Before they share the stage with a star-studded lineup at the Bakery for New Year’s Evil, we check in with KAAN and find out what’s new …
Describe your music in five words or less.
Definitely worth the hearing loss.
What’s going on in the world of KAAN?
At the moment we’re rehearsing an obscure Devo cover and working on getting sick abs for summer festival season. If we can manage to avoid our families and partners for long enough over the holidays without them getting too worried, we’ll have time to sift through recordings and put some releases together for 2015.
What motivates you to make music?
We’re just massive geek-out music fans, nothing else really satisfies us or makes as much sense to us as music does. We’ve been playing in bands since we finished school, and while we’re both competent at what we do by now, we aren’t necessarily playing our traditional instruments in KAAN, and there are a lot of limitations that come with only having one other person in the room to make sense of your ideas.
There’s a lot of satisfaction from those sort of challenges as a musician, and it’s necessary to wrestle your ideas from a different side of the ring every once in a while in order to stay motivated creatively.
What have been the high and low points of your musical experiences so far?
We managed to fit in a few recording sessions earlier in the year which unfortunately aren’t going to see the light of day yet, so we’re a bit disappointed that we don’t have those in the bank right now. But we recently got banned from a venue for being “too loud” so at least we can put that in our Christmas stocking. Our day jobs and other projects have all been busy and successful this year — so our highlights are slightly overshadowed by some of those experiences. We’re looking forward to new year’s at the Bakery and the opportunity to hear some of our favourite loud bands to say farewell to 2014, though.
What music are you listening to at the moment?
2014 has been steady diet of Old Man Gloom, Baptists, Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving, Harvey Milk, Inter Arma and Giza. It’s a fairly meaty diet, but we really need the protein for better muscle definition around our sick abs.
If you were stranded on a desert island, which member of the band would get eaten first?
We’d have to be strategic about the survival of our legacy. A sacrifice for the greater good. So Scott is absolutely worth more dead than alive in this situation, although not just for his belly meats. Matt is a tinkerer, and he’d have no problems slapping together a few leftover tendons and giblets to create some kind of functional, grotesque ham radio to call for rescue. Plus Scott’s pelt could serve as a warm coat for protection from the elements, and if necessary, his scrotum may be fashioned into a Wilson volleyball for companionship.
Here’s an opportunity to bitch about something, whether music related or not. What really pisses you off?
Not being able to get pints at the Rosemount anymore.
You’re putting together your perfect gig featuring Australian artists. Who would you get to play and where? Feel free to include acts/DJs/bands/venues that no longer exist.
Rupture with the ghost of Gus Chamber at The Grosvenor backroom.
Supported by Rolf Harris.
Free beer.
That’s probably not going to happen anytime soon though, so the upcoming New Year’s Evil gig at the Bakery is our silver medal.
KAAN join some of Perth’s finest — including Tangled Thoughts of Leaving, Drowning Horse, Scalphunter and The Devil Rides Out — in bringing in 2015 with maximum volume for New Year’s Evil at the Bakery. Tickets are on sale now through lifeisnoise.com.
