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Modus Rock: Reshaping the Contours of the Popular Song By Robert E. Martin It’s a Thursday night at The Junction in Old Town Saginaw and each table is filled with patrons, spanning the age spectrum from young to old, with eyes focused upon the stage and ears open to the fresh sounds of two young musicians – Andrew Kitzman and Tony Cottington - as they take to the stage. Known as Modus Rock there is nothing ‘typical’ about this night, apart from the fact that the duo perform at The Junction every Thursday evening. For starters, in an age when DJ and Karaoke seems to be inundating the local entertainment scene, Modus Rock is flying against the face of convention, proving that not only can live musical entertainment draw substantial crowds, but that it’s possible to actively engage an audience without blowing them out of their seats with excessive volume. And with hundreds of songs to draw upon from their set-list, mixed with their own original compositions, Modus Rock is amply armed with enough material to assure audience retention by virtue of the fact that their show not only avoids the dangerous valleys ushered through musical predictability; but they are up to the challenge of shaping their own distinct sound and inflection into each song they perform. Most striking is their gift for harmony, which is reminiscent of an early Simon & Garfunkel in terms of clarity, resonance, and dynamic engagement. With Kitzman’s meticulous and confidently accomplished guitar playing forming the bedrock for their vocal constructions, audiences are drawn into the musical tapestries they create without becoming overwhelmed by issues of volume – precisely the type of effect that a command of musical dynamics is supposed to create; but mainly, one is struck by their earnest and obvious love of performance. They say the chestnut doesn’t fall far from the tree, and in the case of Andrew Kitzman, he was blessed to come from strong musical lineage. His father, Tom Kitzman, currently performs with The Doo Dads and has a storied resume of musical contribution to the area over the decades. When he took up the guitar at age 13 his father showed Andy many of the fundamentals of music, and then when he attended S.A.S.A. from the 8th grade to graduation, such mentors as Mike Brush rounded out Andy’s understanding about musical theory. As for Tony, he started his musical training as a baritone and tuba player in the 6th grade, picked up the bass, and has been working that instrument for six years now. Each of them attributes their strong vocal ability to involving themselves in choir and working with vocal coaches like Noel Howland and Greg Largent. “They taught us how to support the voice, relax the throat, and push with the diaphragm, so you can build power under the notes,” reflects Andrew. Andrew & Tony first met down at the Red Eye Coffee House about five years ago and have been hanging out ever since. “We lived together for a couple of years and then moved to Seattle, where we started playing regularly at a Vegan Thai restaurant,” relates Andrew. “Tony started sitting in with me and it soon evolved into a steady gig for two days each week. We started billing ourselves as Reclaiming Nine to Five, only changed our name to Modus Rock about a year ago because the other name was too confusing on marquees. We went through a lot of different names to find something completely original; and Modus Rock was that name for us.” “We have close to 300 songs under our belt and take requests all the time,” notes Tony. “We leave a pad of paper next to our tip jar and ask people to write down songs they would enjoy hearing. If we don’t know the song, we’ll learn it, and have a three-page list of songs that we’re continually working on.” The duo rehearses religiously a couple of nights each week and then performs three nights per week, at The Junction on Thursdays, The ‘H’ Hotel in Midland on Mondays and a couple of Fridays each month, along with Bennigan’s in Saginaw a couple of times each month. In terms of original material, the duo has a CD of original stuff all ready for recording, which they intend to start at the beginning of the upcoming year. “It’s a collaborative process,” explains Tony, “where one of us will come with any part of a song and show it to the other, and then the other partner will elaborate and flush it out.” “Personally, I think Tony is a better songwriter,” admits Andrew. “I can come up with riffs but Tony can it from the riff/verse stage and get really creative about bridging the chorus and production of the final version.” Given the tone and definition of their vocal harmonies, was this something that took awhile to develop between the two musicians? “Some of it we owe a big nod to Uncle Don Beck for, as he set up our sound and showed us how to get it right,” explains Tony. “Other than that its mostly practice – sitting together and making sure the harmonies sound right. Harmonies are one of those finishing touch types of things that make the song shine. Vocal harmonies make a song sound more like a finished recording in terms of richness.” “When we saw Brush Street perform that gave us a sense of dynamics as well,” adds Andrew, “the way they pulled in and worked the vocals at different levels, as opposed to just one volume.” In terms of defining their own sound, Tony says, “what we shoot for is upbeat happy and driven music. I like to think we venture more towards rock. People ask for a lot of songs so we strive for an upbeat Top-40 type of sound, and our originals hit more upon a band sound with danceable music.” “We have a large amount of material to draw from and the harmonies kind of brand the song as our own in terms of style,” adds Andrew. “Although we don’t find a lot of demand for the Coldplay songs that we’ve learned,” he laughs. Both artists envision eventually evolving Modus Rock into a larger outfit, drawing in more musicians as gigs and opportunities present themselves. “Dr. Jack Nash often comes to our gigs and sits in on bass guitar,” notes Andrew, “and I keep telling him to drop his dental practice and join us full time,” quips Andrew. “If a bigger room that supports a broader band presents itself, we’d love to bring in other musicians,” agrees Tony. “We’re thinking of bringing in another bassist full time and right now we’re mainly filling a niche.” When asked if it’s easier or more challenging to create music as duo, both Andy and Tony agree it’s a little of both. “Andrew and I can argue about something and we’ll be fine,” explains Tony. “But it’s more fun to have more musicians involved. Bob Grefe sits in with us and we love it when he does.” “On the flipside, Tony and I are very open now,” interjects Andrew. “We do small tours around Michigan and the benefit of a duo is that it’s very mobile. If we crash and burn at something, fine – we started this, you know? But it’s fun to play with other people because it adds energy and a new style to the groove.” In terms of musical influences, pivotal artists that Tony says have informed his musical sensibilities include Incubus, Audio Slave, The Strokes and The Steve Miller Band. Andrew sites his key influences as Dave Matthews and Ani DeFranco. “Ani has influenced me on a lot of levels,” explains Andrew, “because she’s got it all going on. She’s a righteous babe and everything about her is creative. A good example is with the FBI Piracy warning that appears on her records – she states, ‘Piracy although sometimes necessary is never as good as the original.’ That gets the point across perfectly. Plus she’s really into packaging and giving people something that feels good in their hands. And finally, she’s a funky aggressive guitar player. Everything about her is pretty wild for me. She has zero radio hits and zero compromises.” Both Andrew and Tony have been pursing Modus Rock as a full time job since last January. “We quit our jobs at same time before Christmas last year and it was sink or swim so we had to learn to swim really fast and went dog paddling,” explains Andrew. “Tony and I work really hard at music and we want to honestly represent our music and be successful because this is what we really want to do.” “Rather than invest the money we make into drugs or alcohol, we invest back into ourselves and will throw money into a new drum machine, or getting new promotional materials developed,” adds Tony. “We don’t have a hundred grand debt from law school right now, but we do believe in investing in our career and our future.” “When I told my Dad that I was going to do this full time he was supportive,” reflects Andrew. “The biggest piece of advice he gave me was that anything I wanted to succeed at I would have to work at. You can’t be complacent. My Dad said I could do this professionally, but would have to work hard at it. He said that people that want to become doctors work at it and do their homework and it’s never easy, but if you work at something you love, you’re not going to fail. And he’s right.” “This is the hardest job I’ve ever done but I feel we are slowly building our foundation,” he continues. “Mike Brush told me that if you build something eventually it will snowball and before you know it you have this huge moving thing that you have to keep working. At first it’s hard pushing the ball down the hill – nothing happens. But eventually things start to really pick up, and that is the trend for us. We’ve got a big fan base that keeps growing and forces us to keep adding fresh material.” Both Andrew and Tony agree that the most challenging thing confronting them is deciding on where to put the money they earn. “We’re building a future so should we put it into equipment, promotion, merchandising, getting an agent – all these things compete for our attention right now,” notes Tony. “Where do we want to focus our energies next? The key is to be ahead of the curve and know where to push so you’re not falling behind.” Apart from the purity and texture they give to their musical vision, perhaps one of the more admirable qualities behind Modus Rock is their selfless attempt to also give back to charity, as they always give 5 percent of their gross profits from each gig to Save The Children. “They set up infrastructures to give kids clean water around the world and have the highest rating for any children’s’ charity in terms of what goes back to the kids, so they are a very cool group.” “It gives us a push. If we’re giving back, it shows we’re giving and inspires other people to become more willing to give.” And with attitudes such as this, Modus Rock is destined to go very far in a business that is born from dreams but fueled with determination. |
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