Vienna - If you’re like me, the older you get, the harder it is to get into new music.  As time goes by, being bombarded with too much of the same old worn-out emotions and predictable song structures might have left you listening to nothing but a handful of your old favorites.  Fortunately, there is a remedy for our jadedness.  Out of our nation’s capital comes Kid Architect and their first full album, The Great Pretend.  Kid Architect blends hard progressive-rock ballads with roots of classical piano, jazz, and funk, creating a dynamic experience that exudes more creativity, raw talent, and showmanship than the countless new bands you’ve heard on major record labels. 

Remember how you used to recognize a great band when you were young?  Besides the band having a cool sounding name, what defined my favorite bands was how their albums would improve every time I would listen to them, and The Great Pretend is one of those albums.  A very special part of Kid Architect is how their album stands in its entirety.  Recorded within guitarist Mike Douaire’s home studio, The Great Pretend surpasses the quality and typical length of albums with an outstanding sixteen-track journey that, if anything, ends too soon.  Thoughtfully constructed and mixed, it pays homage to an all-but-forgotten formula of albums where each song naturally flows into the next almost as if they were sequential acts of a play.  Each song is distinct, yet has a natural placement within the album creating a euphoric odyssey that is hard as hell to turn off before the finale.  The Great Pretend is indeed a production that stands on its own and cannot be deduced to a bunch of songs being thrown together. 

Kid Architect balances their energetic rhythms with eerie breakdowns that are surreal yet organic.  Their songs are catchy without being too pop or too pretty.  The experience is like a sugar-coating gilded with dark and brooding tones.  Bridging the album tracks are distorted sounds baring a resemblance to religious organ music with a mysteriously evil undertone.  Frontman Thom Bridgewood’s mind-blowing piano solos on such songs as “Sense of Color” bring back the piano’s rightful place within rock bands.  “My Dad was a piano teacher,” said Thom backstage at the Jammin Java in Vienna, Virginia.  "He was trained in classical piano and extensively in jazz.  He taught me the basics, and then let me just run with it from there.  I taught myself from that point on, listening to other bands and trying to emulate them.  Then I was able to develop my own style; but there are still some classical elements in it as well.  For the time being we don’t use a lot of synthesizers; instead we stick to the natural sound of the piano as our signature sound.”  Alongside Clint Petty’s jazz-funk style bass playing, Mike Douaire’s guitar releases sounds that you’d expect to have been warped by a computer.  Influenced by David Gilmour and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Mike’s mandate aims to “create sounds from the guitar that do not sound like they came from a guitar.”  Drummer Tommy Alter gives an intense and solid rhythm to the songs without being too flashy.  Tommy describes the earlier days when Kid Architect first came into being.  “We didn’t really have an idea of where this band was going in terms of style, it just manifested once we started playing together.  Then as time went on, we found our sound.  Once that was discovered we would toss out some songs that didn’t seem to fit our style.”  Says guitarist Mike Doulaire, “We took our time recording putting this album together,” whose home studio was used to record the album.  “We wanted to get each song right within one take.  There are no vocal corrections or retakes; we didn’t change the snare heads halfway through the songs to create the ‘perfect’ sound; it’s more of a sincere experience that way.”  

What came of this is a band that performs so well live they fully match the quality of their recorded material, if not exceeding it.  One unique moment of the show deserving mention was Clint Petty’s solo song “No End in Sight” in which he uses the loop pedal like Keller Williams on his bass riffs, both memorizing yet humble in its simplicity.  As young professionals, Clint commented, “We’ve set Kid Architect up as a legitimate business but, at the same time, we all love what we’re doing.  We still have fun, but a lot of the fun has been cut out because we have to be more focused and disciplined.”  Kid Architect’s thought-provoking lyrics are carried by pianist Thom Bridgwood’s incredible vocal talent.  And yes, Thom’s vocals sound just as good live as they are on record, with the rest of the boys providing the backing vocals.  The sustain and power of Thom’s voice on songs such as “Okay” will no doubt get you cheering your face off before the song has even ended. 

Whether you’re the kind of person who enjoys the experience of the live show, or if you prefer rocking out to albums on your own accord, Kid Architect greatly exceeds your expectations in both fields.  The band has absolutely no flawed elements except for maybe the fact that, in a more perfect world, these men would be getting paid full-time to create and progress their art together.  With a small yet growing number of devote fans screaming every lyric back to the band in front of the stage, Kid Architect dissipates the connection between artistic excellence and media notoriety.  Give this band a listen and take advantage of this unique group who prove that there is still superb music being created, you just have to know where to look. 

KidArchitect.com  

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By Correspondent: Dillon Frye

Dillon Frye received a Bachelor's of English from the University of Mary Washington and is eager to write for Magazine33.  When it comes to music, Dillon is all about the past.  He usually enjoys the classics he grew up with, such as eighties bands like Squeeze, Tears for Fears, the Kinks, and Split Enz.  Throughout adolescence, he's grown a taste for bands such as Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Pinback, Ween, Captain Beefheart, Davie Bowie, and James Brown.  Dillon looks forward to discovering some new music within the Fredericksburg and Richmond scenes.