Breathe Carolina
In one hand, you have techno. A happy robot dances as it’s surrounded by bubbles that are all the colors of the rainbow. The synthesized sound feels nice and light as each of the bubbles pops to the beat. Little lights from a carnival shine in your palm. In your other hand, you hold a dash of Heavy Metal. The lyrics sound rough and painful as it hits your fingers. The guitar vibrates along the veins in your hand. The weight is far greater than that of your other hand. Got those images in your head? Now slam your hands together in a clash that creates the mixed genre galore known as Breathe Carolina.
Breathe Carolina is mostly an electronic band with a computerized sound made with drums and keytars , but feels heavier than regular techno like Owl City. Kyle Even’s voice fills the background with a solid roar while David Schmitt’s voice sounds as if it’s coming from his throat and lungs at the same time. David’s nasally, feminine tone alone without any editing from a soundboard sounds like it was matched to match the computerized beats.
In one their songs, “My Obsession”, the beginning of the song sounds like it was taken from an old school video game. Towards the end of this song, the bass is loud and frontline in the line up of various sounds. The beat of the song reminds me of the robot that danced in your hand in the beginning while the lyrics sound like water and a flat energy drink mixed together.
The lyrics match the tone of the music; a nonsense world filled with imagination and dreams that resides on the dark side of the moon. Along with energized, bouncy tone, there’s also a meaning that’s hidden underneath the underneath. With lines like “Take me to infinity, never ending cake so we’ll never die,” and “You’re building me up just to break me down. You’re being loud without a sound. You’re pasting me in just to cut me out,” and “Party in your eyes. Dancing with the bright lights. Take out the night. This flash just doesn’t feel right,” the transfer of emotions is left to the way these lines are presented with no story told through the lyrics themselves.
Voices layer over computer notes which layer over drums which layer over more lyrics which layer over bass in each song at one point or another. In each song, there are multiple dimensions and meanings that reach out to the listener and change with every thirty seconds or so.
Truly, this band has such a broad range of styles, not even iTunes can fully categorize Breathe. It’s listed as Adult Alternative, Rock, Alternative and also Electronic. Their ability to be great at so many different genres sets them out there and makes them hard to compare to.
Another thing that sets Breathe apart from others, is their quirks within their songs. One might think they forgot to edit before they completed their album. In the song “The Dressing Room”, one member of the band can be heard saying “No, I’m not ready! Wait! Wait!” just before the music fully starts. And in “The Birds and the Bees”, the singers’ voices come in at the end of the song where one of them says “I have the chorus down really good. Like I know all the words.”
Time and time again, I have people listen to Breathe and almost every time, they think David’s voice is a woman’s. In most songs, I have no idea why they think this, but in their cover of Miley Cyrus’s “See You Again” on Pop Goes Punk Vol. 2, I had a hard time figuring out what gender he was before I looked into the band. David’s voice hangs in the air after each line, echoing to the pith of the computerized notes. Thanks to the wonderful invention of a soundboard, David sounds uncannily like a woman.
And the fact that they wrote all the music for their second album just amazes me. The diversity in Hello Fascination changes from beat to beat, bridge to bridge, song to song. At one point, you can hear something that resembles a sped up keyboard version of “The Flight of the Bee” and in the next, guitar slams in contact with your ear drums. The lyrics are just the same; ever changing and wonderfully creative.
One thing that always blows me away is how well Breathe’s music comes together. You would think that Metal and Techno wouldn’t come together nicely and fit like a puzzle piece, but it does in the way Breathe Carolina does it. David’s voice layers over Kyle’s in some songs while in others, Kyle’s layers over David’s. Or Kyle’s voice adds a good supportive tone to the background.
Some of the lines in Breathe’s songs make no sense, but connect in any way imaginable. “Trying on new faces. And the ones that fit are surprisingly contagious,” from the song “The Dressing Room”. And “How did you run into a door that’s wide open? Get a hold of yourself,” with “You steal everything just to give it back again. Tell me I’m a lire,” from the song “I Tripped and Fell In Portland”. The song titles match the creativity of the band as well as the lyrics.
All in all, a very good band.
