Daily Inspiration: Meet Passing Phrase

Today we’d like to introduce you to Passing Phrase.

Passing, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Alex: Some guys in high school we’re starting a band said they needed a drummer. I’d taken percussion in band and had never played a drum set before, but I taught myself how and soon it became a passion. From there I moved on to writing lyrics, poems, and finally creating beats from old programs I found online. Dylan and I as boys worked closely on music from high school up until now, especially in our our punk phase of Torched Eyes.

Dylan: Our last project was Torched Eyes, a local LA underground punk band. This new project came from an idea that it would be cool to hear our music in low fidelity on every listening device. We wanted these songs to sound like it was being transmitted from a blown out cassette player speaker in the distance.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Alex: It’s always been sort of a struggle to find a way to get people together to create music. Everyone has their own lives and music doesn’t always pay the bills so it can be difficult to find people passionate enough to give their time to it.

Dylan: Translating the low fidelity sound to live. When performing you want the sound to accurately represent the project. Creating noise playback and figuring out how to create this live has been a rewarding challenge.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Alex: Producing has always been somewhat of a specialty to me. I’ve always found to have an ear for what is catchy but I also try and keep in mind that there needs to be a personal sort of underground feel to our songs. I don’t like anything to be too poppy when it comes to our music.

Dylan: What makes this new project unique is that it’s purposefully created and performed to be in low fidelity. In an age full of DJ’s and AI lofi beat creation, it can be refreshing to hear noise and improvisation come from human error, real instrumentation, and experimentation.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
Alex: I know we both have drawn influences from a bunch of different artists. Some local artists always influence me to keep making better and crazier styles of music. I’m always trying to expand our horizons and also expand our inner circles of musicians we work with, such as another producer friend of mine Oscar Gomez, who goes by Lobatt, and a guitarist and rapper known as OK Ken.

Dylan: Jim Smith, owner and operator of The Smell was quick to give us a shot and we’ve had nothing but the best of times here. Chase McGuire from LottoRPG for curating a fantastic underground music scene in multiple cities, we are also glad to call him a friend.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passingphraseband/
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/13YIRiq1SzvDvdIYc5XGjE