Many of us can link a certain album to pivotal moments in our lives. Whether it’s the first record you bought with your own money, the chord you first learnt to play on guitar, the song that soundtracked your first kiss, the album that got you those awkward and painful pubescent years or the one that set off light bulbs in your brain and inspired you to take a big leap of faith into the unknown – music is often the catalyst for change in our lives and can even help shape who we become.
In this Love Letter To A Record series, Music Feeds asks artists to reflect on their relationship with music and share with us stories about the effect music has had on their lives.
The Buckleys – The Eagles, Hotel California (2016)
Dear Hotel California,
Where do we start?
You are one of those albums that just hit some chord within us, and was pivotal in a moment where we were at a crossroads with our music, understanding who we were as artists; as a band and what we wanted to say.
We were at that crossroads of deciding if we were going to be a band who just followed what sound or style was popular at the time; doing what other people wanted us to do and sound like. In this moment, at exactly the perfect time, we rediscovered and fell in love with you all over again, along with Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. Some lightbulb went off where we realised we had so much more to offer and that at the end of the day, what are we ‘artists’ for if we’re not going to be artists and create music that is authentic and real. After all, those are all the reasons we love you and these other bands.
You pushed boundaries and offered the world something different and new, you were completely authentic and fresh.
So what is it that we love about you?
Those harmonies that make you feel like you’re there in the room, like an old friend is singing to you. The songwriting feels so natural and unforced, yet it captures some of the best hooks and melodies of all time. The band is so tight, in the pocket and the production captures all of that chemistry.
The blend of Country with Rock and Pop, it cannot be put in any sort of box without raising some debate about what ‘category’ it fits into – it’s beyond that. The blazing guitars are their own beast, telling their own story next to the vocals. The musicianship, it’s everything.
Every harmony, guitar riff and lyric makes you feel something.
And that’s why you’re important; you inspired us to find ‘us’.
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