“The boy’s heart and the buried heart started beating in unison.”
The book “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami resonated with Jack Wittich so much that when it comes to his music, he is known as The Buried Heart. He’s been playing under the name for almost three year.
Wittich, who was a Chico State student majoring in prerecording arts, is currently taking a break from school to save money and devote time to music, writing and recording.
He developed a love of music at a young age and started playing guitar at the age of 10.
“My dad had this old acoustic that he had lying around the house,” Wittich said. “I would just go up to it and whack the strings and make noises.”
A misunderstood middle schooler, Wittich found himself listening to a lot of emo music. As he got older, a friend introduced him to a band called Coheed and Cambria that became an inspiration to him.
“All their guitar parts, their songs would be nine minutes long and they would have these really epic instrumental parts,” he said. “And I thought that was so cool that they had all this music backed by a story, the way they transmitted those emotions to the music.”
While atteding Chico State, he met his band and together they have been pushing out music whenever they can.
For Wittich, his music starts with an idea or a riff. Afterward, he’ll write some lyrics to go along with it, and with the help of a garage band program, he puts together some guitar and drums parts, finishing off with vocals.
After the idea is put down, he will show it to the rest of the guys in his band. They will start writing and adding their own spin. In the end, what started out as one thing will turn into something else — something that Wittich wouldn’t have pictured himself.
“I always think I know what’s best for the song and I wrote it this way for a reason,” Wittich said. “But after getting someone else’s input put into it and hearing those ideas translate, most of the time it comes out to be a much better product.”
In the coming weeks, Wittich will be getting together with a fellow recording arts major named Polo, a close friend who will help The Buried Heart record a five-song EP.
With Polo, it seemed like a good fit for The Buried Heart because he understands what the band is going for with its sound and encourages them, Wittich said.
When it comes to distribution, Wittich hopes to get the EP out through both iTunes and Spotify. There’s talk that they might put it out as vinyl, which would be a dream come true to Wittich ,who recently started his own vinyl collection.
“I think it’s super cool to be able to have something I made in that format,” he said.
Music is something worth doing in life even after the day is done and all of life’s obligations are taken care of, Wittich said. Music is there like an old friend.
“This is something I wanted to do since I started to listen to music,” he said. “I want to make something. I want to have people listen to what I have to say, which is kind of selfish if you think about it. But at the same time it’s my passion — it’s what I really enjoy doing.”
Music is an outlet, Wittich said. It’s a way to get out all of his feelings, either through lyrics or a particular guitar solo.
“It’s therapeutic almost,” he said, “where it’s like even if I have a weird day or off day, if I can put those feelings out through the music, it helps.”
Erin Vierra can be reached at [email protected] or @gingersmurf85 on Twitter.
