By Amanda Hu
The Calgary music scene is becoming more and more well known for its sense of camaraderie and community. Many bands emerging from the scene praise the city’s musicians for working together towards common success and creation. As Sea Level Rise’s Brock Geiger is an emerging artist who is continuing to reap the benefits of this auditory solidarity.
“I started playing with a band,” Geiger says. “We played for three or four years. We started getting involved in the scene with the band and people took off to university and other places and I ended up doing a solo thing. I’ve started playing with various musicians and developing a different sound with more simple arrangements.”
Working on those pared down arrangements is a drawn out process for Geiger. Though it’s not usually a planned procedure, he spends a lot of time on his songs, especially since going solo.
“Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever just sat down and decided it was time to write a song,” he says. “It’s really spur of the moment kind of stuff. I’ll just be doing something totally not music related and a single line will inspire me and I’ll jot it down. I usually start from small pieces and kind of work concepts, lyrically and musically, building them out and develop them from that. It’s very rarely a sudden process for me, so I like to take a lot of time to work things out.”
Though Geiger is channelling a folky, guitar-driven sound, his musical roots mirror a lot of high schoolers starting down their musical path.
“We started doing some punk covers and we were really into Pink Floyd, obsessively,” he recalls. “We went through a few different people playing with. I got sick of trying to sing like Robert Plant. I started coming up with some stuff– it was very mimicky of that style, but it progressed from there. Moving into the solo thing has been a new game altogether.”
Geiger admits he’s still got a ways to go before hitting it big in the music world, but he has some advice to impart on people just starting out with their musical career.
“I’ve found that it’s about exposing yourself and getting to know the people in the circle that are more recognized,” Geiger says. “It took me playing a lot of free stuff and not expecting to get paid.”