The Mayberry Shift is my Special little side project that I have had for the last 10 years or so. The concept for the project started in 2004 while I was living and working for a Salvation Army summer camp in Northern California.
I’ve always loved the underground, post hardcore/emo sound of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. I was heavily influenced by bands like Sunny day Real Estate, Mineral, Jimmy Eat World and elliott. I feel it was a short lived and overlooked style of music that ended up being associated with more poppy, mainstream, emo-punk acts that seemed to be more image than heart. But the bands that did it right were able to create almost an orchestral sound with only three or four pieces, and the songs could go anywhere from a whisper to an explosion at any given time. The songs were generally super dynamic and incorporated a lot of elements of earlier punk and hardcore but stayed very melody-heavy. By having so many directions to go musically, it enabled those bands to create their own unique sound.
Some people think that if you create music that sounds like it would have been more “accepted” 10 years ago, then you’re doing something wrong. In my opinion, good music is good music, no matter how you categorize it.