Growing (band) - Equipment, Technique, Composition, and Aesthetic Evolution

Equipment, Technique, Composition, and Aesthetic Evolution

Joe is left-handed and Kevin is right-handed. In recent concerts, both Doria and Denardo have used pairs of amplifiers for true stereo guitar setups. In early shows, Kevin generally played bass with his back to the audience, and then Joe played seated, much like members of kindred spirits Spacemen 3. In recent (2008) concerts, all members play standing, using effects units on the floor and on tables (which they control with their hands).

Growing's music has been consistently grounded in repetitive, droning guitar sounds, which may be heavily processed (sometimes beyond identifiable guitar timbre). They regularly employ delay/looper pedals, feedback, the Ebow, and or phrase-samplers to create indefinitely sustained sounds, which are blended in and out of the music volume pedals or mixers.

In addition to pedals, both Doria and Denardo started using a variety of instruments and effects not traditionally designed or marketed for guitar players. These include touch-pad effectors, rhythm machines, and phrase samplers whose hands-on control (and drastic processing) is usually marketed for DJs, which members of Growing praise for their simplicity and immediacy of control.

While most loop-driven guitar performances involve building many layers into a harmonically complex musical motive with unified, locked rhythm (and the option to solo over the loop), Growing's approach is quite different. Their sound involves capturing simple, contrasting drones or motifs moving in separate looping streams (sometimes deliberately out of sync for diffuse, textural effect), which can then be introduced and removed independently for greater textural subtlety and rhythmic diffusion. Where most guitarists may rout their guitar through a single series of effects, Growing's setups may involve routing their particular instrument through multiple divergent chains effect chains and looper-pedals into parallel amps and/or mixer channels; This allows separate sounds to be captured and mixed in/out of play independently. Hence their approach may lend as much to early DJ technique as it does to traditional electric guitar performance. . Denardo has referred describes this process as "... basically, our whole band is volume pedals." With such technique, they can then compose and execute seamless or dramatic transitions not usually achieved by only two guitars.

When pressed about their sense of composition and improvisation, Joe has stated that many of the transitions during performances are planned, which Kevin (in a different interview) has explained that Growing's writing process is passive and that "...it's all jams."

Across the span of over 6 records, Growing's music has evolved from long (10+ minute) pieces of placid, contemplative droning music (without repeating themes) toward short(er) (3-7 minute) songs of more rhythmic, propulsive, and linear progression. Of notable persistence is the band's consistent lack of recapitulated themes; once there is sonic/textural change, their music seldom revisits a motif. As such, their more "ambient" musics had a "scenic" listening quality, while the more propulsive later material plays more akin to (but still far removed from) "club mix" music. Interviews with the band suggest both Doria and Denardo's musical evolution is not from deliberate ambition, but from curiosity, experimentation, and a continually rotating arsenal of electronic musical equipment.