Tank Steven’s music brings audiences a heartfelt and unapologetically honest portrayal of real feelings, real emotions, by means of a massively unique leading vocal performance and a minimalist yet softly rising in intensity musical backdrop.
Life Exchange is an early offering from the artist’s upcoming EP Life Lessons, and it’s a great introduction to the songwriter and musician. The musicality of the song is, as mentioned, fairly minimal; the gentle yet effective sound of an acoustic guitar being picked – a significantly memorable riff and arrangement of chords – the light and hopeful nature of the beat appearing just occasionally. Though in fact, the most striking thing about the song is the artist’s leading voice and the style with which he performs.
The delivery of the melody has a sort of spoken word style to it, a presentation of poetry, questioning lyrics, deep thought, consideration. The reflective nature of the lines are very personal, and this much is clear from the offset, but it’s made accessible in a way that hopefully means many listeners can understand and relate to what’s being said. The personal is made universal, essentially. The concept of a life exchange is undoubtedly something many of us have wondered about at some time or other, and it’s always comforting to find in music and art this evidence of others who are feeling a similar sort of doubt or sadness.
Tank Stevens said of writing the song that complacency, sometimes, can lead to depression. This is something that modern life has taught many people – the routine of doing what we feel we’re supposed to, whether or not it’s right for us, can be detrimental over time. The upcoming EP is likely to be one that touches on this and further topics of humanness in a very open and easy to listen to way. Certainly one worth looking out for.
The EP Life Lessons will be available on June 6th. Find and follow Tank Stevens on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. Visit his Website for more information.
