quinta-feira, 18 de setembro de 2014

Passing Complexion with Koban - An Interview



De Vancouver vem o duo Koban,Samuel Buss e Brittany West aplicam nas mentes um darkwave poderoso e doentio.

Traços escuros e claustrofóbicos o Koban não fica somente no ambiente escuro e pós punk, eles transcendem para algo mais perigoso e barulhento, com guitarras pesadas e marcadas, aproximando-se de gente como KVB e até Lost Rivers.

O último registro é o EP Vide deste ano que caminha exatamente por estes caminhos mas vale ir um pouco mais adentro da discografia deles e pegar o debute Null e se jogar em algum inferninho escuro e dançar sem haver amanhã.


***** Interview with Koban *****


Q. When did Koban starts, tell us about the history...
Koban started in a rundown, moldy, basement in Burnaby, which eventually burned down. Coming from the “oh so musical” town of White Rock, Sam and I both had our own projects. Sam played bass in a grungy punk band and I played 80s inspired thrash metal. During the winter of 2008 our bands were on hiatus, and we were bored/joined at the hip, so we started jamming. Our band name was, unfortunately, “Mantaray-gun.” We had sort of a washed out garage/punk sound and fiddled with drummers, but none of them worked out. We ended up getting a drum machine because we were obsessed with Big Black and tired of drummers bailing on us. The sound kind of formed and progressed around the drum machine, as well as around bands that used them that we were inspired by.

Q: Who are your influences? Q. Make a list of 5 albuns of all time…
Steve Albini: Big Black, Shellac, Rapeman etc (really looking forward to the new Shellac album)! Nirvana: Bleach
Light Asylum: Light Asylum
Sonic Youth: Goo
Twin Crystals: Twin Crystals

Q. How do you fell playing alive?
I feel empowered, excited, and fortunate. I wish that I could continuously be on tour and survive off my music, because it really is the one thing that I love the most.

Q. How do you describe Koban´s sounds?
I realize that post-punk is a vague term, however, it’s nice to use because it can be an umbrella for many things and we don’t really like to prescribe to one genre because that is limiting. You could also say that some songs are more dark-wave. We use synths, programmed drumbeats, reverbed vocals, crunchy bass tones and Sam plays through a Vox ac30. We like to try and mix it up, try new things and experiment.


Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
We recently released an EP on Weyrd Son Records called “VIDE.” This record was a dream to record! We did the recording with Josh Stevenson at Otic Sound in Vancouver. His studio was awesome and very relaxed, so we were able to finish the record very quickly (and we are stoked on the sound!). We have tried home recording in the past, and it gets VERY frustrating, especially because there are only two of us.

Q. Which new bands do you recommended?
//zoo (Vancouver), Mormon Crosses (Vancouver), Other Jesus (Vancouver), Cowards (Vancouver),

Q: Which bands you love to make a cover version?
I would love to cover Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Ray, but I’m pretty sure Sam wouldn’t let me…

Q: What´s the plans for future....
We are currently working on new material and trying to get our new album out into the world. We just got back from a big tour to Europe so we will probably just stay close to home for the next while.

Q: Any parting words?
Thanks for reading. Check out vide here: koban.bandcamp.com
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Thanks