Junior sings, plays instruments to get unique sound

Iain Standing learned how to play guitar at age 10, and from there, he became jack of all musical trades. As a junior in the Bandier Program for Music and the Entertainment Industries, Standing can also play the bass, drums, theremin, guitar and can sing. Although he has used these talents to play various roles in different bands throughout the years, Standing is currently working on his own solo project.

For the music he is currently producing, Standing records on individual instruments and then puts the sounds together in the studio to create a song. He classifies his music as avant-garde, post-punk and no wave. His music is noisy, a bit harsh and a little bit left of center.

Growing up, Standing was surrounded by all different genres of music. His mother encouraged him to listen to classical music in order to have a more complete music education. However, it was his dad that bought him three CDs to listen to when he first started learning how to play guitar: ACDC’s “Back in Black,” Queen’s “Greatest Hits” and a musical comedy CD from a small Upstate NY band called Blotto. These would be the songs that would inspire Standing’s career in music.

Although Standing can recognize that his father has great taste in music, he is happy that he began steering away from this classic rock when he started learning how to play additional instruments.

Four years after he mastered guitar, he took up bass, and a year after that, the drums. As Standing got older, he was able to dissect the music that he listened to and really cue in on the individual parts of the songs. This made him begin to explore more obscure genres of music that people his age were not listening to as much.

“There’s something funny about liking really esoteric weird music,” Standing said. “The music that I do is not conducive to a major interest.”

While Standing was in a band, he wanted to keep pushing, find new things and create a new sound. But he and his bandmate had different business practices, and they deemed they were not a good fit for each other.

From there, Standing began making music on his own, and because he is the only one making music of this kind, he was able to put himself out there. Some of his current musical influences include Preoccupations, Bauhaus, Swans and Tim Hecker.

Katie Canete, a friend of Standing’s and fellow Bandier student, said that Standing is always introducing her to new music.

“Iain truly does explore and enjoy many genres. He can talk about hip hop, rock, indie, pop punk, pop, classical, harsh-noise, metal, post-punk. I think the fact he’s interested in a lot of styles is reflected in the music he plays himself,” Canete said.

As a Bandier student, Standing is taking a studio management class, which gave him the opportunity to become a student manager at Belfer Audio Archives right next to E.S. Bird Library. As a manager, he acts as a teaching assistant to a younger class and makes sure they are using the studio correctly. It also means he has free access to the studio, and he often helps his friends create their music while also working on his own.

Although Standing loves to perform, he has not performed in a very long time.

“I have jokingly Brian Wilson tendencies,” Standing said. “I don’t plan on self-destructing and I’m not anywhere close to popular or close to writing songs as good as Brian Wilson did, but I do get very much in my head.”

Standing said he wants to find people to collaborate with him, and who would be willing to go onstage and improvise music. However, a lot of college students don’t like the added pressures of improvising, and that discourages him from pursuing it further.

Some of the music he would perform require a full band, where others are just him.

However, as friend and neighbor on South Campus, Maggie Dickson is helping him put on a show later in the year. Dickson said that most of the shows will probably be at Spark Contemporary Art Space in Syracuse, and that she and Standing hope to utilize a lot of local talent, specifically hoping to partner with the local art scene.

“We think it could be really cool to feature local university visual artists and pair the shows with the local and university musical talent,” Dickson said.

As for Standing’s solo performances, he envisions setting up his peddle board, theremin and guitar and just playing, controlling the feedback with the pedals. The two joked about even putting Standing’s amp on a skateboard onstage and having Dickson push it back and forth with a stick to create some really obscure sounds.

Although instruments are his first passion, Standing began singing as well, out of necessity. He has been taking vocal lessons for four years, and openly admits he is not very good. However, Standing idolizes singers like Nick Cave and Michael Gira who are very emotive, which masks the fact they cannot sing very well.

“There’s something endearing about the guy who just gets up there and does it and doesn’t have the best voice,” Standing said.

Standing’s music fits cohesively with Halloween right around the corner; he even proclaims his love for horror movies and body horror. When he creates music, he likes to write about a lot of dark material, such as the conflict of humanity versus nature or an unknown being. He also likes to discuss human versus human conflict and puts ideas in the light that many people may not think about.

Although he admits that it may be cliche and edgy, some of this material includes sex and love, which Standing said is “disgusting yet wonderful.”

Though he only has one song up on Spotify currently — an instrumental track recorded on a bad microphone to add to the uncomfortable, yet melodic Standing sound — he is working on a larger project which consists of multiple songs.

After interning for Ba Da Bing Records this past summer, Standing’s current goal is to start his own record label. However, he also wants to keep releasing music, and ultimately perform because performing is his favorite. Standing is the ultimate rock ‘n roll performer, utilizing all parts of the stage and even jumping on his drum set.

“I like the place you go to,” Standing said, about being onstage. “I like being up there and just feeling uninhibited…There’s also this point where you glaze over and you’re very in the moment, and when you’re taken out of it it’s disappointing.”