Musicians and painter find fusion through music
Amber Davis
– Staff Writer –
A landscape of sound is produced as artist James “Gecko” Payne paints a 6 feet by 8 feet canvas.
STLCC-Meramec Kevin Danneman and Taylor Perkins play their instruments. This scene of artistic fusion is known as Soundscape.
“There is a sound that people hear in the psychedelic realm and people can relate that to a consolation of energy of those sounds,” Payne said, describing their instrumental band.
Soundscape has been together for three years and Payne has been with them for the last two years. Payne has been painting professionally for eight years and three years artistically, while Danneman has taken guitar as his main hobby for 12 years and Perkins has been drumming for five years.
Payne makes his paintings based on the feel of the music. He sets out the colors he chooses to use at live shows when he has heard the sound check from Danneman and Perkins.
“We produce solid, structured sounds and our songs can be over eight minutes long,” Danneman said.
Having such lengthy songs, Payne prefers to be in a relaxed mode when he thinks of what to do for each Soundscape song. The painter of the band practices his art at the venue 2720 on Cherokee Street, where some of his canvases are put on display for more than $1,000.
“I was in a previous live art band, but when I met Kevin at a friend’s house, I showed him my art and listened to him and Taylor’s music. It was as if my art and the music were meant to be,” Payne said.
This artistic instrumental band loves to pack a venue with as many people as possible.
“We are having our next show at Cicero’s on April 2, and I am trying to get as many people to come to have a sold-out show, it is cool to see a packed room with a small size venue like Cicero’s,” Danneman said.
Soundscape tries to play shows two to three times per month or once every month and a half. They have had the power cut out on them in the middle of their show a man stopped Payne to tell him he would pay $200 for the painting he was doing.
“It was July of last year at Shwagstock and a man stopped me in the middle of the show. He said, ‘Hey, man, I’ll pay you $200 for that painting. But don’t stop now. Keep going; it’s great!’” Payne said.
“We are Soundscape until further notice,” Payne said.
They want to have their name legal to able to start preproduction for their CD.
“We want to play music and paint. We want our band to get around and be seen. But we are better musicians than promoters for Soundscape. Our band is more underground and a small local band,” Payne said.
With no lyrics to go along with their music, Danneman said that Soundscape is open to anything new.
“We would love to have someone get in contact with us and want to be a guest singer for a song. I think it would be great. We have tried to have a vocalist come be a part of our band but it just didn’t fit right with the music we were making. But I think we are more into the idea of having a guest perform with us,” Danneman said.
Payne said the band would like to have a celebrity guest.
“When Soundscape gets to the state of popularity, we could have anyone come and be a guest vocalist, for example Kayne West,” Payne said. “Or even a woman vocalist would be cool, too.”
