Spring Sing 2015: Loop Garou
Spring Sing 2013 winner Loop Garou, formerly known as The Street Hearts, will perform rock ‘n’ roll song “I Walk Down” at Spring Sing on Saturday, which fourth-year civil engineering student Nicholai Hansen (far left) said he wrote almost a year ago. (Max Himmelrich/Daily Bruin)
By Salus Kim
May 13, 2015 12:08 a.m.
For the five members of Loop Garou, sometimes 10 minutes are all it takes to write a song.
Formerly known as The Street Hearts – Spring Sing 2013 winners – Loop Garou will perform its song, “I Walk Down,” which fourth-year civil engineering student and bassist Nicholai Hansen said the five wrote almost a full year ago.
Andrew Giurgiun, a fourth-year history student and lead vocalist, said the song is rock ‘n’ roll for the most part, but takes on dance and funk elements. The song is inexplicably one of the fastest songs the band has ever written, Giurgiun said.
“I wrote (‘I Walk Down’) about this kid who has artistic idols and is just dreaming about them and becoming one of them,” Giurgiun said. “But he’s this privileged suburban kid who doesn’t understand all the hardships they went through to really come up with their art. It’s him struggling with that ambition.”
Nick Valentini, a fourth-year cognitive science student and the band’s pianist, said Loop Garou did not intentionally plan to write “I Walk Down,” as with the majority of its songs.
“We wrote this song when we were just hanging out,” Valentini said. “There’s no process to it. With all music, it just kind of happens.”
Second-year ethnomusicology student and guitarist Nate Schwartz said the band members try to get together once a week to practice.
“Our best songs I feel like come together pretty quickly and pretty organically,” Schwartz said. “Some person has a seed of an idea and we just water it with our music renditions.”
Loop Garou said it does not have a method to songwriting in the sense that there is usually a lack of intensive preparation.
“Usually we figure out our own part first and then from there, we just jam out and listen to where the song could really go and build from there,” said third-year ethnomusicology and jazz studies student and drummer Nick Velez. “For example, I’ve never played (‘I Walk Down’) the same way twice. I always play something a little different.”
Valentini said the band utilizes drum and piano fills that can be slightly manipulated to adjust to how its members are feeling. The group said the improvisations are minimal and render subtleties, which Schwartz said affect how the performers interact with one another on stage.
Demonstrating a fusion between rock ‘n’ roll blues and soul funk, the band has rebranded and will represent its new sound at Saturday’s Spring Sing.
“In the previous years when we’ve done this as separate groups and acts, they’ve been more low-key acoustic, sort of mellow stuff,” Giurgiun said. “So this is the first time we’re really rocking out.”
