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Interview
by SashaS
9-4-2004
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| Kaito's 'Band Red' sets the future way |
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Entertain and alert
Kaito on being aliens at home
It’s been long in coming: album release, London dates, local applause and this interview. Kaito, let’s not beat about the fur protest- are one of the most exciting UK bands around. Forget Franz Ferdinand and Keane, Kaito’s album ‘Band Red’ sounds as fresh as the snow-blinding commercial laundry.
Live, they are entertaining and alerting, energetic and mesmerising, exciting - a dose rather than an abandon. They can be slow and menacing, alike on the only instrumental, ‘?’, and then go weird, cyber-country with looped ending on the new album’s concluding ‘3am’. Onstage they are primal and rousing and sure to induce a hormonal riot.
Kaito’s second elpee is ‘Band Red’. Imagine if you had a big cauldron and you tossed in inspirational ingredients of Gang Of Four, The Slits, Can, Au Pairs, PiL, Laura Logic, then - the Holy Trinity [and the ghost] of underground/alternative - MC5, Velvet Underground, The Stooges, The Ramones… Stir it up, simmer for five, six years and, hey, presto!
Well, then - kick the cauldron over because the band claims not to have listened to any of these bands and only informed themselves after the fact, i.e. journalists throwing the names at them. Thus, they reacted to whatever was going around them - and it was like not really much - and then found them getting a lot of acclaim and work [they toured the US four times in 2003!] against the sad trend of Brit bands not cutting it Stateside.
The reason being - lack of a UK contract!? Formed in 1998 in Norwich, the band’s debut album came in 2001, on Fierce Panda, entitled ‘You’ve Seen Us You Must Have Seen Us’ that strangely bypassed media and fans’ attention here but attracted enough praise and demand across the Atlantic. The current album’s been out in the States for almost a year and Rolling Stone magazine proclaimed it one of the releases of 2003!?
And, it is bloody true - full of brilliant, challenging and invigorating sounds, it twists pop and rock through a ringer that spits out these slabs of aural feast! The Brit-version of the album is also enlarged to include 5 live tracks [two new titles] form a show in the London’s Garage last autumn. The reason is not the punk-sized album of 36 minutes (4 of which are used to effects-end ‘3am’] duration but they’ve evolved, learnt more and road-hardened.
Niki Colk leads this boy-girl outfit on vocal and guitar, Dave Lake is a guitarist/EFX-man, Gemma Cullingford is bassing and Deita Quantrill propels some solid beats behind them. We meet the day after playing with label mates Erase Errata and Le Tigre and upon watching them soundcheck several songs for their own album launch party. And, it is notable, they play for the technician with the same intensity as they do their shows!
Out there...
Having all your success in America, you are like in that Gang Of Four Song, ‘At Home He Is A Tourist’?
“It is strange,” Ms Colk says under the dark fringe, “but the album came out there last May. It was a follow up to our debut album and we didn’t have a contract here but decided to go with the US release. We’ve spent so much time there and really didn’t have opportunity to play around here and secure a contract. But, yeah, we go home to have holidays.”
Do you suspect Brit-public’s capriciousness and being occupied by all the TV-karaoke pop stars to look for ‘rebels’?
“It is probably true,” dark and willowy singer giggles, “I don’t know but I think they are opening up now…”
“We had the opportunity to release the record,” Lake joins in, “on a smaller label but didn’t want to and waited for the right label to come along. Now, we can concentrate on the domestic market.”
“It is important to whom you sign as well,” Niki adds, “and our label is full of experimental guitar music… But, hopefully we’ll never get bracketed, we don’t ever want to be bracketed. Talking about our success in America, it is much easier to get on the radio there with plenty of college stations. You can‘t get airplay in Britain…
Unless you are crap, that is. The new album, to us, is an old set to you; how are you progressing with the next one?
“We’ve started writing songs,” Niki informs, “and have got four already. We plan to do some more writing in May, because that’s when we’ll have the time.”
“We are a band,” Quntraill adds, “who need to be off the road to write, we can’t do it while touring. We get ideas and when get into our own space, they just explode!”
“We plan to release a brand new single,” Colk goes on, “around the beginning of autumn. Jon Spencer (of Blues Explosion) has offered to produce it and we are excited. The next record will be more like our live sound, we’ve changed a fair bit since recording the album.”
Living & dreamin', alone
Kaito, named after the karate-serving home-assistant to celluloid Inspector Clouseau, are a bunch of lovely people, despite the marvellously aggressive noise they make onstage. Thus, it is unthinkable they’d fall out with their original label but no song by the was included on the recently released ‘Decade: Ten Years Of Fierce Panda’.
“Really? We should have been on it,” guitarist reacts first, “because they rang up and asked our permission and we gave it to them. I don’t know the reason but earlier this week I saw a copy and was surprised that we weren’t on it.”
“They’ll be begging us,” Niki smiles, “when we become famous!”
And this ought not an idle ad lib be if there is any curiosity, taste and candour left in the world hyped into so many tittle-tattle trappings, parsimonious distractions and televised trivia.
Live dates:
21 April 2004 - Barfly, London/ Playlouder's Singles Club Night
23 April 2004 - Arts Centre, Norwich
SashaS
19-12-2003
Kaito’s album ‘Band Red’ is released 05 April 2004 by Blast First
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