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Interview
by SashaS
23-5-2003
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| Neva Dinova rock from the deep Midwest |
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Tragic beauty of humanity
Neva Dinova: sound goldmine in Midwest
Some guys get all the lucky breaks, that’s the only explanation about certain musical careers and the list can be as long as you like but let’s start off with Elbow, Stereophonics, Travis from these side of the pond and Grandaddy, Mercury Rev, Nickelback on the other Atlantic end… For the single brilliance of Radiohead there are hundreds of futile artists such as Avril Lavigne, Good Charlotte, Evanescence… Additionally, there are some underground and localized faves that happen to make music that is much better than your average rock star (Red Hot Chili Pepper, for Jove’s sakes!) but haven’t struck it lucky… yet
Thus, let us present Neva Dinova, a Nebraskan band with a very impressive debut album behind them, a collection of songs that travels the emo-path but its sound is buzzier, more spaced-out, ready to take off into the furthest dreamlands. If ‘Neva Dinova’ needs to be catalogued, then it would be the informed, punk with more melodies, ‘New Wave’. Still, it is less Television and more many a British band from about two decades ago.
We get guitarist and vocalist Jake Bellows to introduce the band and his ‘spiritual shoplifting’, i.e. poetic view.
“I hear that a lot,” Bellows comments on the Brit-connection, “and I like that because we have a lot of influences… I don’t pay much attention to where influences come from; there is nothing contrived in our music… I’d hate that, I think it is the worst thing to be fake… I talk to a lot of other musicians and they tell me, ‘I think people are into what I’m doing’…”
Well, music/loving has become an alien concept in a sci-fi territory…
“We made couple of other albums,” Bellows coolly recalls, “but didn’t think anybody would want to put them out, we never really figured anybody would want to listen to them. I don’t really understand the commercial world, it’s like a crap shooting… I believe there are so many great bands that never make it and we were ready to play regardless, for the sake of music, for our souls.”
Disheartened God
Back in 1992 Bellows hooked up with bassist Heath Koonz in Omaha and succession of members led to the present incarnation of two (more) guitarists upfront, Mike Kratky and Tim Haes (recruited in 1998) and drummer Bo Anderson (the 1999 class). Ten years down the timeline the band issues the album that doesn’t play it safe by being diverse, eager to expend and experiment and where, next to each other, are a couple of intriguing tracks: ‘Jesus’ Choir’ and ‘Lucifer’s Lament’. All part of regarding music as an art form, a very just but rare case these years.
“Yeah, I’m guilty of that,” he readily confesses, “but there are craftsmen who can knock out a perfect song and then there are others who simply channel emotions, thoughts, ideas… I love tragic stories, there is much more to them… The titles you mention, some people may think we are very religious but it is not that what interests me but the stories behind…”
“‘Lucifer’s Lament’ for instance, it is about God’s right-hand man gone bad and forced to live people he hates, finds out what he has in common with them and ends waiting for the Judgement Day, like everybody else.”
The Darth Vedar-like dilemma, obviously.
Tender hearts and troubled men
‘Neva Dinova’ is an album that doesn’t shy away from composure: songs such as ‘Dancers Fantastic’ use the template of Goth to construct a post-digi ambient-rocker with a curious motif that recalls The Clash; ‘Brooklyn’ is a jangly, slightly countrified song, beautifully and wistfully delivered; there are elements of jazz, there are also samples to make the message of ‘Meetings For Surrender’ more poignant, while ‘Anita’ is a pure tearjerker, slowly burning its scar into your memory at the end of a night you failed to pull again.
At the same time the band has a wicked side and their biog describes Krakty’s style as “Jimi Hendrix, if he couldn’t play guitar and was gay.” Jake himself doesn’t come out much better but a paranoid man, a trait he shares with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke.
“Yeah, I’m but then I see what’s going on around. I find too many things disgusting, like ‘fashion-core’… I think we make ourselves look really unattractive, it (the whole image thing) bores the hell out of me. I don’t like to really try because it has nothing to do with music. It is also funny, I find it.”
The album’s been out for a while and it is time to search for another awesome chord and lyric to match its mood.
“I’m really excited,” Bellows enthuses, “because we’re getting back into a studio to record two more songs. I’m really struck about it because the new songs are strange but what can you do but follow your destiny?”
Destiny’s has been a bit harsh towards the band so far and they had to cancel a West Coast trip recently when their van broke down and got them stuck in some wilderness where all they could do is drink beer, shoot lizards and suck cacti. It must have been an experience as abstract as their album is insightful.
Oh, sorry, had me imagination on a supersonic-setting; they broke down around Phoenix, Arizona (bloody hot!), which is kinda boring…
SashaS
23-5-2003
Neva Dinova’s album is available now on Crank! A Record Company
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