Interview With Rob Szabo
In my opinion, one of the more unfortunate consequences of popular culture is that it often forces talented artists who reach popularity to be confined to one single genre, as it's less risky for the labels to financially support an artist who transcends genres. Fortunately, there are exceptions, and one such exception is Rob Szabo: a man who performed as a guitarist in a metal band prior to assuming his current role as singer/songwriter with acoustic guitar.
Below is an audio clip of song he wrote and performs, entitled "Good Son."
We asked Rob:
From a compositional standpoint, how does the process of writing a heavy, metal song differ from writing a softer, acoustic song for you?
He replied:
For me the process doesn't differ very much at all musically. Music is music. The kinds of chord progressions and melodies that I gravitate to, and that move me, are not affected by the style that I'm working in. I try to strive for a goal of (hopefully) universal beauty in what I do. It sounds a little high-minded but you gotta have goals right?
The only big difference that I can think of in my experience of writing for a more "mellow" singer-songwiter(myself) or a heavy band is that with the bands that I've been in, we sometimes wrote together as a band, all together in one room, which obviously affects the process ... you can't help but be affected by the energy in the room in the moment. This is a good thing for heavy music obviously. That's something I never do as a singer-songwriter these days, which is probably just as well, since the vibe i'm going for is much different.
As far as lyrics go, I tend to focus much more on lyrics these days. I think it's because the singer-songwriter stuff I'm doing these days is much more lyrically driven, whereas the heavier music was really about getting the energy and aggression across, and the lyrics tended to be more "impressionistic" -- more to create an ambience than to be really specific, or to tell a story. ++
***
For more on Rob Szabo, visit his web site at www.robszabo.com.
Below is an audio clip of song he wrote and performs, entitled "Good Son."
We asked Rob:
From a compositional standpoint, how does the process of writing a heavy, metal song differ from writing a softer, acoustic song for you?
He replied:
For me the process doesn't differ very much at all musically. Music is music. The kinds of chord progressions and melodies that I gravitate to, and that move me, are not affected by the style that I'm working in. I try to strive for a goal of (hopefully) universal beauty in what I do. It sounds a little high-minded but you gotta have goals right?
The only big difference that I can think of in my experience of writing for a more "mellow" singer-songwiter(myself) or a heavy band is that with the bands that I've been in, we sometimes wrote together as a band, all together in one room, which obviously affects the process ... you can't help but be affected by the energy in the room in the moment. This is a good thing for heavy music obviously. That's something I never do as a singer-songwriter these days, which is probably just as well, since the vibe i'm going for is much different.
As far as lyrics go, I tend to focus much more on lyrics these days. I think it's because the singer-songwriter stuff I'm doing these days is much more lyrically driven, whereas the heavier music was really about getting the energy and aggression across, and the lyrics tended to be more "impressionistic" -- more to create an ambience than to be really specific, or to tell a story. ++
***
For more on Rob Szabo, visit his web site at www.robszabo.com.
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