By Chad Utke
The world of music has gone through a significant change over the last 30 years. This evolution brought a certain disappointment to those who play and listen for the sheer enjoyment of the expression found in fading art form of song writing. During the ’70s, the music scene was alive and kicking with people expressing sincere and raw emotions through song and drug-induced hallucinations. That raw emotion is no longer seen in today’s music, as bands specializing in four-chord lyrical ballads and their emotionally-driven, painstaking drawls become commonplace.
Luckily, once in a blue moon, there are bands who give true music aficionados a reason to find faith in the music industry. The Rocky Fortune has the potential to be one of those bands, with a crude and natural sound refreshing in its originality. The three cronies making up the band hail from Olds and bring their small town upbringing to the forefront throughout their first release, Sway. “Drop me in the Well” expresses the stagnant life of a small town.
“There’s nothing really to do in small towns. Drink and play music. That’s it,” explains lead guitarist Tyler Toews.
That sluggish lifestyle may have been the catalyst in the band’s decision to move to Calgary. They made the move just one year ago to centralize their operations and get a little more media exposure. The move has paid off as they’ve played local pubs and become more acquainted with the Calgary music scene. They are also slated to head out west to British Columbia for a summer tour.
The band has seen a lot of change over the last two years since Toews joined the band beside their move to Calgary like name changes and a style maturity listeners will appreciate when checking Sway. The band has apparently decided to separate itself from the hype of the industry, instead focusing on the music as a representation of their emotions.
“I think [music] has refined itself as such an industry. When people think of music a lot of times the first things that come into people’s minds isn’t necessarily music; it’s hype and imagery and things like that,” says lead singer Todd Gesshe.
“The way our songs are written, it’s a very sincere approach to music,” chimes in Toews. “We write what we feel.. it’s not like we’re trying to write the perfect pop song.”
With that in mind, they still believe the music industry is on an upturn as bands create their own music more than ever before. These bands balance out those artists who will remain unnamed (ahem… Simple Plan) who have their music, their image and their hype carefully arranged in a neat little box for an insecure pre-teen culture to buy. The Rocky Fortune lead the charge against the created idols of pop-culture and supply a breath of fresh air in the uninspired music world we find ourselves trapped in.