Electric Guitar: synthpop sincerity

In four-piece Electric Guitar’s neon newwave synthscape, there are elements of art-punk and waves of spacey keyboard, and then suddenly, there is rap.

“We’re kind of genre-fluid,” says drummer, John Kisor, (23.)

“We have songs in the realm of electronic hip hop ranging all the way to folk and recently even some grungy sounding stuff,” explains Noah Ross, (23), guitar and bass.

“Our first EP was ambient synthpop, and then our first album was synthpop hiphop,” says Marcella, (Marco), (23), who plays keys, guitar, and vocals, “but we’ve become a lot more than that.”

Electric Guitar’s brand of genre-blending is specifically prominent in their live performances in which their signature synthy backbone is replaced with live instrumentation.

“That’s what really sets us apart,” says Emersynn McGuire, (21), guitar and bass. “Our live sound and our studio sound allow for two different experiences. We’re always like ‘okay, how do we recreate this electronic song live?’ and it leaves room for a lot of creativity.”

The Athens-based band, who began last year, purposely creates an atmosphere of such sonic diversity because it is a blank canvas upon which they can paint whichever important issues they chose to with no musical boundaries in the way.

“We’re more focused on themes,” says Marco. “So we don’t like to be limited by genre. That’s what strings this project together- the vulnerability.” As the primary lyricist for Electric Guitar, Marco likes to write about mental health, being comfortable in being queer, and using one’s pain to heal and grow.

“I’ve been ostracized in life,” Marco says, “but not in my music. I think we’ve culminated an audience that accepts us.”

Even when the lyrical content is on the sadder side, it’s expressed with a glimmer of positivity. “We embellish melancholy lyrics with an upbeat beat to convey a feeling of hope.”

Another consistency within the band that ‘strings their project together’ while setting them apart from other bands is the fluid switch-offs between instruments during their live shows.

An example of this is River, a staple transitioning piece of any Electric Guitar live show.

“River has the same chord progression as Mountainside but in a different time signature,” says John, “so we usually transition from Mountainside into River.”

“During my solo segment of this song, Noah and Emersynn switch instruments which creates some pretty cool stage movement,” says Marco. “Then once the drop comes, Emersynn comes in heavy on distorted guitar and Noah does the same on bass.”

“We like to keep our audience on their toes,” Emersynn says.

Electric Guitar is working gradually on writing and recording during quarantine. They plan to release new genre-mingling music in the foreseeable future and eventually bring it to the stage where it can be dressed in their signature folky hues.