Livendure is an artist with a driving passion to curate real and authentic music. Being considered to be in the ambient grunge/pop genre, Livendure has a nice blended mix of a dark/haunting melody, with grungy vocals and tones underlying throughout the music. This artists music is truly an experience that every dark grunge pop fan needs to go through immediately. The sound of Livendure’s music is so familiar, yet also incredibly diversified and unique from what we tend to hear in this music category. The level of skill that Livendure has to have in order to blend the harmonies and lyricism together the way he did is mind-blowing to me. This can be a significantly difficult genre to produce music in—some artists can’t always tie together the melody with the mood they want the listeners to feel, but Livendure doesn’t have that problem at all, and his new single proves it entirely.
“Gray” begins with a soft piano interlude, which is what definitely heightened my interest of the song. The piano slowly fades into a piano sound blended with a hard-hitting beat, and then introduces Livendure’s deep and fast-paced vocals. Livendure is changing up the ambient grunge category up with his modern approach to the underlying melody presented throughout the entirety of the track. It makes me feel calm, and instills a sense of purpose in the listener while listening on. One aspect of “Gray" I couldn’t help but notice the use of echoing melodies and vocals, which adds a certain haunting feel to the song, contributing to the overall mood and tone it sets for the listeners environment. Livendure gives me really heavy Lincoln Park vibes, but completely with his own unique twist to the production. Finally, the track ends off with the same soft piano set, and the listener is left on a tranquil note. I personally loved the whole length of the song and how you can easily tell that there was a lot of passion put into the craft of it.
Listen to "Gray" here and get to know more about Livendure below!
Hello Livendure! Tell our readers the kind of artist you view yourself as.
I view myself, in a basic sense, as a self taught guitar/piano player and music composer. But I think in essence, I view myself as kind of an outsider/go my own way type, which I realize sounds like a really typical musician answer haha. But I grew up homeschooled, listening to punk and metal, and my mom really taught me to question the status quo. All that teamed with the fact that I grew up in a low income family made me really connect with the DIY philosophy. And music is no exception. My whole music process is DIY, from writing and recording (mostly in my car) up to mastering and promoting. And it's not that I'm the greatest at it by any means, I just have my own vision for how I want things to sound. Plus I don't like most popular music, and don't really care about the latest/greatest hits, and that has often made me feel ostrisized or "othered" by other artists haha.
Did the production of “Gray” go smoothly? What were some complications you had with the song, if any?
It didn't go smoothly haha. I wrote the instrumental demo for the song probably two years before the lyrics. I had a hard time writing the lyrics and melodies, I don't really consider myself a lyricist or vocalist. I actually had to rewrite the first verse 3 times, and even tried just ripping off a verse from one of my favorite local Reno bands Alldaydrive (rip) haha.. Just to see if it would get me out of my rut. And it did! I ended up keeping part of the melody, but changing all the lyrics obviously. Then it was another year before I finished mixing/mastering, because I was having to do research and teach myself, through grueling trial and error, how to do everything the "correct" way haha. All that on top of working a blue collar job to pay the bills.. it was a long, hard road for sure.
What made you want to transition more into the dark grunge/pop genre?
Partly, I just burned myself out with the kind of music I was trying to make beforehand, which was metal first, then really ambient instrumental stuff like Explosions In The Sky. My musical taste was switching to more hip-hop, jazz, and R&B type stuff. And mostly, I wanted to challenge myself with something I hadn't done before. So I taught myself how to sing not completely terribly, tried singing for the first time, and just kind of mixed the elements I like from my favorite genres.
Who would you say are your top three inspirations within the music community?
Thrice has always been one of my all time favorite bands. I get a lot of my song-writing style inspiration from their vocalist and song-writer, Dustin Kenrue. Phantogram is another one. Their overall sound, and especially Josh Carter's beat-making skills, have really inspired me lately. And lastly I'd say Miike Snow. Their production/mixing techniques are really creative, and make me want to try weird things.
Are you coming out with any new music for the rest of the year?
Yes. So, I just released my first batch of music, two singles and my debut full length album 'Gray', in the last couple weeks. I'll be releasing music videos/lyric videos for those songs in the next few weeks. And I already have more songs in the works for a second full length album, which I'll be shooting to release within the next 8-12 months. On top of that, I'll also be releasing some instrumental stuff in the near future under my real name (Jonjosef Holland). So there's LOTS of stuff for folks to check out and also look forward to.
Connect with Livendure on social media
www.instagram.com/Livendure
www.facebook.com/Livendure