Lone Kodiak – Let’s Hear it For the Kid

By starrymag | October 24, 2023

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

A) Using other artists as a metric, I’d humbly take the melancholy of The Cure and Smashing Pumpkins, the soundscaping of Explosions in the Sky and This Will Destroy You, the fun energy of Metric and We Were Promised Jetpacks, the brutality of Deftones and Norma Jean, and the emotional intensity of Celine Dion (not joking), throw them all in a witch’s cauldron under a full moon, tweak the recipe just right and there’s our sound.

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

A) Aside from those listed above, I’d include Hum, Failure, Dinosaur Jr., … I don’t think we sound a whole lot like any of them, but they’re bands that found a sound all their own and with a certain energy and creativity that we aspire to. We all have a background in the punk and hardcore scene, and I’d like to think we’re paying homage to that without necessarily being a punk or hardcore band.

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Let’s Hear it for the Kid.”

A) It’s a simple song, really. No bridge, just verse chorus verse. The piano hook was first written on guitar, but once I started pounding it out on a keyboard, I knew we were on to something. I think the demo (we demo at least five mixed versions of a song before we head to the studio) came together in a single day, a rarity for us. As for the lyrical content, a literal take is your classic bank robber does one last job, absconds to Mexico, gets comfortable and gets caught, but really it’s just about celebrating those that found their own way amidst societal pressures – maybe they dropped out of college to pursue a passion, maybe they turned down that corporate job, maybe they never got married, maybe they just hit the road and set out to have an adventure of a life.

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

A) Oh, I have no idea, but I hope they make it about them! I’d like to think it could be a bit of an anthem for when they need a rallying crew hyping them up, you know? Something they can put in their ears before a big interview or performance or before they get on that hard boulder problem (sorry, I’m a big climber person).

Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?

A) The raw fun of the thing. We got really caught up in industry expectations for a while, which are especially prevalent here in LA. Our number one rule is to have fun. A big theme for this song (and record, see below) was to sort of let people into the studio with us … don’t overproduce it, let it be a little raw sonically, and base the recordings off of your live sound, not vice versa. The video is nothing particularly ambitious or stylized, just us in our actual rehearsal space playing the song.

Q) Daineal, what is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics?

Short answer: yes. The lyrics are always inspired by the music without exception. The process is clumsy and quite silly, but I’ll usually just sing along, saying random words and non-words alike (we call it “yogurt” in the biz) until a word or line sticks. I’ll latch onto that morsel and build from there, with an emphasis on not overthinking it, as I don’t think there’s any artistic value in being “deep” or complex for the sake of either. Sometimes I’ll make edits as the song evolves or if a word is difficult to sing (or if I rewrite the vocals entirely, which does happen), but it mostly stays true to the original “feeling” that the music evoked.

Q) Kyle Mangels lent a hand with production on this single, but how much of a say does the band tend to have in the production of your music?

A) Yeah, Kyle produced the whole album (see below) as well as our 2020 EP Demo Tape. We’ve worked with him for a long time, and his production style isn’t overbearing; he knew what we were after sonically (the “feel” of our live shows) and he figured out how to get us there. Creatively, we had 100% input and took that as far as we could without Kyle completely losing his mind after our 100th email ensuring him just this one more little thing – it won’t take long, I promise.

Q) Is “Let’s Hear it For the Kid” a tease for a full album or EP?

A) It is! “The Corner Booth” was its first single, which came out in July, followed by “Kid,” and then our moneymaker “Werewolf Girl!” came out this month. It’s called Inside Voices and we expect to release the whole thing early next year. In fact, we just got the vinyl masters back today! The vinyl will be a unique experience in that it plays like our live shows do: songs often have no space between them and are even overlapped one into the other exactly as we’d do it in a live setting. In a world of singles, we’re attempting to capture some of that nostalgia of sitting in a room, carefully cracking open that tape/CD/record and reading through the liner notes as you listen to the album from start to finish.

Q) Where are some of your favorite places to perform and what makes those locations so significant to you?

A) Oh, man … the pandemic really hurt the LA scene. We lost three of our favorite venues, including Bootleg and The Satellite, which we loved dearly. We had an amazing experience at Knitting Factory Noho and appreciated that it was all ages (also the staff was friendly, and the event was well organized), and we’re really looking forward to making our debut at The Shed tomorrow night!

Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?

A) I love Emily Haines. If I could get her to do a guest vocal I would die. I saw her at a solo gig at this very small, intimate venue in Hollywood … We were sitting in the first row and I was literally shaking and could not convince myself it was really her really performing that close to me. She can do so much with her voice, and I just admire her.

Q) What artist/musician are you currently listening to and why do you dig them? 

A) Heilung! They’re this Norwegian/Danish/German band that does this wild, ritualistic, percussive … something. Their soundscapes are insane, the vocals are beautiful and haunting (including the chants and throat singing). I saw them at The Greek and may or may not have had a fresh mushroom snack and it destroyed my whole reality.

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to connect with your fans?

A) I honestly don’t know if we’re connecting with them there anymore. We do get plenty of messages, of course, and we respond to them all, but … it’s usually after a real-life experience rather than something we post. The world of constant content, the attention economy, the fucking algorithm … it all feels icky these days. But we’ll keep posting. We’ll keep trying new things, because … Well, we do want to be successful and apparently these are things you have to do. We’re working on making it more creative and fun and more “us,” but if one more person says we need to be on TikTok …

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) Tell the artist you’re listening to, admiring the painting of, reading the work of, watching the short film of – tell them it means something to you, even if it feels silly. There is no better feeling for an artist than knowing their work resonated with someone.

 

 

All Questions Answered By Vocalist/Guitarist Dainéal Parker