Featured Musician: J. Patrick Downing

Website: http://www.jpatrickdowning.com

Twitter: JPatrickDowning

Life is Music (LiM): What Instruments do you play?

Patrick Downing (PD):

• Guitar
• Bass
• Piano
• Nintendo
• Glockenspeil
• Mandolin

LiM: List your Gear.
PD: Guitars

• Fender Baja Telecaster
• Fender Fat Strat
• Fender Classic Player Jaguar
• Gibson Standard SG
• Epiphone Sheraton II
• Yamaha 12 String Acoustic

Amps (I love Fender Amps)

• Fender Hot Rod Deville 4X10
• Fender NOS Blues Junior
• Fender Pro Junior
• Fender Stage 185
• ’73 Fender Twin

We are all pedal fanatics. There are just too many to list.

LiM: Who are bands/artists you have played with in the past and present?

PD: Silver

Dakota Darling

Shelly Moore Band

Daniel Renstrom

Treeline

Chad Lister

The Mirrors

I also play a ton with churches…mostly Visio Dei and Providence Baptist Church here in Raleigh…




LiM: Tell Me a little more about Silver. How did you guys form and what does the future hold for you guys?

PD: Silver is about a year old. Brent (drummer) and I had played some music in college, but all of that pretty much stopped when he moved to Asheville after college. He moved back to Raleigh at the end of August, 2008 and we started playing again. We pretty quickly hooked up with John (bass). All three of us play at Visio Dei and it just seemed natural that we should play together outside of church. We were all dying to play some music so, I am glad that it worked out.

As far as the future, it’s hard to tell. We put out an EP in March of this year called +/- and have been fortunate enough to garner some attention with it and had some success in that some people with some influence are asking us for more. So, currently we are just doing some writing and trying to get some demo’s done for pre-production. We are going to be going into the studio this fall to cut some more tracks. So, we shall see!!





LiM: You guys have an EP out called “+/-”. Why did you decide to name it “+/-”. What else would you want the listener of this EP to know?

PD: The title “+/-” came about at the very END of the recording process. As a band, we found ourselves writing what we perceived to be two very different kinds of songs. I love music that is uplifting and has a positive message. So a lot of the songs that I write are in that vein. But the reality is that we all struggle with things and everything in life is not as it was meant to be. So I end up writing songs about that too. I don’t want to glorify the negative stuff or anything. I just think that we should be honest with ourselves and not act like everything is perfect. SO. Basically, half of the songs on the EP are positive and uplifting and half of them are not so much. So since the EP is split into two parts (positive and negative) we felt like the title “+/-” worked really well. The lyrical content as well as the mood of the music on each half reflect that dichotomy as well.

I guess something else that I would want listeners to know about the EP is the fact that I love the song Beautiful Things. It is the first song on the EP and it’s one of my favorite songs that we have done as a band. It is just about how people (including myself sometimes…if I am honest) forget about the beauty that is all around us. We forget that all of creation shows us the glory of the Lord. So many people are looking for beauty and fulfillment in so many things that they live their whole lives and don’t notice the simple things around them that show them what real beauty is. So, I love this tune. Hope you guys do as well.




LiM: After listening to several of the tracks of the Silver album, I have come to realize that there is a very committed relationship between a Guitar Player and the Delay Pedal. Can you expound more on this relationship?

PD: HA! Yes. I do indeed love the delay pedal. Or pedals, as it were. Seems like all of my guitar wielding accomplices (James Childs, Ben Davis, Tyler Mount, etc….) love the delay pedals. So since we are constantly talking about them, we are constantly getting new ones. It’s a vicious cycle really. I love delay pedals for two reasons:

1) Delay pedals are awesome. I am really into music with lots of ambiance and atmosphere. And delay pedals provide instant forms of both. So, when I am doing lead stuff either at church or in one of the groups I play with, delay pedals provide lots of color and texture to whatever song we are playing. It’s a specific sound that seems to be popular right now and, I think, for good reason. It rocks.

2) Delay pedals take up space. This is crucial in Silver. As a three piece band, we are limited to how much sound we can make at any given time. So adding delay to whatever guitar part I am playing is HUGE (literally). It makes the part a lot bigger and makes it take up a lot more musical space. The goal is to make three people sound like five.




LiM: Give us 10 songs that some of your favorite guitar licks in them.

PD: Oh man. This is hard. Let me throw out there right away that my absolute favorite guitar play ever is Jimmy Page. My uncle Carl got me hooked on Led Zep when I was 10 or so. I have never looked back. The played ALL styles amazingly well. So, that said….

1. Led Zep – Whole Lotta Love – this is a simple guitar riff that has influences countless songs since it was recorded….
2. The Allman Brothers – Jessica – I grew up listening to this stuff. Love the ways those dudes play
3. Led Zep – Black Dog – just listen to it….
4. Muse – Knights of Cedonia….
5. U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday – the Edge finally rocks out…
6. Muse – Plug in Baby
7. Coldplay – 42 – I feel like this song was a big step in creativity for these guys and it has some great guitar work
8. U2 – The Fly
9. Collective Soul – Tremble for My Beloved – its confession time, I am a Collective Soul nut….Ross Childress is amazing!!
10. Led Zep – The Ocean….i mean….unbelievable…this song is in 15/8…




LiM:  Can you give us a glimpse of how you write music/lyrics for Silver?

PD: Well….hard to say. I am much much more of a music guy than a lyrics guy. To be honest it usually starts with some sort of drums and bass groove. And then I try to put a good melody on top of it. In general, I try to keep it simple. This could get complicated but, songs that are too simple suck. However, I think that being complex for the sake of being complex is just plain stupid. That said, understanding how to be complex is a great thing. The goal is to take something that could be complex and make it simple. That always translates better for people who don’t play music or understand it (which is most people).

Anyway, that’s usually how I think about the music. Lyrics are harder for me. I have to figure out what I want to say, which can take a while. And then I have to figure out how to say it. I feel like this just comes to a lot of songwriters, but I really have to work hard at it. As far as content, I try to write about lots of things but I feel like I end up saying the same thing a lot. I think that people just need hope. And I try to point that out in my songs. And I try to maybe steer them in the direction that I think will give it to them.




LiM: How did you get started playing guitar?

PD: Well, I took piano lessons for like 5 years before I played the guitar. So that provided some good background. But when I was about 11 or 12, my dad started teaching me how to play his guitar (he has a SICK Guild from the late 60′s or early 70′s…it’s awesome). He taught me all the basics really. Both chords and lead stuff. One good thing I learned from him was to play lots of chords that are a little more obscure. He listened to lots of stuff like Simon and Garfunkel and Crosby, Stills and Nash. Those cats played all kinds of whacked out chords!

But in retrospect, one of the more valuable things he taught me was to pick stuff out by ear. I used to ask him to teach me a certain song and he would sit down and “pick it out” and then teach it to me. But I can remember specifically asking him to teach me how to play Time off of Hootie and the Blowfish’s record called Cracked Rear View. But he said “Nope. You go pick it out and then show me how to play it”. If you know that song, it is a really simple guitar riff, but man, it took me hours. I eventually got it and came back and showed it to him. We were all so proud. HA! But learning how to play by ear was a huge plus.




LiM: If you came across someone who had never listened to any kind of music, what would be the first album you would recommend for this person to listen to?

PD: They should immediately go buy and listen to August and Everything After by the Counting Crows. If you are reading this and don’t know about this album you should go and do the same. It is amazing. They somehow managed to take huge rock songs, quiet folksy songs and slow groovy songs and make them all amazingly emotional. And they somehow made them one amazingly cohesive record and not just a collection of songs. Incredible. This record should get anyone started in the right direction.




LiM: What are 5 of the best concerts you have ever been to?
PD: More hard questions!! I am trying to remember ones that I have been to….In no particular order….

• U2 – saw them on the All That you Can’t Leave Behind Tour in DC….amazing show
• Coldplay – call me cheesy but I saw them like two weeks ago in Raleigh on the Viva La Vida Tour….they are sooo good..
• Ryan Adams – caught him in Charleston about two years ago. The guy is so talented…
• Radiohead – I saw them on their last tour…Johhny Greenwood is just mindblowingly creative
• Collective Soul – more of my secret obsession. These cats put on an amazing show. they are really tight and play hit after hit after hit….