Made up of Derek Barnes (vocals/guitar), Julian Balestrieri (guitar), Jeremy Shepherd (bass) and Jason Zaru (drums), The Living formed in 2015, birthed from their longstanding friendships with each other. They pull many sounds into their music including shoegaze, progressive rock, metal, and pop, stating that they bridge the gap between genres and create an environment in which their audience is greeted with the familiar sounds they know and love while discovering the band’s fresh approach.I do agree with the statement of “familiar sounds” as here we have a group that is taking themes and approached from today, mixing them with some classic Muse, and then going back even further in time to early Eighties U2 and Simple Minds.
This certainly doesn’t come across as a self-released debut, as there is total confidence in what they are doing, and the production certainly reflects their approach. Somehow it sounds dated and familiar, yet fresh and exciting all at the same time, and it would be interesting to see how this approach lends itself to a live environment as they are already writing stadium anthems even if they are a just a Bay band that have only been together for a couple of years. This is a band to keep your eyes on for the future. Listen to one of the songs that has been made available through Decibel, https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2017/08/16/track-premiere-living-deceiver/
