Listening to music in the new millennium isn’t as fun as it used to be. Garage bands from Tucson to Tallahassee vie for space in indie record stores; homogenized pop/rock/country saturates the airwaves. If one word can be used to describe the vast majority of new music, that word is boring.
For example, in this very issue, Pulse music critic Dave Depper laments, “My heart yearns for a new revolution in sound; for a new band that breaks all of the rules; for someone to come out of the woodwork and knock the current state of music upside-down!”
Though Depper’s revolution may be a long time in coming, Eugene has at least one band making a conscious effort to break as many rules as they can.
The band is Theurgic Seed, and the music they play is of a variety all its own, explained frontman Jair. “We sometimes get asked what genre of music we play,” he said, “and my answer is: genre. We play genre.”
Jair, who sings and plays guitar, creates his music along with drummer James West, bass player Corey Vance, drummer Needlebreaker, Scotty Perey on rhodes and Kevin Murphy on mandolin, with appearances by a variety of other musicians playing a variety of instruments. Their self-titled single also features Danielle Opal and Lewis Pollard on backup vocals. Last year, Theurgic Seed played at the Hult Center with a 15-piece orchestra and Abhiman Kaushal, who is sitar master Ravi Shankar’s tabla player.
The band members’ diverse musical backgrounds contribute to the band’s varied style. Jair, who is a classically trained musician, cites a wide variety of jazz and world music as his biggest influences. Among the band’s collective favorite albums are: “The Bends” by Radiohead, “Synchronicity” by The Police, “In Celebration” by Ravi Shankar and “Birds of Fire” by Mahavishnu Orchestra. But “we’re not trying to be a melting pot because that’s how things have been lost,” Jair said.
Jair said that much of the band’s music is created by improvisation, but not always.
“Lyrics and forms are preconceived by Jair,” said West. “The songs have plenty of time to evolve. There is more of a one-ness.”
Recording engineer Bill Barnett worked with Theurgic Seed on the single. He described the collaboration as “kind of an intense thought process. You have to be willing to be ready for anything and get out every mic you have. Jair has got a real broad vision for the music.”
One of the band’s goals is to find a harmonious relationship with technology, Jair said. The band’s Web site, www.imaginify.com, has RealPlayer audio files and MP3 files that can be downloaded for free. The self-titled single is multimedia, as well.
The Web site also features an environmental gallery with links to other sites concerning organic gardening, dolphins and solar power.
Theurgic Seed tries to infuse everything they do with meaning, West said.
“As musicians, we are responsible for performing content that has meaning,” Jair said.
Even the band’s name has a philosophical meaning. Jair stumbled across the word “theurgic” while flipping through the dictionary one day. According to Merriam-Webster’s Online, “theurgic” means “the art or technique of compelling or persuading a god or beneficent or supernatural power to do or refrain from something.”
“Seed” refers to creative energy. In short, the band’s name means magical creative energy … or something like that.
Jair is hesitant to label or define anything about his band. He said he feels uncomfortable with social constructs, which is part of the reason for his monosyllabic name. “Institutions … tend to separate people,” he said. “They break people’s free spirited-ness and lay them into a concrete path.”
And when Theurgic Seed aren’t saving the world and countering the social machine, they blend harmonious, genre-defining melodies, which can be loosely defined as rock.
“We don’t have any intention of fading,” Jair said. “Music has become an experience now.”
Theurgic Seed’s albums can be found at Face the Music. To find out more about the band, the musicians and the mission, check out www.imaginify.com.