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Dark Life seems to be pretty good in camp Kalev. “We’ve just sound checked in Liverpool, it’s raining heavily but we’re sat in a van full of booze. We’ve got 6 crates of beer and a rapidly dwindling spirits rack so we’re happy.” Consisting of Sam Handley on Bass, drummer Oliver Hickman, guitarist/vocalist Andrew Nicholls, the electronic Cian O'Neill and lead guitarist Ben Tarrant-Brown it’s been a steady progression after various incarnations of the band. “We’ve been together for two years. We’ve been working together in various forms for many years but Kalev itself has been around for about two years.”
With the smouldering, distortion heavy sneer of previous single ‘Undoing’ still fresh in the mind and raw in the ears, second single ‘Cutting at Nothing’ is due for release, April 17 on Road Movie Revival, forming the second chapter of the Kalev story. Not that it’s as cut and dried as that. After belatedly embarking on a UK tour after some random drummer related setbacks, it seems the bandwagon’s finally starting to roll.
It’s a minor miracle they even made it on tour with drummer Oliver Hickman doing his best to keep NHS waiting lists up and A & E eternally busy. Recovering from a catalogue of injuries prior to the tour he took it upon himself to stick it to the man, or in this case policewoman. So it’s not exactly the anarchic tale of revolution we’d love this copy to be but we all know how the song goes. “I hurt my ankle before our last dates and then just before this tour I was hit by a police car and now my leg is fully broken’ Oliver replies, “A police car?” “Well a policewoman in a car while I was on my bike. Neither she nor I were too pleased. It’s okay though. I’m still playing the drums fine on these dates. I’ve got a cast on but it’s more of an inconvenience than anything else. Although I am none too pleased with the scally who stole my crutch and ran off with it.”
Altercations with the law and with enough booze in tow to satisfy Keith Richard's morning tipple, Kalev have the makings of a journalist’s wet dream. Intelligent and open they acknowledge the struggle of getting your music heard but remain optimistic when talking about expectations for the forthcoming single. “I’d like to sell them all again” states Andy before Cian takes up the point, “So many people were disappointed not to get a copy of 'Undoing' because it was available only as a limited edition vinyl and it sold out so quickly. It’s going to be good to have more copies for this one because everyone who wants the single will be able to get hold of it. It’s out on both vinyl and CD this time, which helps.” As Andy concludes; “There are a lot of people who have heard of our band but don’t know enough about us, so having more copies available hopefully will mean we can reach them.”
The message is a clear one people, buy the single. You’ll be better for it, they’ll be better for it. Everyone’s a winner. Plus you might be able to cover some of Olly’s medical expenses and fund the bands next album purchases. “Drum’s Not Dead by the Liars”, “The Morning after girls. I’m really looking forward to getting that one,” and “The new Tool album out in May” would do Ben, Cian and Olly quite nicely.
Taking the ferocity of At the Drive In, the mordancy of Joy Divison and the atmospheric electronica of Aphex Twin, Kalev’s meld of immediate, electronic and industrial influences are clearly prevalent in their sound but it seems we’ve missed one that Andy Kalev holds dear. “The Bad Seeds, no one ever picks out our Bad Seeds influence. Well one person picked it out but anyway, we’re constantly listening to the Bad Seeds.”
Attempts at pigeon holing the band are a source of consternation within and one they’re prepared to tackle directly. “It’s Kalev, we’re trying to create our own kind of music” Cian iterates, “We find it hard to define and pigeonhole our music, but its dark, lots of beats, twisting guitar lines but we won’t define our sound by genre’ Olly closes. Or so we thought before Andy continues… “The more words you have to throw together to describe someone’s music the less you should do it. Unless you can just say they are just a rock band or just an indie band it’s really obvious they are just a band who sound like themselves.”
Cian then takes up the baton, “I think it’s quite facile to continue to categorise music with guitars, bass and drums, because post Radiohead everything is so fractured and open, you can do whatever the fuck you want to do musically. Radiohead have made a wide variety of music throughout their career and everyone is allowed to do that. Many of the really good bands these days are those that sit across genres.” “I’m not sure Radiohead did that first’ Olly interjects before Cian hammers home his point; "Maybe not first but they have been incredibly important in terms of their having helped fracture these old definitions. People like Radiohead, Primal Scream and the Icarus Line have used electronics and computers and got it into people’s heads that you could use synths in rock music without it being prog.”
With some decisive musical opinion it sounds like Kalev have an action plan. “To get signed, getting signed to a label which is right for us. There’s lots of interest at the moment but its just choosing what’s going to be right for us. It’s making sure the labels get that we can be diverse and still hold an audience.” “I am looking forward to getting the Nine Inch Nails and At the Drive In fans to our shows.” They finish, “This is a long term project. We’re doing this to make music. We’re not doing this to be hip or cool, to be in a scene or to get girls; we’re doing this to make music and be true to it. True, the music is not the most accessible at times but at others it is very accessible. It may take a while for us to stake a claim, but we will definitely get there.”
Driven, daring and danceable, Kalev are the darkhorses for 2006.
Photos by: Simon Leak
