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Blame it on their youth. As a teenage band, experimental rockers Firefly Massacre played fast and loud. Granted, it was a good – a technically adept, almost mathematical – fast and loud. But it was still a few leaps away from what the band would eventually become.
"We started playing together when we were 15," bassist-vocalist Josh Elias says. "Back then we wanted to play as loud and as hard as we could. We were doing what we could to play as fast and technical as possible."
But after a four-year hiatus – aka college – the members of the band have reunited, dropping their complex, dense style of math rock in favor of sonic rock/electronic structures, coupled with a deft understanding of melody.
"Our tastes have chilled out in the last four years," Elias says. "There was a definite shift in our influences. So, there is still a lot of guitar, but the songs have a kind of floaty vibe. That’s how I describe it. Floaty. Not very specific, is it?"
Part of that ethereal quality comes from the band’s penchant for improvisation and talent for creating an idiosyncratic mix of live rock, samples, beats and loops.
"We’ve always done our thing and tried to play what we have in our heads," Elias says. "A lot of our music is about blending electronics with acoustic instruments. And there are elements of jazz mixed in there – jamming out, improvising. Our guitarist was trained as a jazz musician, so his influence helps the music take shape."
The 1990s cult favorite Soul Coughing called the style "deep slacker jazz," but it’s deceptively complex. Taking the leap into noisy experimentalism requires a sense of timing, phrasing and a knowledge of the capabilities – even the untapped ones – of your instrument. Although the style isn’t the genre du jour, the band – Elias, guitarist James Lake, drummer Brice Densmore and keys/synth/guitarist Nate Runea – doesn’t like the idea of falling into subcategories of rock. They’re not metal. They’re not punk. This is rock ’n’ roll, Elias says.
"The idea is to keep it different than what’s being done right now," Elias says. "As far as pop-culture music goes, everything seems to have such a manufactured sound, all targeted to one specific audience. For the most part, it’s pretty boring."
Lyrically, the band finds balance between songs about metaphysical phenomena and observational odes to quiet, ordinary lives.
"There’s a lot more to life, the world and the universe than we even know," Elias says. "A lot of our lyrics are along those lines. Trying to find truth in life. Then again, I’m married, so I’ll write simple songs about how much I love my wife, too."
The band is recording its first album. It’s a lengthy process; the band is recording in a room at Lake’s house, but the laid-back schedule is giving them time to experiment musically, Elias says.
"In the past – working with recording studios – time was tight," Elias says. "You’d go in there and pound it out as fast as you could because there was a time constraint or you were worried about money. This is the first time we’ve really taken the chance to spend time with it, to experiment with loops, to find different ways to play live. And we’re not pressed about when the album will come out. We’re just having a good time experimenting a lot more."
