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Resident Patient Works Toward New Collaborative Musical Experience

by Stephanie Friedrich
04/26/2008

The Athens music scene has an extraordinary combination of talent, composition and variety. Resident Patient is one more example.

Eric Harris, originally of Ohio, and his two roommates, T.M. Griffin and Kyle LaPointe, collectively, Resident Patient, are breaking out of the conventional mold and making a mark in the Athens music world.

The trio, who have been involved with the music scene for a number of years, are launching a new project in town.

“Some music at its best is pastoral and at its worst, bad poetry,” Harris said.

Resident Patient is delving into a new musical realm which will combine basic techniques with lyrical, electronic and instrumental variations.

Harris said the music will be experimental, integrative and dramatic.

Each of the three spends time developing his own pieces of music and then they work together to form a combination. The group practices together at least three or four times a week in a collectively artistic effort, Harris said.

“It is a process of shared creative control,” he said.

Resident Patient combines a singer-song writer jazz element, string arrangements, tapes, sequencers, spontaneously adjusted levels, keyboards, guitars, rhythmic drums and bass to form an integration of sound. They also like to tinker with simple toys and objects in order to produce unique, colorful sounds.

The ultimate goal is to work towards “when things sync up,” Harris said.

Sometimes the music is simply a joke or flippant judgment combined with electronic elements.

The group has played at coffee shops, art rock clubs and smaller venues. Their music platform includes built-in crowds of hippie jam lovers, older and Indie connoisseurs.
The upcoming launch hopes to continue to target a range of fans and focus on a listening audience that appreciates the unique sounds of the music.

Resident Patient will perform April 26 at Little Kings on Hancock Street with Strezo, a band from Atlanta. They will appear on radio station WUGA April 25 to promote the concert.

At the concert you can enjoy great music and listen to the group's newest CD, Elevator in the Brain Hotel, named after an Arthur Conan Doyle story in the collection, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.