You need to know this before you listen to this dreamy, tender song I am about to tell you about because it will illustrate the difference between an artist, a poet and us mortal beings. Read about how Kyle Ayres was inspired to write a particular song:
Wrote this tune while working on a blacktop crew. I watched ants continue to build and work as the paver edged closer. Enjoy the sax, french horns and piano half way through.
Now the song in question is The Ant Song by Buck the Taxidermist, the musical project of the aforementioned Kyle Ayres, the project's apple core, composer, singer-songwriter along with his very talented bandmates Blake Hester (lead guitar), Jacob Warren (drums) and, good friend, Jacob Gahn (bass). Now, I dabble in songwriting myself and I know that inspiration comes from a lot of places but I am pretty sure if I gazed at those ants in that predicament I would just think, "it sucks to be you" and that would be it. It simply floored me reading the "about song" section after hearing this evocative song.
The Ant Song is so incredibly beautiful. First of all, Ayres sings like a goddamn angel, secondly, not knowing the inspiration, the sheer poetry of "so busy working overtime... back and forth between the line...." and then the curious line, "but the black tide is coming... the black tide is here", holy shit! The realization that this sheer poetry is a metaphor for an unseen death, the realization that we are mere ants. Holy fuck...
This little song built on languid guitar strums, a sad beat, fatalistic bass notes, dour horns is, indeed, a big thing. The microcosm becoming the macrocosm, the metaphor is fully intact, more than intact but, indeed, we are stuck in the black sticky mess of our lives. I am thinking that Buck the Taxidermist is like a romantic Andy Dufresne amid the musical Shawshank Redemption of our lives. Fuck surgical masks and fuck hand sanitizer, fuck social distancing. I am playing The Ant Song and hanging out with people!
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
As far back as 2015, Kyle Ayres had been writing songs that never had a place. Either they were unfinished or didn’t fit the bands he played with. Fast forward to early 2017, he found a place for those in his home recorded demo/album ‘The Beginning’ and gave a name to this musical quest. The solo-minded project has developed and has now drafted long time bandmates Blake Hester (lead guitar) and Jacob Warren (drums) as well as good friend Jacob Gahn (bass). While Kyle still leads the charge on the songwriting and composition, the band has molded his concentrated ideas and morphed it to fit every player’s style. A straight forward nod to classic rock and lyrics written from stream of consciousness. Reverbed and fuzzy solos on top of grooving bass and drum work. The band hopes to exude a return to rock and roll.
In 2017 Buck the Taxidermist played close to 30 shows and recorded a self titled EP with singles set to release in the spring of 2018.
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