Patient Patient urgently embraces mood, emotion

  • By Sharon Wootton / Special to The Herald
  • Thursday, November 2, 2006 9:00pm
  • LifeGo-See-Do

Patient Patient has one of the more interesting anti-bios on its My Space Web site.

The rock band – three musicians born and raised in Everett (guitarist Eric Fast, bassist Kevin Dorn, vocalist and guitarist Neal Burton) and drummer Tyler Martin – performs Saturday in Everett.

“We are discontented with the state of our existence, unsatisfied with our lots in life, unhappy with the state of the world,” the anti-bio says.

The self-described disenchanted 21- and 22-year-olds are caught between the arrogance to think that music will save the world and the cynical position that it won’t, according to the site.

“We want to make money so that we can afford to hate money.”

Mostly, they just want to be heard.

Dorn and Burton have been friends since middle school, eventually writing and playing music together, and playing under different band names.

Patient Patient is only a couple of years old with a new take on the music of old friends, Burton said. But practicing and performing hasn’t been an easy go because Burton was also following his own drummer.

“I came out of high school doing a lot of pop music and ended up studying classical singing,” he said. “I was in school for opera and art songs in Boston.

“Around 17, I heard that a lot of rock singers were classically trained and that’s why their voices are so powerful. I really wanted to have that support behind my singing.

“I’m also interested in understanding melody and harmony. I spend a lot of time now just learning jazz standards on the piano and getting familiar with old songs,” Burton said, seeing what works and applying it to his songwriting.

Last spring, everyone recommitted to the band. Burton was back and they started doing more shows, developing a fan base and getting some radio play.

Burton, now a creative writing major at the University of Washington, and Fast are the songwriting force: Fast writing guitar parts, Burton the lyrics, and both working on harmonies and melodies.

The band is influenced by British rock bands and the edgier indie bands “that have a melodic and listener-friendly sound but with an edge on it,” Burton said.

Take the band’s name, Patient Patient, in an imperative form, Burton said.

“It implies a certain sense of moodiness and anxiety in place in our music and the personalities of our members,” he said.

Patient Patient’s music embraces emotions.

“A lot of bands have that dark, moody, melancholy sound that really inspired us. … For us, it’s not a matter of representing this darker mood as it is representing whatever is real in our lives, how we see the world and things going on in it.

7 p.m. Saturday, The House, 2818 Wetmore Ave., Everett. All ages, $5.

“One song might be about death but might be a mood about death that’s deeply saddening; another song might be about death but represents something hopeful like the rebirth side of death,” Burton said.

“We don’t write a lot of concept songs. We just write things that deal with real experience or real emotions that we’ve seen or experienced ourselves.”

At the end of a show, the audience heads home.

“I hope, on a certain level, that people are affected by our music in the way you are affected by walking down the street and surprised by something you don’t usually see or hear, maybe something tragic or beautiful or interesting.

“Something that stops you and takes you outside yourself and makes you think about something beside your daily experience,” Burton said.

A little patience might just be rewarded.

Patient Patient performs Saturday in Everett.

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