Emerging from the speaker like some disturbed three-headed monster and bursting onto the scene with their new self-titled EP….On the tip of your tongue… Can’t put your finger on it… The sound of Squawk delivers flashbacks of 60’s psychedelic rock with flavors of 70’s prog and jam, along with an unrestrained eclecticism that evokes everything from jazz funk fusion to thrash metal and cinematic soundscapes. As experimental as Frank Zappa’s soul patch and as comfortably southern as a hair of Duane Allman’s 1971 lamb-chop sideburns.
Formed in 2019 by three friends and regulars on the Atlanta music scene, Squawk consists of Valdosta native guitarist/vocalist Trevor Carter, jack of all trades bassist/vocalist Jason Chapman, and idiosyncratic drummer and trash kit connoisseur Casey Crogan. Carter’s guitar playing is a sort of riff-fueled-freak-mysticism. His down-home, salt of the earth vocal delivery is often times reminiscent of Incubus’ Brandon Boyd—with a drawl, multiplied by Chapman’s Mike Gordon meets Jaco (in outer space) pocket & groove bass chops, that ride atop Crogan’s off-center drumming like a terror bird in mid flight…This strange brew creates Squawk.
In 2020 this group of sound seekers began sculpting the songs that would become the debut Squawk EP at Chapman’s beautiful Brickyard Recording Studio in Alpharetta,GA. Chapman’s producing and recording sorcery guided the capture and crystallization of the frequently far out sounds and sonic explorations of Squawk and her muse.
The new EP begins with “Ash’s Song”, a song dedicated to Carter’s son, with rolling, tribal drum incantations before unleashing into a heavy, melodic groove that so often characterizes Squawk rock. It’s not long before an alien breeze whisks “Ash’s” into a thematic, sci-fi prog metal jam in the vein of Dream Theater that you feel you’re riding on an anti-gravity sled through technicolor space mountains. Moments later the listener is bombarded with “Chook”, a Black Crowes on steroids, blasted with meaty guitars and drum & bass veggies. The attack doesn’t slow with “Geeky Funky”, an irreverent south of the Mason-Dixon line homage to funk-fusion freakiness. “El Hongo Rojo” immediately washes the listener in colors of the desert before conjuring the Doors’ garage tinged latin acid beside King Crimson’s Discipline-era prog. The final track, “Flare Bear”, appears like a desert trekking mirage serpentining into an epic that touches on Tool and Umphrey’s McGee before dissolving into an anthemic Pink Floyd-esque melody that fades away leaving the door open for what’s to come.
Squawk will be uncaged in 2021 when the debut EP hits all major music platforms on February 1st.
Be on the lookout for live performances, additional music, video releases, and other new content coming soon….
Are you Squawk flock material ? …. Time to take flight.