KYLESA delivered their fifth full-length record “Spiral Shadows” in 2010, out on Season Of Mist, and last January they crossed the sea again to bring their sludgy sonic-kaleidoscopic musical assault to the European crowds. They played one single date in Italy in a small club just outside Milan and we got the chance to be there and interview their vocalist/guitarist and founder member Laura Pleasants (current line-up is completed by Philip on guitars/vocals, Eric on bass, Carl and Tyler drums percussion). As soon as the guys are finished up with the sound-check we move inside the tourbus to ask her a bunch of questions on their history, having two drummers in line-up, the connection visuals and music the band is known for, their label mates Cynic and much more. So read on what Laura had to say, check out their music and don't miss them the next time they play near you.
gan: Hey guys what’s up and how’s this tour going?
So far the tour is going well. And we're two weeks in tour today and it's 14 day, 14 shows maybe. So...two weeks on a six weeks tour and you know on this long tours the first two weeks it's always easy. We've been to south Europe were the weather was warm and now we're going to the fridged north after tonight. We're here and in many places as last year and we're pretty happy with the way the shows are going. That's nice.
gan: What are some of your expectations on tonight show?
What's today?
gan: Today it's Friday.
So that's good. I don't know much about this club where we are. But I hope people will come out...it's Friday night. Overall we haven't many shows in Italy we played Milan a few times.
gan: I’ll let you introduce all the current members and tell us a bit about your history. Let’s go back to 2001…
Oh...that's a long story! Basically we started in 2001 and I was still in college. Phil and I were friends and he had this other band Damad...and we were playing together...and he asked me to be in his band and so we started and here we are now many many member changes later. But Philip and I have been in the band since the beginning. Carl has been with us since 2005/2006. Tyler has been with us half and half, and Eric as been with us half and half. So the line-up we have now these guys have been with us for a while half and half...Eric for example is playing bass right now but he used to play second drums. I know it's kinda confusing...but it doesn't really matter we're just keeping it going. But we've done a lot over the past ten years mainly doing things ourselves especially for the first part of our existence or two third of our existence. But we started coming to Europe in 2005 and we really like to play to European audiences, and we've got five full-length out and lot's of split records and 7”s as well. And when we get home we're gonna work on a record which is gonna be a bunch of b-sides, stuff we recorded that hasn't been released, demos and cover as well. It should be fun! And we're also ready to work on the new record but that isn't gonna come out until 2014. We'll probably be back in Europe at some festivals in late August.
gan: The “Spiral Shadow” has been out more than a year now. How would you compare it to the other records you released previously?
I think all of our records sound different. I'm especially happy with the past two records and I think they are strongest. And I think “Spiral Shadows” overall is our strongest record in execution and songwriting and ideas forming. It's more about allowing yourself writing other kinds of music we were interested in. But still keeping it in the round of Kylesa. It was important to me and to Philip when we were writing the record for it to be our own brainchild and write whatever we wanted to write. I didn't feel like I wanted to scream on every single songs...and every song needn't it to be like a bludgeoning heavy ripper...even if I love that stuff I like also the more trippy, dynamic spacey guitars. Because there's so much going on with the two drums and like some keyboards. Two guitarists, two vocalists, and there's a lot of space and everything is just crazy at once. So we really wanted more breath in our last record. Let the instrument breath and have their own place in the mix. And I think that's the biggest challenge. It's not like we're trying to play one genre of music...we're trying to incorporate a lot of ideas so it's a fun challenge.
gan: Since your third record you added a second drummer to your line-up. How did this come about?
Well, originally when we started out the band I was sitting with Philip and talking and as soon as we started talking about playing music together and doing a band together...I was playing at the time with Tyler actually but he was few years younger than me and he was also in another band but he and I jammed together and at that point he thought it was cool joining forces because Christian played drums and Tyler played drums so we could have two drummers. And at that time it was just to be heavy and loud. But at the time Tyler didn't really wanna commit to it and you know, which is okay, he had another band. So that was about 2000 when we were talking about this stuff so we went on with one drummer and then our original drummer quit and we got another drummer but it didn't work. Then we got Carl that we knew and he was our friend and he was in band called the Unpersons but he was just finishing up school but we were jamming with him. But he said I can't tour I'm in school. So we were jamming with him and trying our own stuff and we were trying up drummers. And this kid from Michigan came down, which is really far away from where we are, and he tried out he wanted to be the drummer we happen to have two drums kits in our space and we had Carl doing percussion and samples and tour we he wanted to and he was like in school but then around the same time he said I want to be in the band so we said cool this is gonna work we can have two drummers now if they both wanna do it and they did. So, that's when we recorded “Time Will Fuse Its Worth” (gan: dated 2006) very soon after they joined...like sixth months so somehow rushed and didn't really know what we were doing in the studio. We originally started this to be heavy...now it's still heavy but it's also about dynamics. And recorded in certain way it's cool what they can do. There's lot more going on.
gan: What your opinion on the bands you’re currently touring with? -I actually don't know them. Have you already shared the stage with them earlier and who decided to put them up with you?
We want to have good bands, essentially. But honestly we thought more people will know who they were. Circle Takes The Square, they're band from Savannah, Georgia and they are well known in the states and in some places in Europe. Ken Mode from Canada...we basically just like their music. They toured Europe a couple of time but don't much I think. But again essentially we just wanted to have good bands with us.
gan: Let me quote a bit of your bio “While we are no kings of one scene, we have, in a sense, just developed our own thing”. In my view this says already really much about your band vision but if you had to go deeper or just comment about the moment you wrote those words, what would you add?
We play with punk bands, metal bands, rock bands any rock bands and we love all sort of music so...when we started we played with a lot thrash bands hardcore-thrash that was pretty popular at the time but nothing sounded like we sounded so...in a lot of cases we were too metal for punks or too punk for metalheads. But you have to do your own thing you know, it's harder but I think it's important to be original, that's important for us anyway.
gan: You hail from Savannah, South-East USA. How has growing up/living in this area influenced you as individuals and as a band?
I mean of course you always are gonna be influenced by your surroundings, and Philip and Carl grew up there...I moved there to go to college lived there since. It's really warm there, it's beautiful but it can be oppressively hot. There's a lot political issues since we are in the deep south. There's a lot racism, ignorance, there's also not a lot to do there since it's a small college town and touristic town because it's on the coast but it influenced our sound to a certain degree. Where you come from it's where you come from, it's always gonna influence what you produce.
gan: What about the music scene in Savannah?
It's such a small town. There's something happening. There are kids playing music. There's a big art school there so that produces bands. But you know most people leave, it's very transitory. So for that reason, you know, bands come and go. It's a small scene. And it's up and down. Sometimes it's good for a few years and sometimes it sucks...for a few years. It's kind of on transaction point right now.
gan: I’ve always been very intrigued with your cover artworks. The latest was made by a dude named Santos and in the past you had Baroness’s John ( I really dig his arts) and even famed Pushead. How and who come up with the theme/subject and is there any arts you’re more fond of than the other?
John Santos. He did a lot of works. He hasn't done a lot of cover artworks specifically but a lot of more works as an illustrator. He's a busy dude these days. He has done t-shirts for us for a long time and we wanted to work with him for the cover record and we want to work with someone else for next. But the visual representation of our band it's been always very important. Mainly it's because we love art we love cover arts and we've been collecting vinyls records forever and it's just nice way to display a nice piece of artwork. It just goes back to us being fan of art so it's important to have out arts look good and reflect...kind of reflect what we do.
gan: Philip was again behind the desk for the recording of “Spiral Shadow”, and this was not the first time? Ever felt the need to have an external in?
Yes, Philip but we have also to give credit to the guys at studio since we've been working with James ans Steve forever. So it's like those three working together. A couple of things, I'm comfortable working with them. I like tracking with them I know that studio very well...we know that studio very well we know how it sounds, you know, and if we were to go to another studio or hire a producer it will cost a lot of money. The way we do right now we have more time in the studio which is really important for a band on a small budget. People don't know how much this shit cost. I mean it's expensive. We've got a really good deal worked out with the people we work with. And no one knows our music better than we do.
gan: You guys moved from Prosthetic to Season Of Mist. Mind to talk about this?
ah...I'm not gonna go in too much details but I can say we're very happy working with Season of Mist now and we think it was a good move.
gan: Season Of Mist is based in Europe?
Yeah, they're a French label and we do tour Europe. But this has not much to do with that. We just like they are a label that has different things going on like rock n roll and then it is metal, rock kind of...
gan: Yes they have a pretty varied roster. I just bought the latest ep from Cynic...
I like it...I like it
gan: They moved far away from their death metal sounds of the very beginning but I guess it was in their blood to be more than just death metal. I have their demos and then “Focus”.
Yeah...and I'm coming from like the other end of the spectrum...like I was never a huge fan of them.
gan: What are some of the gears you use to get your sound? I saw some pictures on the web and now I check out what you have on the stage, and you have an impressively huge number of pedals, stomp boxes. I guess you have been increasing the number over the years...
What's today?
gan: Today it's Friday.
So that's good. I don't know much about this club where we are. But I hope people will come out...it's Friday night. Overall we haven't many shows in Italy we played Milan a few times.
gan: I’ll let you introduce all the current members and tell us a bit about your history. Let’s go back to 2001…
Oh...that's a long story! Basically we started in 2001 and I was still in college. Phil and I were friends and he had this other band Damad...and we were playing together...and he asked me to be in his band and so we started and here we are now many many member changes later. But Philip and I have been in the band since the beginning. Carl has been with us since 2005/2006. Tyler has been with us half and half, and Eric as been with us half and half. So the line-up we have now these guys have been with us for a while half and half...Eric for example is playing bass right now but he used to play second drums. I know it's kinda confusing...but it doesn't really matter we're just keeping it going. But we've done a lot over the past ten years mainly doing things ourselves especially for the first part of our existence or two third of our existence. But we started coming to Europe in 2005 and we really like to play to European audiences, and we've got five full-length out and lot's of split records and 7”s as well. And when we get home we're gonna work on a record which is gonna be a bunch of b-sides, stuff we recorded that hasn't been released, demos and cover as well. It should be fun! And we're also ready to work on the new record but that isn't gonna come out until 2014. We'll probably be back in Europe at some festivals in late August.
gan: The “Spiral Shadow” has been out more than a year now. How would you compare it to the other records you released previously?
I think all of our records sound different. I'm especially happy with the past two records and I think they are strongest. And I think “Spiral Shadows” overall is our strongest record in execution and songwriting and ideas forming. It's more about allowing yourself writing other kinds of music we were interested in. But still keeping it in the round of Kylesa. It was important to me and to Philip when we were writing the record for it to be our own brainchild and write whatever we wanted to write. I didn't feel like I wanted to scream on every single songs...and every song needn't it to be like a bludgeoning heavy ripper...even if I love that stuff I like also the more trippy, dynamic spacey guitars. Because there's so much going on with the two drums and like some keyboards. Two guitarists, two vocalists, and there's a lot of space and everything is just crazy at once. So we really wanted more breath in our last record. Let the instrument breath and have their own place in the mix. And I think that's the biggest challenge. It's not like we're trying to play one genre of music...we're trying to incorporate a lot of ideas so it's a fun challenge.
gan: Since your third record you added a second drummer to your line-up. How did this come about?
Well, originally when we started out the band I was sitting with Philip and talking and as soon as we started talking about playing music together and doing a band together...I was playing at the time with Tyler actually but he was few years younger than me and he was also in another band but he and I jammed together and at that point he thought it was cool joining forces because Christian played drums and Tyler played drums so we could have two drummers. And at that time it was just to be heavy and loud. But at the time Tyler didn't really wanna commit to it and you know, which is okay, he had another band. So that was about 2000 when we were talking about this stuff so we went on with one drummer and then our original drummer quit and we got another drummer but it didn't work. Then we got Carl that we knew and he was our friend and he was in band called the Unpersons but he was just finishing up school but we were jamming with him. But he said I can't tour I'm in school. So we were jamming with him and trying our own stuff and we were trying up drummers. And this kid from Michigan came down, which is really far away from where we are, and he tried out he wanted to be the drummer we happen to have two drums kits in our space and we had Carl doing percussion and samples and tour we he wanted to and he was like in school but then around the same time he said I want to be in the band so we said cool this is gonna work we can have two drummers now if they both wanna do it and they did. So, that's when we recorded “Time Will Fuse Its Worth” (gan: dated 2006) very soon after they joined...like sixth months so somehow rushed and didn't really know what we were doing in the studio. We originally started this to be heavy...now it's still heavy but it's also about dynamics. And recorded in certain way it's cool what they can do. There's lot more going on.
gan: What your opinion on the bands you’re currently touring with? -I actually don't know them. Have you already shared the stage with them earlier and who decided to put them up with you?
We want to have good bands, essentially. But honestly we thought more people will know who they were. Circle Takes The Square, they're band from Savannah, Georgia and they are well known in the states and in some places in Europe. Ken Mode from Canada...we basically just like their music. They toured Europe a couple of time but don't much I think. But again essentially we just wanted to have good bands with us.
gan: Let me quote a bit of your bio “While we are no kings of one scene, we have, in a sense, just developed our own thing”. In my view this says already really much about your band vision but if you had to go deeper or just comment about the moment you wrote those words, what would you add?
We play with punk bands, metal bands, rock bands any rock bands and we love all sort of music so...when we started we played with a lot thrash bands hardcore-thrash that was pretty popular at the time but nothing sounded like we sounded so...in a lot of cases we were too metal for punks or too punk for metalheads. But you have to do your own thing you know, it's harder but I think it's important to be original, that's important for us anyway.
gan: You hail from Savannah, South-East USA. How has growing up/living in this area influenced you as individuals and as a band?
I mean of course you always are gonna be influenced by your surroundings, and Philip and Carl grew up there...I moved there to go to college lived there since. It's really warm there, it's beautiful but it can be oppressively hot. There's a lot political issues since we are in the deep south. There's a lot racism, ignorance, there's also not a lot to do there since it's a small college town and touristic town because it's on the coast but it influenced our sound to a certain degree. Where you come from it's where you come from, it's always gonna influence what you produce.
gan: What about the music scene in Savannah?
It's such a small town. There's something happening. There are kids playing music. There's a big art school there so that produces bands. But you know most people leave, it's very transitory. So for that reason, you know, bands come and go. It's a small scene. And it's up and down. Sometimes it's good for a few years and sometimes it sucks...for a few years. It's kind of on transaction point right now.
gan: I’ve always been very intrigued with your cover artworks. The latest was made by a dude named Santos and in the past you had Baroness’s John ( I really dig his arts) and even famed Pushead. How and who come up with the theme/subject and is there any arts you’re more fond of than the other?
John Santos. He did a lot of works. He hasn't done a lot of cover artworks specifically but a lot of more works as an illustrator. He's a busy dude these days. He has done t-shirts for us for a long time and we wanted to work with him for the cover record and we want to work with someone else for next. But the visual representation of our band it's been always very important. Mainly it's because we love art we love cover arts and we've been collecting vinyls records forever and it's just nice way to display a nice piece of artwork. It just goes back to us being fan of art so it's important to have out arts look good and reflect...kind of reflect what we do.
gan: Philip was again behind the desk for the recording of “Spiral Shadow”, and this was not the first time? Ever felt the need to have an external in?
Yes, Philip but we have also to give credit to the guys at studio since we've been working with James ans Steve forever. So it's like those three working together. A couple of things, I'm comfortable working with them. I like tracking with them I know that studio very well...we know that studio very well we know how it sounds, you know, and if we were to go to another studio or hire a producer it will cost a lot of money. The way we do right now we have more time in the studio which is really important for a band on a small budget. People don't know how much this shit cost. I mean it's expensive. We've got a really good deal worked out with the people we work with. And no one knows our music better than we do.
gan: You guys moved from Prosthetic to Season Of Mist. Mind to talk about this?
ah...I'm not gonna go in too much details but I can say we're very happy working with Season of Mist now and we think it was a good move.
gan: Season Of Mist is based in Europe?
Yeah, they're a French label and we do tour Europe. But this has not much to do with that. We just like they are a label that has different things going on like rock n roll and then it is metal, rock kind of...
gan: Yes they have a pretty varied roster. I just bought the latest ep from Cynic...
I like it...I like it
gan: They moved far away from their death metal sounds of the very beginning but I guess it was in their blood to be more than just death metal. I have their demos and then “Focus”.
Yeah...and I'm coming from like the other end of the spectrum...like I was never a huge fan of them.
gan: What are some of the gears you use to get your sound? I saw some pictures on the web and now I check out what you have on the stage, and you have an impressively huge number of pedals, stomp boxes. I guess you have been increasing the number over the years...
yah...yah...It's fun...they're like toys and you know we bought and sold a lot of the gears over the years always searching for the perfect tone. These is all rented gear. But the sound it's very important the way we sound.
gan: How does a Kylesa song come to life?
We generally start with the basic idea. The basic structure of the song first and we kind of work on that. Sometimes we jam together sometimes...not but it starts very basic.
gan: We have already touched on this earlier on. Have you already started working on new stuff?
Yah...started like in January, perhaps it was November. Yeah we started working on new material and when will go back, you know...
gan: While you’re not on the road or in the studio what do you do in your everyday life?
I'm always almost doing something fro this band. Like internet stuff or practicing, playing, touring it really takes a lot of my time. But you know if I have some free time I will try and travel some. But this is pretty much what I do.
gan: How does a Kylesa song come to life?
We generally start with the basic idea. The basic structure of the song first and we kind of work on that. Sometimes we jam together sometimes...not but it starts very basic.
gan: We have already touched on this earlier on. Have you already started working on new stuff?
Yah...started like in January, perhaps it was November. Yeah we started working on new material and when will go back, you know...
gan: While you’re not on the road or in the studio what do you do in your everyday life?
I'm always almost doing something fro this band. Like internet stuff or practicing, playing, touring it really takes a lot of my time. But you know if I have some free time I will try and travel some. But this is pretty much what I do.
gan: But does the band pays your bill?
Yeah!
gan: Oh good...
I mean...maybe I'll pick up a job when I get home. Some friends of my are opening a new bar where I'll be spinning records in that place...which should be fun and...just to get some extra money.
gan: What’s the best and while not the worst part of being a touring musician?
The worst part of being on the road it's just getting tired...I mean, long drives can be really boring and there's a lot like waiting around and doing nothing. It's not like you go to amazing cities and go to museums, vacation or whatever. You travel with a group of people and not everybody wants to do the same thing. For me personally just getting tired, you know lack of exercise...lack of my normal eating habits.
So what about the best?
gan: Yah, the best is playing. We met some amazing people and made friends all over and that's great to see them and hang out. I really just like playing. One of my favorite things and, you know, seeing different places, experiencing different cultures. That's all very interesting. I enjoy that I enjoy the people.
gan: Okay that’s really it. Thank you so much for taking the time for this interview. Do you wanna add something?
oh...thanks for doing this interview. It's always interesting to be in Italy and I hope we can go to more places in the future. Thank you very much.
Yeah!
gan: Oh good...
I mean...maybe I'll pick up a job when I get home. Some friends of my are opening a new bar where I'll be spinning records in that place...which should be fun and...just to get some extra money.
gan: What’s the best and while not the worst part of being a touring musician?
The worst part of being on the road it's just getting tired...I mean, long drives can be really boring and there's a lot like waiting around and doing nothing. It's not like you go to amazing cities and go to museums, vacation or whatever. You travel with a group of people and not everybody wants to do the same thing. For me personally just getting tired, you know lack of exercise...lack of my normal eating habits.
So what about the best?
gan: Yah, the best is playing. We met some amazing people and made friends all over and that's great to see them and hang out. I really just like playing. One of my favorite things and, you know, seeing different places, experiencing different cultures. That's all very interesting. I enjoy that I enjoy the people.
gan: Okay that’s really it. Thank you so much for taking the time for this interview. Do you wanna add something?
oh...thanks for doing this interview. It's always interesting to be in Italy and I hope we can go to more places in the future. Thank you very much.
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