One great thing about the Wooster music scene is how much variety there is. One group which exemplifies this trend is Red Wire.† Formed in September of 2008, this group of five seniors has an interesting, dynamic sound.
ìIíd describe it as progressive rock,” said Ginny Kincaid í10, who plays guitar and sings, ìBut itís not, really.† I mean, we aim for like, high energy rock, but some of our songs are really complicated musically.† We have a lot of music theory going on, ëcause we have a lot of really musical people.”
Aside from Kincaid, the band is composed of Nick Terelle í10, also on guitar and vocals, Cord Briggs í10 on bass, keyboardist David Yontz í10 and drummer Allison Wadleigh í10.† Kincaid and Terelle formed the group after the breakup of their previous band, Coffee.† The name, which took them several weeks to come up with, is meant to evoke the classic bomb-disarming scene of an action movie.
ìYou know, like, you donít cut the red wire,” said Kincaid.
After their first gig at an underground Oktoberfest concert, Red Wire took first place at the Battle of the Bands in the U.G. ó their second performance as a group.† Since then, the band has gone on to perform in a wide variety of venues, including being one of the opening acts at Party on the Green.
Red Wire performs almost exclusively original songs, except when playing at covers.† Wadleigh says that the songwriting is usually a group effort.
ìUsually Nick or David or sometimes Ginny will come up with a basic melody and structure, and then the keyboard and the drums and the bass will just sort of fill in.”
ìItís kind of a variety,” adds Kincaid. ìSometimes Cord or David will come with like a chord progression that he likes, and then weíll try to turn it into a song, or sometimes Nick will come in with an almost completed song. And as far as lyrics and melody go, Iëve worked on that by myself, and David and Nick have, but weíve also all sat down and worked on them together.”
The songs range in genre from ìa two-minute screamo piece to weird experimental rock” according to Kincaid.† Terelle, a music composition major, often writes songs with more unusual structures.
ìSome of our songs which have odd rhythmic tension, rather than like odd harmonic and melodic tension,” he says. ìPeople are so used to hearing regular beat patterns, that when you have a pattern thatís rhythmically jarring, it makes people feel uneasy.† I think it adds a little substance to our songs too, a little complexity.”
Though the band is not planning to stay together after graduation, they do intend to record an album after I.S. is over.† They hope to make it available before the end of the school year.† Terelle hopes to make them available free of charge.
ìI feel like itís a gift of involvement these people have given us,” he says, ìAnd for that they deserve a gift of a recording.”
Regardless of the eventual results, however, Kincaid feels she has accomplished her goal with this group.
ìWe do this because we like to rock,” she says, then turning to her drummer. ìWeíre rock stars now, right girl?”