Gazing at Your Shoes: a Listen to “Sawyer” by Waterfall Man
A crunchy Cobain-channeling guitar opens this lo-fi, grungy, shoegaze track from Chicago band Waterfall Man. There’s a lot to like about this track. It’s classic shoegaze, and gives off a chill, weed-y vibe. One can imagine themselves hanging out in a Chicago basement at the end of the night, smelling of cigarettes, and sipping a tall boy while listening to “Sawyer.” Anton Gratch, the frontman of Waterfall Man, knows the vibe he’s after, and crafts a solid song around it.
However, this track is not as polished as it could be, and because there are a lot of good instrumental elements, I find myself wishing that more attention had been paid to the vocal harmonies and the mix. I understand that a lot of alt-rock thrives on a certain amount of dissonance, but at some points the track becomes a little rough on the ears with the clumsy vocals and fighting guitar and bass. Each instrument needs a little more space and the track could use a little more headroom. As I’ve said to friends making rock and shoegaze before, you need to be very intentional about the parts of the song that are “out,” because you want to sound intentionally clumsy or intentionally emotional, not unintentionally bad.
As “Sawyer” comes to a close, the vocals overlap in a more pleasant way that still has that discordant shoegaze aesthetic, while feeling a lot more balanced. I think that the instrumentals on this track are cool. All the ways in which the guitar is modified manage to fit the environment well, and the little guitar countermelodies are nice. The bass could use a little bit more bass, but the line itself is smooth. There are some really fantastic moments in the guitar solo. There’s some cool quick pans that I think could be brought into more of the track. With a touch more mixing, I think that “Sawyer” could really be brought up to the next level.
You can listen to “Sawyer” here:
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