Kinski Interview (Spill! Archive)
The below interview appeared on Girl About Town on 11/28/2007 for their release “Down Below It’s Chaos” (Sub Pop):
The significant exploration of sound and mood. Seattle, Washington 4-piece, Kinski, should be very quick to point out that they're not doing anything abnormal -- and that by using the unique methods and techniques that they do to create their musical landscapes, that they are quite simply: doing what they know how to do, and well. The group, which consists of members: Lucy Atkinson (bass), Chris Martin (guitar/vocals), Matthew Reid-Schwartz (guitar/keyboards/flute), and Barrett Wilke (drums/percussion), is largely instrumental, but their ability and agility at turning a song, literally onto its ear is quite astounding.
For their latest release entitled, Down Below It's Chaos, the band uses space and different moods to capture and create their chilled out, often heart-pounding rhythm and arrangements. Calling them purveyors in deconstruction should be nothing new, as they seem to approach their music not as an excuse, but rather as an exciting challenge in breaking it down in order to build it back up again. This will be the second time that Kinski has worked with young recording engineer and producer Randall Dunn (trained under famed producer, Jack Endino, and has worked with such diverse acts as Sunn O))), Earth, and Boris), who they also worked with for their album Alpine Static.
Kinski will be making their way to Philadelphia in one more day, and luckily we were able to catch guitarist and vocalist, Chris Martin, via email, for some discussion on the new album and their upcoming performance pieces in NYC. Don't miss Kinski live, this Thursday - November 29th, here in Philadelphia at Johnny Brenda's. Opening for Kinski, are the newly named Alasehir (mems. of local favorites, Bardo Pond). This show's sure to be a blow-out!
How did Kinski get involved with the robbinschilds choreography performance piece, C.L.U.E. (color location ultimate experience)?
Chris Martin: Layla and Sonya from robbinschilds contacted us almost two years ago about working with them. I said yeah, maybe, uhh, not sure. Then they sent us a DVD of their stuff and I was blown away. Their work is really amazing. It's sort of funny and haunting at the same time. They'd been working with our music for awhile and cut the video to some of our songs. They came out to Seattle and we all hung out and hit it off really well and now we're working on the new piece with them.
Will each night of the performance be different/modified depending on the choreography, and how did the band come up with the original score for this performance i.e. was it a collaborative effort working with Sonya Robbins and Layla Childs?
Chris: They listened to all our CDs and EPs and chose songs they liked and also moods that they liked. We'll be doing some written songs of ours as well as a lot of improv. So each night should be a bit different, depending on how the improvs go. It's all tied to a film that's being projected, so it's fairly tight in a way. Sonya and Layla have definitely been in charge of telling us what kind of mood they want us to project.
Will the band or robbinschilds be releasing this performance at a later date?
Chris: Not sure. I hope we can get some good audio recordings out of it.
Kinski's most recent release, Down Below It's Chaos (Sub Pop), has such strong, catchy moments (most notably on "Dayroom at Narita Int'l.", "Crybaby Blowout" and the heart-pounding and pretty "Passwords & Alcohol") and generally seems more concise and very planned out - do you feel as though this could be your best and most comfortable album-to-date?
Chris: I do, actually. It's the easiest one for me to go back and listen to. (Though I hardly ever listen to our stuff.) But it was actually less planned out than our other records. We changed some of the arrangements in the studio, which we had never done before, and we really let Randall Dunn, our producer, have free reign. That's one reason I enjoy listening to it more, because I wasn't as tied to it.
But the songs were written to be a little more direct and a little less self-indulgent. We'll probably get self-indulgent again on the next record.
The vocals on this album are not traditionally arranged in the sense that they have no verse/chorus/verse. It's more left, in the sense that it's added in as more of a visceral image or emotion - with the instrumental parts acting out the leads. Did you feel pressure to add vocals to the songs on the few tracks on this album due to fan or audience response, or was it simply because the song itself called for vocals in the way that you came up with each one?
Chris: You're the first person to mention that; the fact that there aren't any choruses. Those songs just didn't feel right without vocals. It seemed obvious that they needed them. So it was the song dictating that choice.
It's been fun to sing again. We never set out to be an instrumental band. Our first record had 3 songs with vocals. And we do covers live quite often. There are enough Mogwai clones floating around. (Still!)
Open guitar tuning and major use of foot-pedals and fuzzed-out effects seem to be Kinski's calling card, has the band ever thought of getting into building its own instruments for the purpose of further exploration?
Chris: If any of us were capable of fixing or building anything, maybe. It's hard enough for us to write songs. (The last album, by the way has a couple songs in standard tuning and a bunch in D-A-D-G-A-D.)
I would love to see the instrument we would all build.
Is there anything personal that certain band members bring to the table that Kinski absolutely couldn't survive without during the recording process?
Are there any songs that Kinski doesn't perform live? What is your most-requested song and/or Kinski's favorite song to play live and why?
Chris: Our most requested song is, by far, "Semaphore". I really burned out on playing that a year or two ago but now we throw it in occasionally and its fun. I always like playing "Wives of Artie Shaw" for some reason.
There are a bunch of songs we don't perform live. Usually it's the last track from our albums that we're not able to play. Either because of too many overdubs, or a sound we can't recreate, or because we suck at playing it. We do however perform the last track of the new album, "Silent Biker Type".
Who would your audience and/or fan-base find as the most surprising Kinski influence?
What is Kinski's favorite thing about Philadelphia?
Down Below It's Chaos (Sub Pop)
Track Listing:
1. Crybaby Blowout
2. Passwords & Alcohol
3. Dayroom at Narita Int'l.
4. Boy, Was I Mad!
5. Argentina Turner
6. Child Had to Catch a Train
7. Plan, Steal, Drive
8. Punching Goodbye out Front
9. Silent Biker Type
Upcoming 2007 Kinski Tour Dates:
Nov 28 Velvet Lounge w/Clockcleaner & Kohoutek // Washington DC
Nov 29 Johnny Brenda’s w/Alasehir (mems. of Bardo Pond) // Philadelphia, PA
Nov 30 Club Europa w/ Oneida & White Hills (EARLY SHOW!) // Brooklyn, New York
Dec 1 Middle East w/Oneida! Cul de Sac! and Neptune! // Cambridge, Massachusetts
Dec 5 PS122 w/ Robbinchild - performing C.L.U.E. // New York City, New York
Dec 6 PS122 w/ Robbinchild - performing C.L.U.E. // New York City, New York
Dec 7 PS122 w/ Robbinchild - performing C.L.U.E. // New York City, New York
Dec 8 PS122 w/ Robbinchild - performing C.L.U.E. // New York City, New York
Dec 8 PS122 w/ Robbinchild - performing C.L.U.E. // 150 First Ave. at E. 9th St., New York
Kinski - band site / myspace / sub pop records
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