With their previous album Canadian sludge/noisecore outfit KEN Mode made quite an impression. Their latest record, entitled Entrench, is another mucial tour-de-force. Ghost Cult caught up with with guitarist/vocalist Jesse Matthewson to see what’s going on in the KEN Mode world..
Hello and thanks for taking time to talk with Ghost Cult. Your new album Entrench is about to be unleashed and for me is the band at its most intrusive, innovative, and aggressively imaginative. Now I do not expect you to disagree but where does the new release for you its creators explore and stretch itself differently to acclaimed predecessor Venerable?
With Venerable, my primary goal was to take everything we’d done with KEN mode musically and blend it all together into one definitive statement for the band, as I wanted this to be the album to put us back into the collective international extreme music psyche. With Entrench we had to up the ante…we wanted to construct the most dynamic and overall catchy album we’d ever done, while sacrificing absolutely none of the technicality and creative songwriting. Overall I feel this record has a more punk vibe than our previous records as well, which was the result of several factors, one definitive influence being the dissolution of our previous side project Hide Your Daughters – where we’d previously let some of our more rock and roll muscles flex more frequently.
What has inspired the new depth of sonic /emotional aggression and anger upon the new release or has it just organically evolved?
Lyrically speaking, this album came at a very transitional period in my life – dealing with being betrayed by a partner, losing the home I was living in, and living full time on the road. Some dark shit can come of that, and some times you have to laugh at that.
Across all your albums but especially through Mennonite, Venerable, and now Entrench there seems to have been a concentrated intensity brewing, each album darker, harsher, and more inventively intrusive not to mention impacting. Has this been again a determined evolution or just an organic development by your ideas and sound itself?
I think it is really just a result of the maturation process of this band and the individuals creating music within these parameters. Life is all about timing, and creative bursts have a tendency to result from intense periods in our lives. As we’re better able to translate the sentiments into creative ideas, I suppose they will come across as more intense to the listener. We’re story tellers, and evidently, these aren’t ‘date night’ stories.
You recorded Entrench with Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Isis, Botch), what led you to changing producers from the last album and what did Matt inspire in your thoughts that made him the right choice?
Kurt‘s recording schedule actually determined our change in producers! That guy’s booked up solid! We tossed a few ideas around of “dream” producers, and in the end chose Matt because we’d heard he was a real hardass on bands in the studio. He’s done really clean and precise recordings, and really ugly and powerful ones; we figured he’d understand where we’re coming from.
One imagines that working with new people, whether musicians, writers, or producers a band learns and experiences something which impacts on future creations, what came out of the album recording which has inspired thoughts or wishes for the next release?
I’ve learned that I love having sessions that are longer than a week in length and that having enough time to experiment with additional instrumentation RULES!
Did you approach the writing and recording of Entrench in any way different to your previous albums?
Every album we record tends to have a different approach, depending on the situation we’re presented by our day to day lives. Entrench was primarily written in two concentrated sessions in Dec 2011 and May 2012, then recorded and mixed in Sept/Oct 2012. We wrote and recorded the record as a full time job, which historically we haven’t been able to give the writing process the attention to detail that we were able to give with Entrench.
Tell us about the heart of Entrench, its intent and prime emotion lyrically and musically.
Life as a black comedy. Depression, loneliness, betrayal, violent retribution, self deprication to melodramatic extents, and muscle flexing glories; while standing back and chuckling at how ridiculous it all is. Both lyrically and musically we take ourselves VERY seriously, and at the same time not at all.
The album certainly pushes and tests the listener, challenges them to investigate their own thoughts and emotions whilst being rewarded with a diverse fertility of invention. Is this aspect to your music important to you or is it just about challenging yourselves with each album?
I think we aim to do both, quite honestly. I rarely like to talk specifically about what I’m meaning in songs, as I prefer people to read the lyrics and feel what they feel. If there’s a problem, they can ask me about it, but it’s art; as pretentious as it sounds to say that about my own work. It’s open for interpretation. We’re just looking to make the best work of art we can. We’re just looking to create the sort of racket we want to hear, and to do it up to our expectations.
Finally what are your hopes for the album and what do you hope people with gain from it?
World domination. I hope my melodramatic bullshit can make anyone feel better about their own problems, and that they can find enjoyment out of the release that aggressive music can supply. On a personal level, I want to pay rent this year! Haha
Pete Ringmaster