Keeping up with of Montreal’s dance noise

If the mark of a true artist is an inability to sit still, to repeat something just because it worked once, then — even if for no other reason — of Montreal bandleader Kevin Barnes is definitely an artist.

Even those not in sync with of Montreal’s ever-shifting directions would have a hard time denying Barnes’ abilities, though. Including Barnes himself.

“Everything I write is poppy; there are elements that are always melodic,” he says of his songwriting, laughing and seemingly embarrassed by a skill many would like to be burdened with. “I’m always trying to explore different possibilities. It’s more exciting, because I’ve written so many dance-y pop songs over the years, so I’m always looking for new inspiration, looking for new directions to go in. I don’t ever want to be a self-caricature. I want to constantly evolve.”

Barnes is in total control in the studio, a place he goes to every day. On tour, he has a small studio in the back of his bus.

LEO: How much writing can you get done on the road?
Kevin Barnes: Not very much; usually, when I’m touring, I write a lot more lyrics than I do music.

LEO: Do you collaborate with others while you’re out together touring?
KB: Not so much ... I don’t really do that much collaborating.

of Montreal began in the mid-’90s, one of many psychedelic pop bands associated with the Elephant 6 collective based in Athens, Ga. Like another fan of psychedelia, Prince, of Montreal has evolved toward becoming a high-energy funk band in recent years. Their latest record, The Controllosphere, was “definitely influenced by Parliament and a lot of funky stuff, and also incorporating a slightly noisier element to things, experimenting with that … Trying to get out of the super-catchy pop trip that I’ve been on for a while now,” Barnes says.

LEO: How challenging is it to balance funk with noise that’s hard to dance to?
KB: I guess it all depends on what you want to do. When I’m making music, it’s definitely coming from a more selfish place, exploring my own psyche. I mean, I do release records because I do, on some level, require affirmation or whatever it is. Also, because I’m excited about it and I want to share it with people. But I don’t really think that much about, “Oh, this song’s going to make people dance,” or “This song’s going to make people sad.” With the dancing thing, with my music, there’s lots of starts and stops and key changes, tempo changes, that really go against what you consider “dance music.” Most dance music is repetitive, you’ve got to keep the groove going, but a lot of times I just get bored. Within 30 seconds, I want it to change, come up with something different. So I’m definitely not the best writer, in that way, getting people on the dance floor and creating a party. But that’s not really my goal … The only thing I really think about is wanting to give the audience something exceptional. I don’t ever want to go on stage and have it be flat and lame and uninspired.

Of Montreal is known for filling their concerts with colorful costumes and props, and Barnes is more willing to give up control when it’s time for the show.

KB: Oh yeah, you have to dive in at some point. By the first or second show of a tour, it’s pretty obvious, “Oh, that thing we wanted to do with that one costume is stupid, it’s just not working.” None of us have any problem with that, we just want to do something that feels right and feels good. Whether it’s completely opposite of what we originally envisioned doesn’t matter, because the main goal is just feeling good about the show.

LEO: So where is the future taking you, music-wise?
KB: I’m kind of in a strange place right now, artistically, making a lot of songs that I’m not really sure how people will feel about them; I think they’ll probably turn a lot of people off and maybe bring in some new people. I guess that’s just how it goes. I feel like more artists should take more chances. A lot of people just figure out something that works and just do it till they burn out on it. I just want to keep taking chances, trying new things, staying vulnerable and staying excited.

of Montreal with Yip Deceiver & Kishi Bashi
Monday, Sept. 5
Headliners Music Hall
1386 Lexington Road • 584-8088
www.ofmontreal.net
$15; 9 p.m.

Preaching to the choir with Amon Amarth

Whether you want to classify them as Vikings, hobbits or death metal pioneers, Stockholm’s Amon Amarth want to challenge your ideas. The ever-evolving band of warriors returns to Louisville’s metal-loving South End on Tuesday, infecting their fans with increasingly melodic yet still-heavy tuneage from their ninth album, Surtur Rising, in addition to well-loved classic hits from their 20 years together.

LEO spoke with leader Johan Hegg, who — to this reporter’s ears — speaks like a “Die Hard” villain.



LEO: Are audiences any different in Scandinavia than in the U.S.?
Johan Hegg: (laughs) Metalheads are metalheads.

LEO: For those of our readers who don’t know much about metal, what sets Amon Amarth apart from others?
JH: From the category of music we grew out of, which is death metal, we are a very melodic band. I think that’s something that’s very different. There’s also a melancholy to our music, which is actually very unique.

LEO: The new album was inspired by the Surtur legend, is that right?
JH: It’s not a concept album, no. There’s only two songs like that on the album. It’s a pretty fascinating story behind that, really — it deals with the end of the world and all that follows. It’s a very violent part of the story, but also very sad, because even the hero dies.

LEO: Do you do a lot of reading that influences your writing?
JH: Yeah, I read a lot on different topics. But a lot of stuff that influences my lyrics is everyday stuff — stuff that happens in the world or in my life in general. It doesn’t necessarily have to be Norse mythology — although, I’m a huge fan of that history and use it as a metaphor for the topics I want to discuss. I don’t really want to preach to anybody, but the things I bring up in my lyrics are usually not that interesting to anybody but myself (laughs).

LEO: Do the other guys in the band know what you’re singing about?
JH: Some get it, some don’t … I don’t care (laughs).

LEO: You said you don’t want to preach, but you write a lot about religion. How do you feel about the role of religion in Scandinavia versus in the U.S.?
JH: Having been over to the U.S. many times, I can tell that religion is a bigger part of people’s lives, in general, than it is here. This country is much more secularized than the U.S. is. It also depends on where in the U.S. you go; you go to the major cities, it’s less so. That’s also kind of the same over here.

LEO: How do you feel about the role of religion here, as opposed to in your country?
JH: Personally, I don’t like the form religion has taken. The institution of the church as something to allow people to have spiritual enhancement is just bullshit. I don’t mind if you believe in God, go ahead, but you shouldn’t have to go to church to be interested in that — it’s just bullshit. I think what religion is today is mainly a power tool for people to keep other people in control.

LEO: Do you ever have problems with people telling the band, “You can’t do this” or “You should try to do something more commercial”?
JH: No. Never happens with us, actually. We’ve been with Metal Blade Records now since 1997, and we’ve always had a good connection with those guys. They love metal, and we are, by far, not the most brutal band they’ve signed. So we’ve never had any discussions on that stuff, no.

LEO: What can we look forward to with your live show?
JH: We’re doing a very aggressive and gritty show. We’re performing the new album in its entirety, and then we come back after a short break and play other stuff. It’s two-and-a-half hours of music, and it’s a very energetic and great show. We’re looking forward to getting back to Kentucky, it’s been a while.

Amon Amarth
Tuesday, Aug. 23
Expo Five
2900 Seventh St. Road • 645-1820
www.amonamarth.com
$20; 8 p.m.

Def Leppard’s amazing race to maturity

Phil Collen, 53, joined Def Leppard as a guitarist in 1982, after a successful run with the glam metal band Girl. LEO caught up with him at a Starbucks.



LEO: You’re known for performing shirtless. Are you wearing a shirt now?
PC: Right! Yeah, actually, I’m wearing a shirt right now, so I guess it’s a disguise.

LEO: The last time you were in Louisville, a friend of mine was surprised to see you guys in a Starbucks, ordering decaf lattes. How do you balance being a rock star vs. being a regular guy in real life?
Phil Collen: Easy, actually. I’ve always led a very normal life. I go to the beach all the time, and me and my wife are just hanging here, right now, at Starbucks, yeah. Sometimes people go, “Dude, I love your album, I’ve got your stuff,” it’s great. The only time anything’s ever really happened was years ago, in the ’80s at a Bon Jovi concert in Japan; I got mobbed by a gang of girls and someone tried to tear a hair out.

LEO: You’re know as a studio band. Why a live album now?
PC: Well, we took our first break in 30 years. We took a year off, after being wrapped up in that cycle of album/tour/album/tour. I enjoyed having time to reflect. We got to look back at some of the live stuff – we took it from two tours, in 2008 and 2009. Our producer, who’s our out-front sound guy, literally marked off good versions of songs. It wasn’t a real daunting task, where we’re having to listen to 100 versions of “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” It’d be, like, maybe two.

LEO: 5 songs with “rock” in the title (“Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop),” “Rocket,” “Rock On,” “Rock of Ages,” “Let’s Get Rocked”) appear on this album. Are you aware that 20% of your set involves “rock” in some way?
PC: I think that’s probably the lack of imagination of a teenage boy. When these songs were written, that’s what you’re dealing with. It’s one of those things – be careful what you wish for. You want to be a rock star, then you go, “Shit, we’ve got all these songs, ‘Rock’ this, ‘Rock’ that”… But to be quite honest, they are rockin’ songs; they kind of work in that way. I do think that that’s what happens with younger guys – before you travel and get a different view of the world. So much has happened – politically, socially, spiritually – just from traveling around the world. I guess if we were to write songs about “rockin’ out” now, it wouldn’t be where we’re actually at.

LEO: What inspires you these days?
PC: You meet people, you grow, you get more experience, you see how the world works… I think it’s great, traveling. I’ve been in the most amazing conversations around the world – in India, talking to someone about the prime minister; In Russia, I talked to a dissident. I wouldn’t have had that opportunity, talking to people all over the world. You can say, “I’ve got songs about rockin’ out, and I’ve had a conversation with an arms dealer.” All of a sudden you can put that in your book of experiences, and you just constantly grow. It’s good to be open minded, you can let all these things in, if you write songs or books or poems or paint, even. You can let all this out in an artist way. It’s fantastic, and I really appreciate it. I didn’t really realize that when I went into it in the first place, when I took up the guitar, that it would take me to all these places. You can talk to people on either side of the political fence and, if you’re open minded, you can become an ambassador. Hopefully, you can do some of that in your music, as well.

LEO: Do you have any favorite young bands today?
PC: Something happened – this isn’t just ’cause of the internet, but I think the motivation changed. People want to be famous and rich, but they don’t necessarily want to have an artistic expression. I think that’s a big difference, if you listen to the Beatles, the Stones, Hendrix, Bob Dylan, there was an expression, regardless of genre. If you listen to Erykah Badu, she is an artist, she gets her shit out, what she wants to get out there. There’s some great stuff out there, but you have to dig in and reach for it. There’s not a lot of it.

c. 2011 LEO Weekly

Andra Suchy

Like Woody Allen, Garrison Keillor is a prolific, older wordsmith who thrives on collaborating (artistically) with younger, more vibrant women. Andra Suchy fills that role Sunday evening for a live, not-for-radio performance of “A Prairie Home Companion” at the Kentucky Center.



LEO: How would you describe your music to someone who hasn't heard you yet?
AS: Country/Folk or Americana.

LEO: What inspires your songs?
AS: Mostly my experiences and emotions, but sometimes I am inspired simply by the act of writing. Sometimes it's a particular melody or the instrument I write with that inspires what comes next. Occasionally I set out to write specifically on a particular subject, but I think the best stuff comes more on its own.

LEO: Do you write on a schedule, or whenever inspiration strikes?
AS: Hmmm ... I do both, especially if there is some sort of deadline for a project, or I have been particularly busy and time is hard to come by.

LEO: How do your surroundings inspire your music?
AS: I am very inspired by nature and the seasons and the nostalgia that can accompany them. Sometimes I write about that sort of stuff from my memory as well.

LEO: How much do you feel inspired by other forms of American pop or ethnic music genres?
AS: I really appreciate many genres. I was brought up with so much music from so many angles, it truly deepened my appreciation and also the pool of musical inspiration.

LEO: In the studio, how much do you try to capture your live sound? How free do you feel to experiment with sounds you might not be able to recreate live?
AS: I guess that depends on the specific situation. I really try to get the best representation of the song. Sometimes that comes from a more raw place and sometimes more refined. I guess I don't follow any rigid rules.

LEO: Do you get a lot of groupies?
AS: Hmmm .... there are a few people that repeatedly come to my shows and seem to like my music — which makes me happy!

LEO: What is your favorite song to perform? What do you think is your worst song?
AS: Usually the newest. I can't categorize my songs as the "best" or "worst" because how I feel about them depends on so many things including how they are in the writing process, if they still morphing, how many times we have successfully performed them and if we know how to record them. Right now the worst songs are the ones I haven't started writing yet but know they are in there somewhere.

LEO: Is there a better singer out there than Garrison Keillor? If no, then whom?
AS: I don't think singers (much like songs) can fall into the "good," "better, " "best" type of categories. It's unclassifiable. There are so many singers I love for different reasons and Garrison is one of them. He is my favorite duet partner by far.

c. 2011 LEO Weekly

Storefront Congregation

Storefront Congregation is a Louisville band who blend authentic American sounds into a lovely, comforting mix that's as nice on the couch as it is in a club. Their new album, Kaleidoscope, is out this week, and they will play at Jim Porter's on Friday night to celebrate its release. LEO got singer/guitarist/banjoist Murrell Thixton to tell us how it is.



LEO: So, you're in a band, eh? What's it sound like?

Murrell Thixton: Well, with a 5 string banjo, a mandolin, an upright bass and acoustic guitar... at first glance, certainly a bluegrass band, right? Not necessarily in our case, at least not in the traditional sense. With a love of pretty much all genres of music and all four of us being singers, we bring a mixture of swing, blues and country music into our selection of material, along with a lot of interesting vocal arrangements. We still get after an old traditional bluegrass tune, too, from time to time, when we get the itch.

LEO: You write some originals and do some covers. How do you choose which songs fit?

MT: I feel comfortable saying that the first hurdle tunes have to cross for us is, "Do they fit our vocalists?" We generally are attracted to tunes we consider to be well-written lyrically, and we pay a lot of attention to the "feel" of a song. Will it mix well with the band's instrumentation, and can we work an interesting arrangement? As writers we're very selective of our own material; we all have many tunes that we've tried but just wouldn't work, either due to feel or there wasn't a consensus as to the overall quality for whatever reason. Our new record, Kaleidoscope, has seven originals and the remaining five are covers.

LEO: How challenging is it for you to channel older sounds and make them sound modern and relevant?

MT: I think we do a pretty good job. Playing the instruments we choose to play and doing everything acoustically presents challenges, for sure. I feel we do a good job at making songs from other genres / writers our very own by working hard on developing arrangements that are unique and vocally and instrumentally challenging. We spend equal time on tunes that our band members have written, trying to give them a special touch.

LEO: Where do you find ideas for your songs?

MT: Songs we've written personally come from our own life experiences, and just years of working on our songwriting craft. Again, the tunes we pull from other genres come from four folks that just love all sorts of music. Our covers range from old swing tunes, to Keb' Mo', to an occasional old bluegrass standard, to country and blues.

LEO: How do your surroundings inspire your music?

MT: We all come from a lifetime of exposure to music. Kent Houchin and myself have played music together starting in our early teens. Lauren started at a very early age, as did Nathan. All of us have played professionally in numerous bands, recorded and toured at various times. Just a lifetime of doing what we love with others that do the same.

LEO: How do you fit into the Louisville music scene?

MT: For the most part, we've all been woven in the musical fabric of the Louisville music scene for all of our lives. We all pick occasionally with other folks when the opportunity arises. We all love music and you might find us involved in a recording project, playing some country/rock n roll or just out jamming with friends.

LEO: What do the band members do to earn a steady living?

MT: Kent works the very early driving shift at our big employer UPS, Lauren works for a major Louisville corporation, Nathan is doing the professional musician gig at the moment and I'm with the local music store First Quality Music.

LEO: What is the most rewarding - and most frustrating - thing about what you're trying to accomplish with music?

MT: The most satisfying, no doubt, is putting on a good show and making good music. All musicians spend hours perfecting their craft and a tiny amount of time performing. It always feels great when the work pays off and the performance goes well. I think I speak for most musicians who "have it in their blood" — we'd all love to be able to play on a full-time basis. Making an actual living, covering the bills, taking care of your family and putting some money back is almost impossible for most pickers, they have to do something else to make ends meet. When you spend those hours doing the "regular job", it can severely cut into the creative time. Still, we manage with a lot of hard work and some serious time-juggling to make a CD and get out and play some performances. Our new CD, Kaleidoscope, premieres on August 5th; we just opened the boxes yesterday from Discmakers and that was a mighty fine feeling... kind of an "ahhh" moment after about a 10 month effort. It was nice.

Storefront Congregation with Tyrone Cotton
Jim Porter's
2345 Lexington Rd.
http://storefrontband.com/
7 p.m., &10 adv. $12 DOS

Maiden Radio's 'Lullabies'

Julia Purcell didn’t plan to make a record of lullabies to sell. While pregnant, Purcell thought it would be fun to make one for her now 10-month-old, Maya. Her bandmates, Cheyenne Mize and Joan Shelley, liked her idea.

“Maybe that took the edge off,” she says. “That allowed us to create something really organic and beautiful. We spent a couple of short afternoons in Cheyenne’s attic recording around one microphone, and the results, we really loved.”

Purcell’s partners both also have solo careers, while she owns a music therapy business, Louisville Expressive Therapies.

“I never saw myself as doing music full-time, as a performer. I’m just really thankful that I’m able to hold onto a part of me that can do that for myself, to be a whole person. I don’t feel like I’ve missed out; a solo career was never really a dream of mine. What I’m doing with these ladies is perfect.”

Between the business, the baby and the new album, she has plenty going on. Maya made her voice heard during our interview. “This is harder than any job I’ve had,” Purcell laughs. “I’m on duty all the time.”

The trio is promoting this short but sweet record of traditionals with performances at Uncle Slayton’s (Aug. 5) and ear X-tacy (Aug. 9).

“We thought there was a market for it — everyone’s having babies or knows someone who’s having babies. It’s not just for babies, it’s an album for everybody.”

c. 2011 LEO Weekly