need." especially from " Slowly falling" to " Trapped inside a home Out of your control Something fueled my fear" to " Take your time Close your eyes Pull me close Decompose" to " Drifting from you" to finally " World lives with impurities" although with a title such as "Heavenly" we may have our piece of heaven no matter what it may be, but what surrounds on the outside is it's "impurities." That's just my perception, what do you wish to say with "Heavenly" as they mention "we had another record we were trying to record before and those songs were very heavy thematically so I think we made the decision to write something that was a little lighter and more so about the situation everyone was in. But, in all honesty, we just thought 'Heavenly' sounded cool and it made sense to us this being our 'softest' record yet." They also mentioned earlier that they "decided to write 'Heavenly' due to everything going on around us at the time, especially the pandemic." There is a lot to take into account with this EP, but how does it make you feel? What do you think?
What could be said about the emotions behind "Heavenly" as it expresses "feelings of loneliness, isolation, confusion, loss, and anger." I'd say if you haven't listened to this EP or if you've listened to the EP before to make some time to listen to it outside, on your bed, or a place you're most comfortable and let it just sink in. Even if you aren't following along with the lyrics, but just listen, what does EP get out of you? It most certainly made me feel lonely, like if i was falling in a never ending dark pit as I listened to "Floating" transitioning to "Softly" It made me feel as I've landed although softly, but lost and feeling pain internally. Interesting what we can imagine and feel, huh?
From their first show to their most recent what can be said? "Oh, man. Our first show was at the Sound Factory under our old name Dispirit. We opened up for Capsize and Choir Vandals and i remember the locals being Reverse the Hate, Exist; Avail, and Obliviator, I don’t think any of the locals are active still, but it was terrible, none of us had ever played a show before and it was our first band I remember being so scared and nervous that I couldn’t even sing. We had just dropped our first song and the scene was hype on us being one of the first bands(to my knowledge) that was doing the emo/alternative/pop punk kinda sound, so we had a good crowd for us and we completely botched it. Compared to our most recent show I’d say it’s like night and day. Our last set of shows was a two day run we did with Soft Kill, Topographies and Alien Boy, all really sick bands that you should definitely check out. We were lucky enough to get Soft Kill’s attention and they asked us to play a couple of their TX dates while they were on tour, we did Austin at Empire Control Room and Houston at White Oak Hall. Getting to meet these other bands who were nothing but nice and helpful to us and getting to gig with them for two days was a great learning experience for us. As for our sets, I feel like now that we’ve played what seems like hundreds of shows throughout our tenure as a band it’s gotten a lot easier to get on stage and just do our thing. No doubt the nerves were there but it’s now easier to deal with them and play the best set possible." From "we completely botched it" to "it’s gotten a lot easier to get on stage and just do our thing. No doubt the nerves were there but it’s now easier to deal with them and play the best set possible." That's growth. For the number of shows they've played and working on their EP as well. They continue to grow and learn and that's what we all do as well. From playing at "Sound Factory" and by going by a different name now they have gigs basically across Texas! I'm really interested in the music scene in the valley from what we have now. So hearing these bands and these venues that were spot just sound really cool! I can just imagine it!
Off topic but, I've started to see other local artist get gigs outside the valley and it's such a big step! It's crazy to me how you can introduce someone a band and they'd ask where they're from and they're quick answer is always like "L..A" or "New York", but we got talent and sounds, creatives in The Valley too! I say this because with our local bands reaching out the thought of people saying "oh they're from The Valley" just feels nice!
How do they wish to grow with the band as they say "I personally never even thought we’d be doing the things we’re doing or we’d get the opportunities we’d gotten. We’ve played with bands we adore like Nothing, Culture Abuse, Glitterer, Mannequin Pussy, Tricot, One Step Closer, Narrow Head and the list goes on. Our mentality is that we’re just doing our thing, whatever happens happens. We’re putting out music we want to put out if people like it that’s great and if they don’t that’s alright too." They're having fun and that's all that matters as mentioned "Our mentality is that we’re just doing our thing, whatever happens happens...if people like it that’s great and if they don’t that’s alright too." As an artist not following with what you feel is right artistically or what will be enjoyed is the best thing you can do. It's YOUR art for a reason. People will fuck with it either way. If they don't? Well there's multiple things out there that go along with our different tastes.
Is there anything they would like to experiment with?
"For sure, we all have different tastes in music and want to try different things with it. One thing we’ve talked about it experimenting with electronic sounds." I look forward to what they whip out next! I mean that's what it's about right? Experimenting.
Glare shares their thoughts on the Local Valley Scene,
"The local valley scene was very special, it’s not like scenes up north where you’ve got different scenes for specific genres there’s a lot of mixed bills. For the longest time we were really the only alternative band playing shows everyone else was either playing metalcore, hardcore, punk or pop punk so we’d play with all of them. Shoutout VTHC for really being the first to believe in us and pick us up and put us on we really appreciate them and love them. They really made us feel welcomed and a part of the scene. I think now the scene is a little different, when everything started to open back up and people were putting shows on again, I noticed that the scene as it is now is this whole new group of younger kids just trying to put on shows and put out music and it’s so sick to see, it’s definitely still very special."
Along with one final comment,
"Thanks for reading, I hope my answers make sense to y’all. Listen to “Heavenly” it’s on all streaming platforms as well as bandcamp. Come to our record release show April 1st at The Gremlin we’ve got some of the sickest bands playing with us, so come out and hang out. Thank you for your time!"
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