The Smashing Pumpkins– they influenced mostly BEATASTIC, the idea is to adapt the style of Machina. I read it was described as stadium shoegaze. I can see why. Shoegaze has never been a style for the limelight but the Pumpkins tried to take that into big songs. BEATASTIC takes the same approach , that’s why the drums are so huge and the basslines drive the tracks., the guitars are just used to colour the tracks.
American Football– big influence on Xeresa, not in terms of melodies but in terms of guitars. They use weird tunings all the time, open tunings that give the songs a different scope. I use their Fmaj7 open tuning on most Xeresa songs, it allows to come with unusual guitar lines. They’re also fond of odd time signatures. A lot of Xeresa songs are in 7/8 or 5/4 or 9/8, but then the chorus will be in 4/4 to make it more catchy.
The Postal Service– big influence on Xeresa also, mostly because of the concept of having vocal guests. Their album was recorded by swapping files through the post in the pre-internet days. For Xeresa I recorded tracks and shared them online with various singers and musicians. The idea is that you’re asking the singers to challenge themselves by working within a style they’re not necessarily familiar with. Some can’t cope and give up, some rise to the challenge and come up with brilliant ideas. I can sing, I’m not the best singer but by involving other people we try to combine the best of our combined strengths. They’re also pop songs, but with electronic glitchy beats, took that idea for sure but the beats are very different.
Steve Reich– the whole idea of Xeresa was based on Steve Reich’s fusion of simple , evolving, melodic lines. Obviously it’s not done within a modern classical frame, it’s adapted to rock/pop.
Radiohead– I love Radiohead but I’ve never been influenced by tracks like Karma Police of all the acoustic guitar stuff, it’s more about the weirdness of things like Let Down, the way the guitars mesh, or the In Rainbows album which is a continuation of that idea or the beats of Climbing Up The Walls and Airbag.
Interpol– Weird enough I don’t like them much but you can tell in BEATASTIC , especially in the vocals that it has seeped into the songwriting.
Links:
https://shorediverecords.bandcamp.com
https://beatastic.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BEATASTIC/
https://soundcloud.com/beatastic
https://twitter.com/beatasticband
https://soundcloud.com/xeresaband
https://www.youtube.com/user/heymrdj666
https://www.facebook.com/Xeresa-1916087371954468/
https://twitter.com/xeresaband