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For many people metal is a realm full of thunderously dropped Ds, dastardly guitar dexterity displayed at breakneck speed, and enough doom and gloom to rain on a whole month of birthday parties. Working from inside that world on out, Kayo Dot is a band that draws all new boundaries. Getting here has involved lots of work on all ends, but the force that is Kayo Dot is something that certainly must be reckoned with.
Its kind of like the 7 year product of attempts that Ive made at being able to accurately express in the doom metal idiom what Ive wanted to, guitarist and singer Toby Driver says. For example, we had that band beforehand that started around 96 and we made a few CDs. The reason that I think I started doing that with the people that started doing that with me was because we were listening to stuff that was kind of similar at the time that sort of atmospheric doom. We would listen and say this is missing this part or this should do this instead, it would be so great if and so we realized we should just make it ourselves.
It was albums like Tiamats Wild Honey that revealed what was possible to be achieved, but most records were the subject of the criticism and discussion that established the foundations of Kayo Dot. The earlier band, Maudlin of the Well recorded three albums, but it almost seems as those were the minor leagues and now this band is ready for their shot at the bigs. With Maudlin of the Well it was a doom metal record, a little bit weirder metal record, and even weirder doom metal record, Driver admits, and now this thing.
This thing is Kayo Dot - an ensemble that brings eight people to the stage with many of them switching among instruments (yes there really is a euphonium in the middle of the stage). Exploring all of the sounds that they wanted to make, Choirs of the Eye is a monumental record that can lull you to sleep at one moment and provide the soundtrack for your nightmares the next. It has just taken this long to make the album I wanted to make. I think the other ones are cool, but with the Kayo Dot record I dont really feel that theres anything more I need to say in that idiom, Driver proclaims. Now I feel like Im free to do other things musically.
That freedom has come after concentrated work creating this record, and having a band was just an afterthought. It was always studio albums first and then getting it to happen live was a secondary consideration. Breaking out of the confines of the doom metal that theyd been defined by was a big part of the name switch, but getting taken seriously came pretty easily. Driver wrote a letter to John Zorn about the frustration of being restricted to this genre. Zorn, well known for showcasing metal players outside of their normal paradigms, signed the band to his label Tzadik Records.
The band was in a transition though as the old core couldnt really replicate what was on the record and the ranks swelled. If you look on the CD theres a picture on the back and its only five of us and thats the five people that wrote the record. I didnt think we had any intent of ever playing it live, as that was before the whole Tzadik thing, and we just wanted to record that before people moved away. It was pretty much the last Maudlin of the Well record that we were going to do and there was label drama and people left and the name Maudlin of the Well got stupid, Driver says.
With that there is Kayo Dot, whos current active membership includes Driver, along with Greg Massi (guitar, voice), Nicholas Kyte (bass, guitar, voice), Sam Gutterman (percussion, guitar, voice), Mia Matsumiya (violin, viola), Ryan McGuire (bass, double-bass), Forbes Graham (trumpet, euphonium, guitar), and D. Thomas Murray (live sound engineering and samples). With three members of the band holding music degrees, one currently enrolled at Berklee and most everyone else with some classical training, stupidity isnt a part of Kayo Dot's musical vocabulary. Ive gone back to a lot of old records and think that I used to listen to some shitty music, Driver admits. A lot of it has to do that I learned more academically, which kind of sucks because the more you learn academically the further you get from the emotional, it kind of ruins [the albums that dont stand the test of time], but then it gives you an appreciation for stuff that you wouldnt have had.
The whole band is setting out with intentions for a November tour all around the country. Theres really not much way for the band to pare down for the trek, We need everyone, so we kind of have no choice, Driver says. I think were totally expecting to lose money, but we need to do it anyway.
While a trailer may be necessary to lug all of the personnel and equipment that the band has, theres certainly no reason to expunge the instruments that you rarely see on stage in a rock club. People talk about the other instruments as if they dont belong, and I never really thought that it was a big deal and they shouldnt be there and I never thought about why they shouldnt be there or anything like that I figured they were there so wed use it.
Later when you learn more about music and composition, you learn that certain instruments can express certain lines in ways that other ones cant and theyre useful for things that other instruments arent and if you want to say something, you can only say it with a trombone sometimes, Driver says. Its a constant learning process and anything I say now, Ill probably change my mind about later.
Its not due to a higher compositional force that Kayo Dot integrates other elements into their performances. Sometimes the reason is as simple as finding something for people to do. Its mostly because you have friends who can do these things and you want to have them participate, Driver says of the guest appearances on the album. I think its always been a communal sort of get-your-friends-involved environment. On the really old stuff the only non-rock instruments were a trumpet and a clarinet. The trumpet was there because my friend Jason played trumpet and nothing else and he was my buddy and I said, hey, so you want to play on the record? and that was it and I could play clarinet better than I can play any other instrument so I put that on there.
Despite the dizzying complexities of Kayo Dots songs, its that sort of simplicity that lies at the core of the band. When the song does call for a sound the band has been able to find someone who can provide just what is necessary. Weve never gone wow, it would be great to have a harp here and then have to go hire a harpist, Driver concedes. Weve never really gone that far. But we have thought it would be great to have a French horn here, we know this guy but harp would be cool.
Ultimately the personalities necessary to bring Kayo Dot to life have been found close at hand. Sometimes youre working on the arrangement of the song and you think this would be really great here, Driver says. And fortunately you already know someone that can do it anyway.
Bringing Kayo Dot into being as a live entity has been a strange path. Assembling the people to replicate the recordings on stage never yields perfect results. The power that spills from a wall of guitars colliding with horns and strings and samples is difficult to harness. Its really difficult to predict, Driver says. It might suck really bad but it might work really great too. Its actually something that is really unfamiliar territory for me, but I was interested in seeing what would happen. Each time on stage is a new adventure for the band despite the fact their live repertoire still focuses on the songs of Choirs of the Eye.
The album does creep along at a glacial pace when it glides through the atmospheric passages, but assaults with a fury at other moments, but its certainly not full of the histrionic playing that prizes speed at all costs in the quest for making metal. Part of the reason that all of the things we write are slow is we just cant play that fast, Driver claims. I think I find the most expression personally in tones and textures, and when you play fast you just hear fast, you dont ever feel one big chord rushing through you. If you listen to Paganini you can definitely hear the notes, but you can also hear the chord changes.
With Kayo Dots debut album serving as the culmination of Drivers explorations of doom metal, hes loosened the reigns and is letting the band progress on its own power. The band has always been my thing with me telling other people what to do with participation from other people, but theyve always been like youre in charge, Driver said, and I dont want to be in charge anymore and I wanted to let go and not have that burden.
Yielding control has brought about a communal songwriting process with band members bringing in ideas and then the whole ensemble bashing them into shape to try and create songs that fit within the paradigm of Kayo Dot.
Other people have written new songs for the band and theyre still trying to explain their ideas but its a slow process. Watching the songs form and grow is what Driver does while the songs that hes working on his own dont fit into this current model. The new stuff that I have been writing is stuff that Kayo Dot wouldnt be able to do live because it uses a piano or weird techniques, or its really minimal and doesnt require 8 people to play it.
With a full band playing songs as opposed to the studio creation of the album, Drivers ideas for Kayo Dot include carrying that new band aesthetic into the studio. I would like to record in a live room instead of having such an overdubbed sound, with the live feel of the whole ensemble. Its a power that recording tape can only capture so well. To feel the atmospheric swells erupt into tidal waves of sound crashing against your chest is to understand Kayo Dot.
