Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
CMI staff photo: Benna SayyedDaniel Graham practices a melody on his keyboard at his home in Clovis. Graham developed an interest in the keyboard at age 8. His band "The Changing Tide" performs locally.
Daniel Graham developed an interest in the keyboard at age 8. He received his first keyboard at age 9 as a Christmas present request.
His band, "The Changing Tide," was formed about six months ago. Graham is one of six members in the band.
The band's music belongs to the metal core genre, a broad fusion genre of extreme metal and hardcore punk.
Graham said his band, which has recorded six songs, is working on developing its own sound.
Graham's musical influences include bands such as The Beatles, The Devil Wears Prada, Of Mice and Men and singers such as Frank Sinatra.
Graham moved from the Los Angeles area to Clovis four years ago.
Tell me about your role in the band.
Right now my main role is production. Obviously I play with the band. If you listen to any kind of music something will standout in a song. In Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" it's the violins that are catchy. In pop nowadays there are these techno breakdowns. That's basically what I'll do. I'll play an underlying rhythm normally on a bass note, so it's not real noticeable. You can't always incorporate every instrument because you can kill the song by doing too much with it. I'll just match up with the bassline and make myself present when I need to be.
CMI staff photo: Benna Sayyed
Daniel Graham practices a melody on his keyboard at his home in Clovis. Graham developed an interest in the keyboard at age 8. His band "The Changing Tide" performs locally.
What is your band's focus right now?
Right now we're modeling after other bands that are successful. We're not trying to copy them in any way, but we're seeing what works for them and developing that more into what works for us. We want to have hard riffs, but incorporate some technical sounds that a lot of bands leave out. Whenever you get technical with the guitar it's almost like the guitars are speaking to one another. We're really trying to get everything to flow together. With indie or pop music, most people are listening to the vocals, they're singing along. We're trying to find a mix of both, where somebody who likes the guitar can listen to the guitar and people who like to listen to words are hearing the words. We want everything to flow together and then we really want to surprise people with different breakdowns and melodies.
Why are the keys your favorite instrument?
Whenever you're playing by yourself on a keyboard it's like you can just speak what you want to hear through the board. When you use the synthesizer with the keys with all these different pre-sets, you can literally make any sound you want. It's more meaningful to me in musical terms than a guitar or a drumset.
What message does your band try to convey with your music?
I say if there's one message we're trying to get across is that life isn't as bad as it seems. There's always junk that's going on. There are always horrible things that happen, but there are often good things we look past. It's a lot easier to notice the bad than the good but our message is just that there's always good out there.
Have you ever gotten into trouble for playing the keyboard or listening to music when you were supposed to be doing something else?
I got into trouble for listening to music rather than ever doing homework (laughing). A lot of people listen to music while they study. I can't. I pay attention to what's going on in the song too much. I end up just listening to the words and singing along. But I was never a bad student. I failed very few tests. Most of the time I earned As on all my tests so I ended up with Bs in all my classes. But focusing on homework was just not a priority for me. It all started back in fourth grade. That's when I got introduced to rock.
What do you like to do when you're not working or playing music?
I love snowboarding. I loved playing football when I was in high school. I love shooting. I try to go snowboarding and go to the shooting range as often as possible. I love working out in the gym and trying to stay healthy. These are probably the big things in my life right now besides music. I play video games every now and then.
Tell me about your snowboarding.
I've been into snowboarding for five years. As much as I love football and sports in general, snowboarding is the one thing I've picked up the fastest. I listen to music while I'm snowboarding and it helps me perform better. When I'm snowboarding I think of stuff for (the band's) music. I get a little crazy sometimes and try to do things I really shouldn't at speeds that are too fast (laughing).
Bio
— Compiled by CMI staff writer Benna Sayyed
