Following the release of their latest single 'Feel Alright', Flex caught up with Irish indie-pop-rock band MT.Heads to find out more about what artists influence their electric sound. If you enjoy their picks be sure to check out 'Feel Alright' at the end of the article.
1. Next Semester by Twenty One Pilots
This is one of my favourite songs of all time, Its a really cool mesh of styles which is something we love to listen to and to create ourselves. As well as the lyrics tackling a heavy subject of anxiety and depression, one that ties together every theme Twenty One Pilots have talked about prior. The song is a blend of The Ramones esq riffs, a vocal delivery with hints of My Chemical Romance and a synth chorus reminiscent of The Killers. Until a profound, ethereal ukulele outro pulls you from the fast paced nature of the song, whilst still reinforcing the themes. The drums are killer on this track, the guitar you hear is actually a ukulele played through an electric guitar amp. Its different, its chaotic. It inspires us to not follow the norms of songwriting and song structure.
2. King of Everything by Dominic Fike
This song was one of my first real inspirations for how anyone can make a good song no matter what equipment/ money you have. Even though it’s on one of my favourite EP’s for that reason (its simplicity while still being great music) I recognised that the drum pattern used in King of Everything is also used in 3/4 other songs on the EP, and I found it on Logic Pro. That, paired with the fact that the song is just Dominic, his guitar and bass and a microphone inspired me that I could write good music too with the instruments I had in my shed and my computer during lockdown- from then on every song I wrote would lead to another one and thus lead to my passion for songwriting.
3. Nightmares by Hard Life
Nightmares is one of me and Sam’s favourite songs and it has had much influence on our sound as a band. Though it’s already a catchy tune, it also had an impact on the band as we covered it in our early gigs. One of the most notable melodies in the song is the trumpet line- when we were playing it live without trumpet it felt like it was lacking something and so we got one of our friends to come play it on trumpet with us for one of our headline gigs. The chemistry worked great with the band and we integrated trumpet parts into some of our other songs and the rest is history.
4. Alrighty Aphrodite by Peach Pit
Alrighty Aphrodite is just all around a really solid song; great verses and a super catchy chorus. I really especially love the guitar lines in this song, melodic in the verses, introduction and outro and how the strong power chords really make the chorus what it is. My favourite part of the song is definitely the bridge, with a powerful, memorable guitar solo- I really love the tone of the guitar too.
5. Under cover of Darkness by The Strokes
Under cover of Darkness has always been one of my all time favourite songs and I feel like it’s definitely been a huge inspiration towards how I write music and how I want it to sound. The entire song is catchy, especially the chorus. It has quite a strong nostalgia factor for me as ‘Angles’ was one of the first albums I remember my Dad playing in the car on repeat and I loved all of it as a kid. I rediscovered ‘Angles’ and the Strokes a few years ago again and they’ve been one of my top 3 favourite bands since. I really try to take as much inspiration from them as possible, but Under Cover of Darkness has always been one of their songs that to me, is perfect.
Listen to MT.Heads 'Feel Alright'
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