"Comfort their pity / Impaired to see vain / Forfeit your bliss / Hopeful for grace / Bleeding self pride / For others ease / A fool for believing / That kindness will strive..."
The fevered sadness of "Being Nice (Classical Version ) by Vera's Son, the project of experimental singer-songwriter Don Dreste, bridges a gap between illusory dreams and catharsis. Listening to the track repeatedly I kept feeling a vintage sound, the kind of melancholy orchestral folk song that might be the theme song to a dead serious 70's film starring Al Pacino and Kitty Winn and about their ravaged lives as heroin junkies. Not sure why my mind is leaning that way but as I have always said, songs are sonic Rorschach tests and the splattered black ink of "Being Nice" looks like that to me.
Dreste shares this about the track:
"The identifiable scenario of believing that years of kindness will result in fulfillment but the reality is we often do not live in a world were “Being Nice” is not only ignored but is often taken advantage of. As result the once quiet and nice gentle soul has turned into a bitter and emotionally withdrawn human like statue."
Reading the Dreste's seeds of this song and I imagine a surreal indie film where a beleaguered man whose nature is turned against him actually turns into a statue at the end. This would be a film directed by David Lynch or The Coen brothers.
"Helpfulness and gentleness
Gives harshness
That’s barbarous
Bitterness owns me
Look at what of I become
Desolate and fragmented
Giving up mirth absurdly
Endure their gripe
Forgoing shame
Coin the fib
Fabricated joy
Growing too plain
Scoffed by your kin
Plead for change
But It seems too late"
"Helpfulness and gentleness
Gives harshness
That’s barbarous
Bitterness owns me
Look at what of I become
Desolate and fragmented
Giving up mirth absurdly
Endure their gripe
Forgoing shame
Coin the fib
Fabricated joy
Growing too plain
Scoffed by your kin
Plead for change
But It seems too late"
I think that this track has a 70's patina because that seemed to be a time when experimental music and film was taken more seriously a byproduct of European surrealism being adored by young American film students.
I found Vera's Son's origin story of sorts interesting-- the back story about Dreste musical journey-
From LINER NOTES (bracketed):
[Vera’s Son is a music project by a graveyard shift working song-man.
Vera’s Son was started 22 years ago by a socially awkward named Don Dreste. The project's name comes from Don's time working in a kitchen at a convent in Lemay, MO. Don composed songs in his mind to pass the time while working in the cafeteria. One of the old nuns at the convent could never remember his name, so she called him "Vera's Son" (Don's mother's name who also worked at the convent).
Growing up in the working-class Lemay, Vera's Son is deeply rooted in the blue-collar experience. The themes and melodies of Vera's Son songs carry on the tradition of hard work, craftsmanship, and the realism that was laid down by bands like The Beatles and The Smiths. The project is also influenced by a wide range of other artists, including the Psychedelic Furs, Slowdive, Nirvana, Otis Redding, Air, The Pogues, Iron Butterfly, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Hank Williams, Howlin Wolf, and Blind Wille Johnson. The songs are soaked in walls and waves of sound that offer kinship to any damaged shipwrecked soul.
Vera's Sons New Album, Madaford Mélange, is years of compositions coming to fruition through vision, effort, and insight. Check out the New Music Video for "The Bier In My Hand".]
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://soundcloud.com/user-617975268
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgfrBqVTEH5iP3kmddwY3Og
https://verason.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/veras.sonstl
Vera’s Son is a music project by a graveyard shift working song-man. Vera’s Son was started 22 years ago by a socially awkward named Don Dreste. The project's name comes from Don's time working in a kitchen at a convent in Lemay, MO. Don composed songs in his mind to pass the time while working in the cafeteria. One of the old nuns at the convent could never remember his name, so she called him "Vera's Son" (Don's mother's name who also worked at the convent). Growing up in the working-class Lemay, Vera's Son is deeply rooted in the blue-collar experience. The themes and melodies of Vera's Son songs carry on the tradition of hard work, craftsmanship, and the realism that was laid down by bands like The Beatles and The Smiths. The project is also influenced by a wide range of other artists, including the Psychedelic Furs, Slowdive, Nirvana, Otis Redding, Air, The Pogues, Iron Butterfly, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Hank Williams, Howlin Wolf, and Blind Wille Johnson. The songs are soaked in walls and waves of sound that offer kinship to any damaged shipwrecked soul. Vera's Sons New Album, Madaford Mélange, is years of compositions coming to fruition through vision, effort, and insight. Check out the New Music Video for "The Bier In My Hand". https://youtu.be/oi2hS4Mhps4 https://verason.bandcamp.com https://soundcloud.com/user-617975268
Vera’s Son, indie rock, alt pop, experimental pop, folk, indie folk, orchestral pop, baroque pop, "Being Nice" (Classical Version), experimental singer songwriter Don Dreste,
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