Chaos Theory

You never realize how much you don’t like loud motorcycles until you are trying to listen to a recording of an interview you did through a phone speaker. You may find yourself resenting the fact that people need to drive vehicles that are so unnecessarily loud.

Prior to this, I sat down with Barry Crider and Ean Clevenger from NMBRSTTN (Number Station) at House of Hits, relishing in the quiet and climate-controlled environment. Luckily, our bands tend to practice on the same days, so finding them was only a matter of Counting Hallways to the Left.

Clevenger (vocals/keyboard) and Crider (guitar) are growing into the band as a new beast after a series of member changes over the past several years. Clevenger has been a mainstay in the Sacramento-area punk scene, touring and playing in bands for nigh on 20 years, most notably in local bands Dance for Destruction and Pipedown.

The band has been busy; just finishing a new music video, acquiring management and securing a spot in Eugene, Oregon-based label Flossless Audio’s catalog of releases. On the heels of releasing a new EP entitled Energy and Entropy, the band is embarking upon a West Coast tour this week.

This new release rides dark and heavy with definite nods in a dark-wave direction. Fans of Haunted Horses, Have a Nice Life and even earlier AFI may find something remarkable in Energy and Entropy. Clevenger tends to paint a dystopian lyrical-landscape over endlessly eerie, delay-drenched, fuzz-decayed guitar. The vocal melodies stand in stark, airy contrast to bass lines that rattle and clamor over steady-smashing snare hits and bright synth swells. The vocal melodies are catchy and memorable, something I wasn’t expecting really for a dark punk band. It is at once abrasive and pop-oriented.

Admittedly influenced by bands like The Cure and Depeche Mode, Energy and Entropy sits comfortably among other titles on your album shelf by bands like Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine.

The band has seen multiple members come and go, but the current lineup seems to instill confidence and signal a rebirth to both Clevenger and Crider. The new EP is a result of that union. The record was recorded in Rocklin at Earth Tone Studios by recording engineer Pat Hills, also of punk band Bastards of Young.

Ean, in terms of the lyrics, what do you tend to focus on?
Ean Clevenger: When I write the songs, I sort of hone in on the lyrical concept, kind of get a feel for the music, the idea, so it works together.
Barry Crider: Either Ean will come with riffs done or a general chord structure, and I’ll take that and kind of do it in my own way, where it’s using my playing sensibilities, or make it fit kind of like what I hear in my head, or I’ll come with my own riffs and see if we can patch something together, and see how it works with the previous structure we were working on.

Were there any bands specifically that influenced your writing for guitar for this EP?
BC: The big three ‘90s shoegaze bands. I got really into that, and like Catherine Wheel, and I was kind of looking at the way the more modern guys were playing shoegaze. I was listening to Whirr and Deafheaven, and how they use these features like blend and wash, and integrating these chordal structures from bands like The Cure and Depeche Mode with these new ways, for me at least, at playing guitar, that had a lot of influence at how I came at playing parts, but mostly Ean and I did it together.

So you guys, together, kind of create the song structures and bring it to the band?
EC: Yeah, I mean, that’s pretty much how it goes … I would say both of us are on a mostly equal playing platforms.
BC: Yeah we’re still trying to work it out.
EC: However, lyrically, to go back and touch on what you said before, with every project that I do, just the way that I am, I always tend to write stuff that at least creates some sort of awareness whether it’s about ourselves or the way that ourself works its way into a societal variable, or to make people aware of their actions. I mean, this is a really ambiguous way to try to state that my lyrics are philosophical and politically intended. Most of what I’m writing about these days is sort of about making people aware of the effects of technology on our society today, and what negative consequences might come out of that over the next 40 years, 50 years, and how to be conscious how we’re being involved in these worlds where smartphones drive our intelligence rather than us as human beings that sort of deal with each other.

So your band kind of exists on the edge of having a disdain for technology and but definitely relying on its usefulness …
EC: Yeah, I’m not like a primitivist. I don’t think I ever expect us all to reject [technology] entirely … but I think that technology will backtrack. I mean, nature is the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter if you’re the most powerful elite or the poorest person, nature is going to determine what happens to us.
I mean, the power elite, which is really in control of the technology, and how technology is brought into our culture and our society, from now until the future … Technology can be a positive, but we allow the elite to control the technology and input it into a culture in a way that is only profit-seeking; that’s the alarm bell; that’s the canary in the cave, you know? We need to watch out for that, because the rich are aware that nature is the great equalizer, and if they can help find a way for us to keep on ignoring it, they’ll find a way to master it and then master us.

With the exception of your delay pedal, and guitar, what is one piece of gear that you can’t live without?
BC: I would say the fuzz is the most vital piece.

What kind of fuzz are you using?
BC: Right now I’m using this fuzz by Retro Mechanical Labs up in Portland. He’s just this builder that makes these cool fuzzes that look like they came out of the A-bomb era. They have VU meters, and it goes from totally like anywhere on the range from like Big Muff to like full on doom, destruction fuzz that sounds like your speakers are ripping out of your amp, so I picked that up and that’s been my most valuable pedal, that’s the one I touch the most.

What are you guys doing next as a band?
BC: I want to write.
EC: Yeah, full-length time.
BC: I feel like were accessing the vision of what we’re trying to accomplish with this EP, but I feel like with a full LP, we’ll have a chance to really breathe and flesh out what we’re trying to say musically and lyrically I think.
EC: I do too.
BC: It’ll give a chance to really explore, not only texture, and dynamics …
EC: And song compositions. I mean, it really is like we are a new band. Although we’ve been a band for three or four years, we’ve really just completely restarted the band, almost in a way, so we’re almost finding our identity again.

NMBRSTTN are playing an EP release show on July 13, 2015 with Seattle’s Nostalgist, Fifi and Color of Closure at The Press Club. This is a 21-and-over show and will start at 8 p.m. For more info, go to Facebook.com/thepressclub.

From EPs to their debut album, Sacramento band K Será is making its mark on the world

Words by Natalie Basurto – Photo by Daniel Dare

The last time Mike Caswell, lead singer/guitarist and creator of the band K Será was interviewed by Submerge it was 2008. He was the band’s lone official member and had just created his first EP with the help of other artists. Since then, Caswell’s band has grown to include three more members, who he says make the band what it is today.

K Será’s debut album, Collisions and Near Misses, is set to drop Jan. 21, 2013, and the band is already gearing up for a nationwide tour. But before they hit the road, they will be holding their album release party here in their hometown of Sacramento. On Jan. 10, 2013, the band will play songs from the new album, giving attendees a full listen before the album is released to the public. They will also be playing at South by Southwest this coming year.

Caswell described the sound of the album as “spacey,” as in galactic, infinite and atmospheric. He said it was made to be experienced as a cohesive product. Instead of a favorite song on the album, Caswell said he has “favorite moments… We view the album as a work as a whole so it’s hard to pick out one song.”

The album’s single, “Dream Like I Do,” definitely gives that floating in space type feeling, complete with subtle old school video game noises and Caswell’s melodic and heavy voice. It basically sounds like an astronomical explosion and the rock genre made a baby.

“The concept of Collisions and Near Misses is based around how life is essentially a summation of small decisions you make. You go out one night you meet that person, you stay in and you don’t…and from there, it’s an infinite realm of possibilities that follows that,” he said.

According to Caswell, many genres inspired the album, making it a mix of all types of sounds coming together in one place. His musical influences include the British band Muse, who are famous for their fusion of multiple genres and space-inspired sounds: Think of the song and album of the same name, “Black Holes and Revelations.”

But Caswell says his biggest inspiration and “half the reason” he started K Será was because of the support of Casey Crescenzo, the producer of Collisions and Near Misses. Crescenzo is also the frontman of the band The Dear Hunter, originally from Providence, R.I. Caswell named The Dear Hunter as one of his favorite bands alongside Seattle’s Forgive Durden.

“To have [Crescenzo] on board working on the record and so passionate about it was awesome,” he said.

Caswell, 25, the youngest of his twenty-something band mates, said they committed themselves to a certain amount of hours per week to write and then locked themselves in a small room to “hash it out… it was just grinding.”

He met his band mates, David Christensen (piano), Dustin Combs (drums) and Jordan McCoy (bass), through friends and Sacramento acquaintances. Caswell said he can play piano in addition to wielding a guitar and singing, but he was quick to give props to his band mates and their impressive skills.

“The guys I play with are so astronomically more talented than I am that I wouldn’t want to interfere with what they do [on stage],” he said modestly. “What’s changed in the last five years was going from a solo project to having the most talented musicians I’ve ever worked with…really took this band to the next level.”

K Será is Spanish for, “Whatever will be,” a name Caswell came up with as a way to remind himself to relinquish control of certain things and “free up the stress in my life,” he said.

Caswell said he’s been playing music since he was 13. He and a couple childhood friends created the band F.F.G., of the pop-punk genre. His love for creating and performing music clearly never gave out and he’s still going strong: even after months of working on the album, he expressed his longing for always wanting to make more music.

“I hope people buy the album. We definitely can’t make more if people don’t buy this one… We’d love to continue doing this… The fan support is always tremendously appreciated,” he said.

He said K Será’s fans are “the nicest, most interesting people… they’re very passionate about us and what we’re doing. It’s constantly surprising.”

If you take a look at the band’s Facebook page, it’s easy to see that passion. Many excited and supportive comments flood the page: from lyric quotes to pure excitement for the album and even fans begging the band to come to their hometowns.

Caswell said K Será holds a strong fan base not only in Sacramento, but also in Seattle, Southern California and on the East Coast. Possibly the most unexpected is that their third largest fan base is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, according to the band’s Facebook stats. Attribute it to the band’s Spanish name or purely their talent, either way they undoubtedly have a far reach.

Collisions and Near Misses is set to drop later next month, but in the mean time, take a listen to their single “Dream Like I Do,” on K Será’s Facebook page and get hyped for the soon to be released music video that’s being animated by the band’s own McCoy. A video of the band playing a live session at Green Day’s studio in Oakland will also be out soon. Visit http://www.facebook.com/kseratheband for more information. To get a listen of the band’s EP The Cantos, visit their website http://ksera.bandcamp.com/. K Será’s Jan. 10, 2012 CD release show will take place at BarFly and is for fans 18 and over.

Sacramento’s Not Your Style to Release Pop-Punk Debut In Season

Make no mistake about it: pop-punk as a revolutionary genre of music is quite dead. Even as a marketable way to sell skate decks, or dunks, or hair gel, it’s a goddamn apparition. But–and this is a big but–this is not to say that there aren’t times when you can relish in the finer glimmers in the flashes in the pan. Most everyone who digs pop music can appreciate the hook-y sensibility and heart-wrenching gloom of an old Saves the Day record, or a (A) New Found Glory EP. Where was I the first time I heard Blink 182’s Cheshire Cat? On Airport Road in Redding, Calif., after school on the way to Circuit City. See how that works? Those who experienced Lagwagon can’t tell fans of Panic! At the Disco about it and expect them to listen; just like those who wiggled to the spastic skate-punk of Descendents couldn’t expect Lagwagon disciples to “know” what it “really meant to rock!”

It’s for the reasons above that Not Your Style’s relatively tardy arrival to the pop-punk canon can be dismissed. Because inside all the premeditated naysaying hard-wired into critics who are interested in moving past frigid forms of expression, there lies that concession that every take is a new scene.

Not Your Style is resurrecting sunny melodies in Sacramento, and back-dropping them with crunchy riffs, four-on-the-floor rock drumming and saccharine-sweet lyrical imagery. It’s a formula that vocalist Laith Kayyali says has been honed over the last two years through heavy writing, recording and building a name for themselves. With a stated goal of becoming “the world’s greatest pop-punk band,” Kayyali and bassist Kylan Kegel laid the foundation of Not Your Style after the demise of their former alt-rock band, and a search through Craigslist to round out the crew.

“We wanted to take this more seriously and put a lot more time and effort into this band,” explains Kayyali. “We didn’t really go in with a lot of expectations. Things kind of just took off beyond anything we thought would’ve happened.”

After a couple of drumming substitutions, the band recorded their debut EP, …In the Conservatory with the Wrench, with Sacramento producer/engineer Jay Trammell after only six weeks together. The EP found its way into the hands of Mark Gilmore at 98 Rock, and around the same time, their song “Not a Star” was entered into a local contest for a set at the upcoming Rockalottapuss metal concert at Sleep Train Amphitheatre, to open for Judas Priest, Whitesnake and Saliva, among others. The band won the opening gig by popular vote.

“We were in a little over our heads, but we enjoyed every second of it,” remembers Kayyali. “Compared to the other bands, we didn’t have much business to be there. We were a brand new pop-punk band, playing with metal gods Judas Priest and Whitesnake. Obviously, that didn’t crush our spirits.”

That same resiliency led the band full-steam ahead into their second recording session with Trammell, to record the It’s Treason Then EP, with a much more refined focus on waving the pop-punk flag…unwaveringly.

“Our writing definitely matured,” says Kayyali of the second EP. “Our first session wasn’t as ‘pop-punk’ as our newest stuff. We sat down, and established we want to write fun, upbeat pop-punk songs, so our newest songs have followed that. We didn’t really put a timeline on it, but we’ve at least established what we’re trying to be.”

Kayyali reports the band is more interested in its songs translating well to the live setting. But that doesn’t mean the band’s debut full-length In Season is anything less than a sonically enjoyable listen. NYS spent all of November 2010 at Fat Cat Studios fine-tuning their sound, and grooming their new drummer–ex-Resolve to Burn skin man Ray Sisco–for what’s easily their biggest achievement yet. They’re currently gearing up for their official CD release show, set for Friday, Feb. 18, 2011 at the Boardwalk in Orangevale.

Blasting from the main speakers that night will be samples of Kayyali and Company’s affection for peppy riffs, big choruses, rapid-fire drums and lots of “whoa-oh” harmonizing. “Last Forever”–probably the most single-worthy track in this self-released collection–tunes up the schmaltzy cues of early Anberlin, replete with hook-heavy bridges and perfectly pitched vocals. “Hakuna Stigmata” clears the way for double-bass-as-brigadier metal-lite, with heaping helpings of layered choral effects and a never-ending lead guitar that showcases the fretwork of the ax men. The result of these and their companion tracks–diverse despite themselves–reinforces the band’s devotion to their goal. What was that again? Oh right: to be The World’s Greatest Pop-Punk Band.

Even the band’s name seems to suggest that they’re letting you in on a ruse–that though music listeners at large may sigh a collective “neeeeext” upon news of the pop-punkiness of the band, they’ve got a response to that covered by their very moniker. You lose. But, as Kayyali explains, that’s really not the case.

“[Not Your Style] fit our idea of what we wanted the band to be,” says Kayyali. “We don’t take ourselves too seriously, and we know pop-punk isn’t the most widely accepted genre, especially in an area where pop-punk bands are few and far between. So it really works on all levels.”

As for the critics, the hipsters, the ever-present posh police, don’t expect NYS to bow to anything aside from the resonance of a timeless melody or a potent pop guitar progression.

“We always wanted to be known as one of the best live bands in the area,” relates Kayyali. “We feel pop-punk gives us what we need to make that happen. The genre definitely isn’t what it used to be, but we’re hoping to change that. I’d love to hear more criticism about our genre, band and what we’re trying to accomplish. Hopefully critics will watch our live show and enjoy it no matter what we’re playing. With criticism, we can only get better.”

Sacramento music wunderkind Michael Franzino talks A Lot Like Birds
Words by Julie De La Torre
Photo by Daniel Dare

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A Lot Like Birds isn’t, well, a lot like anything else you’ve heard before. Starting out as a two-man project led by frontman Michael Franzino, the experimental group soon picked up five additional members and hasn’t looked back. Since winning the Jammies with former band She’s a Dead Man in 2007, the precocious 20-year-old has not only grown up mentally, but musically, as well.

Submerge had the chance to chat with Franzino about everything from his main sources of inspiration to what it was like recording an insanely sophisticated debut release in the confines of a suburban living room. With their ball-busting stage presence and new full-length album, Plan B, A Lot Like Birds is proving to be one of the most promising up-and-comers of 2010.

So, first off, what are you trying to accomplish with A Lot Like Birds that’s different from your other musical projects?
In my previous and first band, our appeal lied solely in our live shows, due to youthful inexperience and naiveté in musicianship and our wildly eccentric and strong stage presence. People came to our shows to dance or laugh at how silly we could be. A lot has changed in my life in the two years since the demise of She’s a Dead Man, and a hell of a lot has changed since the beginning of it four years ago, when the majority of that music was written. It’s kind of like being a senior laughing at your goofy freshman self in retrospect. I’d like to think (or hope, really) that A Lot Like Birds gives people something stimulating or moving to listen to, while we lose our fucking minds on stage night after night.

What were your biggest challenges while recording Plan B?
That would most definitely be the drum programming process, which took five of the nine total months in the studio with the great Jack O’Donnell’s Shattered Records. I basically had a big MIDI spreadsheet before me with every possible beat and every possible drum and cymbal where I had to dictate, as a guitarist, every single drum note and how hard it was to be hit. That, and we had all kinds of nail-biting computer troubles; Jack never expected to record songs with over 100 tracks.

What have you taken from this entire experience? What have you learned since your days of winning the Jammies in high school?
What I learned most from this experience was the recording process really, and how to utilize it as another dynamic in my music. There are all kinds of tricks [and] ways to change moods or make parts sound bigger or spacey or creepy. Utilizing effects and compression appropriately can really make a song or part something different. There’s so much more to making a record than people think; it gives me such a new love for the albums I revere.

It seems like the album has a lot of Mars Volta/At the Drive In inspiration behind it. If so, how does that come into play? What/who are your main influences? 
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is certainly a hero of mine. If I take anything from the man, it’s a driving insistence upon challenging myself and an audience. Using chaos and discord to contrast gentle and beautiful or making tension and anxiety in a big build are some of my favorite dynamics, and Omar is a master of them among many other things. If the music I write is influenced by anything I can articulate, it’s moods or phases in my life. The past few years in which Plan B formed in my head were some of the darkest times I’ve seen. I think you can hear it in comparison to my embarrassing former work.

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What was it like to record with 10-plus musicians?
It’s absolutely amazing. I wouldn’t have it any other way; I like big compositions with all kinds of layers to tear apart and fall into. I’d be tragically bored in a typical three-piece rock band. The performances I witnessed in Jack’s studio were absolutely beautiful. Most of these guest musicians came in without hearing the music once and laid their parts down in one to two takes. I could not be more grateful to have such helpful and incredibly talented friends.

This album was very reminiscent of a rock opera—was that your intent?
It was not, but I had certainly hoped for the songs to flow well into each other and for it to be an album, not just a collection of songs. I think there is a difference; each song on the album is intentionally placed where it is.

Describe the live show of A Lot Like Birds… What do you think sets you guys apart from anyone else right now?
Our live show was an interesting entity to orchestrate, with the album consisting of so many musicians and all. Originally intended as guests on the album, Cory Lockwood, screamer; Ben Wiacek, guitarist [of post-hardcore project, Discovery of a Lifelong Error]; Athena Koumis, violinist [of folk-rock project, Life as Ghosts]; Juli Lydell, vocalist/keyboardist and Tyler Lydell, drummer [of experimental-folk project, The Dreaded Diamond] have all banded around myself and bassist Michael Litterfield. Making us seven strong, there’s rarely a time when you don’t have something to watch. We arrive to shows with every intent to walk off stage extremely sore, sweaty and out of breath.

What are your plans for 2010? Any ideas for a tour or additional albums?
We are going in to record an acoustic EP called Fuck Morrissey within the next two weeks and after that another full length, because if this took nine months to record, only God knows how long the next one will. As far as touring, we are most definitely going to tour at all costs this summer, hopefully with the backing of a label or management company, but DIY will suffice.

Any last words?
Yes, please listen to the bands whose musicians were guest on this album, including: The Dreaded Diamond, H. Letham, Life as Ghosts, Discovery of a Lifelong Error, Zuhg and our friends The Speed of Sound in Sea Water!

A Lot Like Birds headlined Jan. 16 at the Shire Road Club in Sacramento.
To find out when and where they’re playing next check out www.myspace.com/alotlikebirds