Band comparison

The band which I previously analysed was the four-piece instrumental band from Belfast, And So I Watch You From Afar. The similar band to ASIWYFA I am going to analyse is the 3-piece instrumental band from Sheffield, 65daysofstatic.

Due to both bands being instrumental they focus purely on the music and as a result of this are very performance orientated. This is obvious from both of the bands videos as they are both of live performances. The fact that the bands are very performance orientated emphasises how important they feel melodies, riffs etc. are, as opposed to lyrics.

Both of the bands videos emphasise how strongly they feel about the music as they do not depict a story like the majority of music videos today do. Instead both instrumental bands videos simply show them playing their music live in front of audiences. Whilst doing this the camera shots are fast paced and in time with the music. The speed of the cuts helps emphasise visually the impact that the music has on you when you listen.

When the music calms down into quiet, sharp melodies the pace of the camera cuts also slows down. When the music is slower paced there are a number of zooms on the instruments. This helps emphasise the raw sound of the music, but also helps to build up the tempo and once again emphasise the impact that the music has on you when it becomes louder and faster paced.

In both videos there is a low level of lighting. As a result of this all we can see are the band members playing their instruments. I believe this symbolises the beliefs of both bands which is that all you need is music and nothing else. Although there is low level of light it is constantly flashing in time with the music. This helps to emphasise the high energy of the music and once again its impact when you listen.

 I believe that both bands have similar beliefs about music and are both similarly trying to portray this. Although their videos are basically identical and use the same methods to emphasise the music I feel that 65daysofstatic are a slightly heavier band and therefore have more fast paced cuts to emphasise their hard impacting music.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nNy-8jboaKM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/P8OieTUuzaU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

And So I Watch You From Afar

When i first heard about And So I Watch You From Afar I thought that it was a stupid idea to be a purely instrumental band, but when i went home and listened to them i realised that i couldn't be more wrong. 

And So I Watch You From Afar is a four-piece instrumental rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. The band consists of guitarists, Rory Friers and Tony Wright, bassist, Johnny Adger and Chris Wee on drums. 

ASIWYFA are known for their unbelievable riffs and live performances, and due to being an instrumental band you appreciate the music a lot more rather than a lot of the music in the charts today being made purely on computers and with meaningless lyrics.

Due to the band being an instrumental band a big part of their career is playing live shows. this is emphasised through most of their music videos but not all of them. In videos such as 'Dont waste time doing things you hate' and 'A little solidarity goes a long way' there is constant movement. i interpret the videos as representing the journey of life through our perspective and that life continues to go on all around us. this idea is emphasised in the 'dont waste time doing things you hate' video as when the music is quiet and the movement is slow this represents a relaxed side of life and when the music is loud and the movement is fast this represents how much goes on in our lives.

http://youtu.be/7EOi91-Ge6c

http://youtu.be/31x0iugVqSk

As i said before a lot of ASIWYFA's music videos are of their live performances, but i believe their is  reason for this. The fact that they use these performances for videos helps communicate and emphasise what they are all about, and that is being an instrumental band and focusing on the sound of their raw guitars, bass and drums. the videos have a lot of fast cutting from shot to shot and flashing lights which emphasises the impact the heavy raw sound the music hits you with.

http://youtu.be/P8OieTUuzaU

And So I Watch You From Afar also have interesting album artwork. Their debut self-titled album has artwork very similar to 15th century artist Hieronymous Bosch who is known for his heaven and hell paintings.

another one of ASIWYFA's albums 'Gangs' has interesting artwork. And So I Watch You From Afar have their own logo which they use to cover this album. I feel that they are trying to create a brand almost to raise awareness and make their products distinguishable and more appealing on the shelf.

you can also see that between the these two album covers that ASIWYFA have used their logo, but they are also making the colour scheme of the logo stand out against the black background to make it more visually attractive. the band have also used a bold font which contrasts the colour scheme in the 'Letters' album in order to stand out.

And So I Watch You From Afar are clearly very popular as they have commanded stages the length and breadth of Ireland, the UK and Europe as well as supporting Them Crooked Vultures after being personally asked for by Dave Grohl. ASIWYFA also trekked across the west coast of the United States alongside Japanese emotional hardcore kingpins Envy.