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| David Kane and John Toohill: Happy to be the two parts of Night Slaves |
This shouldn’t be surprising for this Buffalo Music Hall of Fame member
who has played and written music with and for Mark Freeland. Electroman, Trek
W/Quintronic, Nullstatdt, David Kane’s Them Jazzbeards, Decay of Western
Civilization, Celibates, Erectronics and Terry and the Headhunters, among
others
The two-person industrial group in which he provides keyboards and
sounds for John Toohill’s vocals, Night Slaves, will perform a cassette-release
show (you read that correct) as part of a four-band slate with Cages, VWLS, and
Flatsitter Friday, February 5, at Mohawk Place, 47 East Mohawk Street, Buffalo.
Admission is $5.
KJH: One very basic/elementary question: Why a cassette
release party? Why a cassette?
DK: Why cassette? Because we could not put it out on
8-track. WTF!?! It does include a download.
KJH: Can Night Slaves’ sound/approach be described in a few
words? Is Night Slaves a true working duet between you and (vocalist) John
Toohill, and is the creativity/labor split between music and lyrics?
DK: Night Slaves Approach/Sound: The NS approach might best
be described as a lack of. We never set out to be like or take a certain genre
and try to emulate it in any way. We certainly talk about things we like but do
not set out to be like that. It seems to be a true collaboration of efforts. I
handle the music duties and John the lyrics and vocals. He gets what I am doing
and I get what he is. So yes, we seem to have hit on a pure collaboration of
two artists where the sum total is way greater than the two parts. Lots of
these could exist as instrumentals but when I am working on music for NS I am
always thinking, Can't wait to hear what he will do with this one. He manages
to meld his lyrics and vocal lines right into the music as if it were another
instrument, Some of the best moments are when we listen back and look at each
other and say who is doing that part? Our third ghost member I guess. I can't
begin to tell you how pleasing that is. I like the duo aspect because it seems
to make you work a little harder and it stays so personal. Unlike my other
projects I do not have to take other instrumentation into consideration. I love
that approach as well, but I already have a couple bands like that. No point in
repeating myself or doing more of the same.
I think the NS sound might be the aural equivalent of
walking through fog at night where images sort of slowly evolve as you approach
them. Sometimes blurry around the edges, sometimes clearer, sometimes almost
disappearing but always sort of there in varying degrees of clarity. Sometimes
being completely enveloped in the denseness of the fog itself.
KJH: Do you create the soundscape for Night Slaves with an
idea in mind for where the lyrics will go, do you receive lyrics to work out a
sound or is it more collaborative? Do you ever present a sound live and have
the vocals or music go off where they may?
DK: I will call what we are putting together songs, though
in most cases they do not follow what might be regarded as traditional song
structure. Our material seems to be many layers deep and these layers do not
really necessarily move or change with each other. I can appreciate when I play
these things for John that he can notice a new element and say I'll call that
the chorus where that noise comes in. Our music seems to evolve rather than
change. I can be a fairly prolific writer and it pleases me to work with some
one equally so. It is a pleasure to get together, put on a new idea see him get
happy, take his coat off, get out the pen and notebook and start writing away.
In the course of a few hours we have a new one. I appreciate the spontaneity. I
work that way as well. Sometimes things that were meant to be actually do
happen. We create and have a lot of fun during the process. You might like NS
if you like David Lynch and Evan Williams.
The NS sound has been described as:
A collaboration of Depeche Mode and John Carpenter on acid
Provocative, layered, complex, and requires reflective
listening as it pulls you into its spell
Cerebral electronic garage
Dark
Dark Squared
Bowie, Eno, Low with Iggy
A more layered Suicide
Says the band-"Weird, it makes us really happy"
Where are we headed? Right back to the basement for more. We
are well into our third release, which includes an 18-minute soundscape tone
poem sort of thing. Sorry, you can't stop us.....
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