#jesse matthewson

[ourladyofomega]

Kathryn Kerr and Jesse Matthewson of KEN Mode performing live at Tilburn's Roadburn Festival; 2023.

📷: Peter Troest

[screamingforyears]

IN A MINUTE: // A POST_PUNK_ISH EXPRESS… // “SPACE JAM” is the latest single from @angeldustmoney’s forthcoming LP titled ‘Brand New Soul’ (9/8 @popwig) & it finds the Baldimore-based quintet of vocalist Justice Tripp, guitarists Daniel Star/Steve Marino, bassist Zechariah Ghostribe & drummer Thomas Cantwell space_jamming across a zippily crisp 1:40 clip of cosmically adjacent HardCoreRawk. // @harmsway13 are here w/ “SILENT WOLF,” the lead single/track from their forthcoming LP titled ‘Common Suffering’ (9/29 @metalbladerecords) & it finds the Chicago-based quintet of frontman James Pligge, guitarists Bo Leuders/Niack Gauthier, drummer Chris Mills & bassist Casey Soyk waxing upon the “persistent distrust in governing bodies & systems of power in our current cultural climate” across a sub 3 min blast of metallically riffed hXc. // “YOUR BLOOD IN ME” is the lead single from @kenfury’s forthcoming LP titled ‘Plains of Inferno’ (8/16) & it finds multi-instrumentalist/producer Kenneth Marez Jr.’s NYC-based project bringing the blown-out & blackened goods across 4+ mins of Bowie-esque DarkWave. // @kenmodenoise are here w/ “HE WAS A GOOD MAN, HE WAS A TAXPAYER,” the latest single from their forthcoming LP titled ‘Void’ (9/22 @artoffact_records) & it finds the Winnipeg-based quartet of guitarist/vocalist Jesse Matthewson, drummer Shane Matthewson, bassist Scott Hamilton & multi-instrumentalist Kathryn Kerr bringing 5 mins of snakingly lurched NoiseGoth. // “DEBT COLLECTOR” (@year0001online) is a new standalone single from @provoker.zone & it finds the Bay Area-born/LA-based quartet of vocalist Christian Petty, multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Lopez, bassist Wil Palacios & drummer Kristian Moreno bringing their Gothically hued brand of beautifully bummed_out & broodingly_bravado’d ArtPop.

[sinceileftyoublog]

KEN Mode Album Review: Loved

BY JORDAN MAINZER

For Winnipeg hardcore band KEN Mode, 2015′s Success was a sonic left-turn towards indie rock and punk. It didn’t fit them well. With their new album Loved, they return to the juxtaposition of darkness and humor that made 2013′s Entrench such a success. Along with Pissed Jeans’ Honeys, that album represented the apex of corporate working man’s rock--both PJ singer Matt Korvette and KEN Mode’s Jesse Matthewson worked full-time office jobs and often sang about the monotony of daily life with a tongue-in-cheek bend. Fast-forward to Loved, which seems like the proper follow-up to Entrench, and Matthewson--having started a business management services company with his brother and bandmate Shane and having moved to Thailand to study Muay Thai full-time--has the same sense of biting humor with the benefit of more life satisfaction. Loved is dark, but it’s more fun than Entrench, Matthewson’s sense of perspective allowing him to dig even deeper at the minutiae of life.

Not to say that KEN Mode have become autobiographical or even remote storytellers--Matthewson’s lyrics are still generically angry and wry, second-fiddle to the band’s pummeling instrumentation. What you can decipher makes its mark along with the music. On anthem “Not Soulmates”, he laughs, “You’re going to continue enjoying this mistake with me,” referring to a relationship with a shit-eating grin. “Feathers & Lips” is an upbeat track about aggressive politicians compensating for their lack of ability to physically fight. Eight-and-a-half minute closer “No Gentle Art” is one of many to feature saxophone from Kathryn Kerr; Matthewson’s screaming with her spinning woodwinds adds to the chaos of the song. And while her playing at the end of a grungy track like “The Illusion of Dignity” might seem out of place or forced, she jazzes up the complex, loud-quiet-loud “This Is A Love Test”. Matthewson, too, seems like he knows when to push and pull; he used to be completely pissed, but now he gives and takes, like the boxer that he is.

7.3/10

[rcmndedlisten]

KEN mode - “But They Respect My Tactics”

Photo by Brenna Faris

Between the unreal debut album by Chat Pile, the verified returns of post-hardcore noisemakers Unwound, heavy screamo originals City of Caterpillar, and a possibly metalcore greats Botch, it’s been an impressive year already for a certain kind of dark loud music. Let’s hope listeners don’t overlook NULL, the forthcoming eighth studio effort from the underheralded KEN mode, due out in autumn. Following its brutalist first single “A Love Letter”, its latest preview “But They Respect My Tactics” keeps the collapse of mankind raining down dark matter and existential pile-ons. “Whatever gets you talking more / We're trying to keep you engaged with the platform,” hurls Jesse Matthewson into its bowels, going for it in all guts and disgust for your entertainment.

Directed by: Tyler Funk

Fall Tour Dates:

KEN mode’s NULL will be released September 23th on Artoffact Records.

[books-in-media]

Masterlist of books mentioned & read by Emma Roberts

—A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit (2005)

—A Selfie as Big as the Ritz, Lara Williams (2016)

—A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York, Anjelica Huston (2013)

—Abandon Me: Memoirs, Melissa Febos (2017)

—After This: When Life Is Over, Where Do We Go?, Claire Bidwell Smith (2015)

—Ali in Wonderland: And Other Tall Tales, Ali Wentworth (2012)

—An American Marriage, Tayari Jones (2018)

—An Extraordinary Theory of Objects: A Memoir of an Outsider in Paris, Stephanie LaCava (2012)

—And Now I Spill the Family Secrets: An Illustrated Memoir, Margaret Kimball (2021)

—Ask the Dust, John Fante (1939)

—Audition: A Memoir, Barbara Walters (2008)

—Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, Peter Evans, Ava Gardner (2013)

—Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust, Ina Garten (2012)

—Battleborn, Claire Vaye Watkins (2012)

—Beautiful Ruins, Jess Walter (2012)

—Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Elizabeth Gilbert (2015)

—Bluets, Maggie Nelson (2009)

—Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan (2012)

—Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson (1977)

—Carthage, Joyce Carol Oates (2014)

—Chanel Bonfire, Wendy Lawless (2013)

—Chelsea Girls, Eileen Myles (1994)

—Cities I’ve Never Lived In, Sara Majka (2016)

—Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys, Viv Albertine (2014)

—Crystal Ball Reading for Beginners: Easy Divination & Interpretation, Alexandra Chauran (2011)

—Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession , Alice Bolin (2018) 

—Dear Mr. You, Mary-Louise Parker (2015) 

—Different Seasons, Stephen King (1982)

—Doctor Sleep, Stephen King (2013)

—Driftwood, Elizabeth Dutton (2014)

—Emma, Jane Austen (1815)

—Emily Dickinson: Letters, Emily Dickinson (1894)

—Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune, Bill Dedman, Paul Clark Newell Jr.  (2013)

—Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Tom Robbins (1976)

—Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (1953)

—Faking It: The Lies Women Tell about Sex–And the Truths They Reveal , Lux Alptraum (2018)

—Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson (1971)

—Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles, Ron Currie Jr. (2013)

—Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes (1959)

—Girl in a Band, Kim Gordon (2015) 

—Girlchild, Tupelo Hassman (2012)

—Gold Fame Citrus, Claire Vaye Watkins (2015)

—Grace: A Memoir, Grace Coddington (2012)

—Happiness: A Philosopher’s Guide, Frédéric Lenoir (2011)

—Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality, Jacob Tomsky (2012)

—Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs, Sally Mann (2015)

—Honey Girl, Lisa Freeman (2015)

—How Should a Person Be?, Sheila Heti (2010)

—I'll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Interviews, Andy Warhol (2004)

—I’ll Tell You in Person, Chloe Caldwell  (2016) 

—In Praise of Messy Lives: Essays, Katie Roiphe (2012)

—Into the Valley, Ruth Galm (2015)

—Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), Mindy Kaling (2011)

—Jane: A Murder, Maggie Nelson (2005) (X)

—Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins (1984)

—Joy Enough, Sarah McColl (2019)

—Kitchen Revelry: Fun, Fearless and Festive Ideas to Inspire You to Take a Bite Out of Life, Ali Larter (2013)

—Laura & Emma, Kate Greathead (2018) 

—Let Me Tell You What I Mean, Joan Didion (2021)

—Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris (2013)

—Levels of Life, Julian Barnes (2013)

—Little Known Facts, Christine Sneed (2013)

—Luster, Raven Leilani (2020)

—M Train, Patti Smith (2015)

—Marlena, Julie Buntin (2017) (X) 

—Men Explain Things To Me, Rebecca Solnit (2014)

—Motherest, Kristen Iskandrian (2017)

—My Life on the Road, Gloria Steinem (2015) 

—My Sister, The Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite (2017)

—My 1980s and Other Essays, Wayne Koestenbaum (2013)

—Neverworld Wake, Marisha Pessl (2018)

—Nine Inches, Tom Perrotta (2013)

—Not That Kind Of Girl, Lena Dunham (2014)

—November 22, 1963 , Adam Braver (2008)

—Of Things Gone Astray, Janina Matthewson (2014) 

—One Last Thing Before I Go, Jonathan Tropper (2012)

—Outlawed, Anna North (2021)

—Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953, Elizabeth Winder (2013)

—Pond, Claire-Louise Bennett (2015)

—Psychos: A White Girl Problems Book, Babe Walker (2014)

—Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier (1938)

—Riding in Cars with Boys: Confessions of a Bad Girl Who Makes Good, Beverly Donofrio (1990)

—Robert Frost’s Poems, Robert Frost, Louis Untermeyer (1930)

—Robogenesis, Daniel H. Wilson (2014)

—Run River, Joan Didion (1963)

—Salt Slow, Julia Armfield (2019)

—Searching for Sylvie Lee, Jean Kwok (2019)

—Selected Poetry, John Keats (1921)

—Sex & Rage: Advice to Young Ladies Eager for a Good Time, Eve Babitz (1979) (X) 

—Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion (1968)

—Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A.: Tales, Eve Babitz (1977)

—South and West: From a Notebook, Joan Didion (2017) (X)

—Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel (2014) (X)

—Stay With Me, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (2017)

—Still Life with Woodpecker, Tom Robbins (1980) 

—Swimming Sweet Arrow, Maureen Gibbon (2000)

—Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt (2012)

—Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship, Kayleen Schaefer (2018)

—The Adults, Alison Espach (2011)

—The Answers, Catherine Lacey (2017)

—The Astor Orphan: A Memoir, Alexandra Aldrich (2013)

—The Baroness: The Search for Nica, the Rebellious Rothschild, Hannah Rothschild (2012)

—The Best Things to Do in Los Angeles: 1001 Ideas, Joy Yoon (2012)

—The Book of V, Anna Solomon (2020)

—The Children Act, Ian McEwan (2014)

—The Chocolate Money, Ashley Prentice Norton (2012)

—The Elementals, Francesca Lia Block (2012)

—The End We Start From, Megan Hunter (2017)

—The Girls, Emma Cline (2016)

—The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, Melissa Bank (1998)

—The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) 

—The Guineveres, Sarah Domet (2016)

—The Illusion of Separateness, Simon Van Booy (2013)

—The Immortalists, Chloe Benjamin (2018)

—The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, Andrew Sean Greer (2013)

—The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day, David J. Hand (2014)

—The Kitchy Kitchen: 200 Recipes for the Young and Hungry, Claire Thomas (2014) 

—The Last Days of California, Mary Miller (2013)

—The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion, Tracy Daugherty (2015)

—The Light We Lost, Jill Santopolo (2017) 

—The Lightness, Emily Temple (2020)

—The Love Song of Johnny Valentine, Teddy Wayne (2013)

—The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury (1949)

—The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories, Marina Keegan (2014)

—The Poems of Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1944)

—The Rules Do Not Apply, Ariel Levy (2017), (X) (X) 

—The Shining, Stephen King (1977)

—The Story of My Teeth, Valeria Luiselli (2013)

—The Universe of Us, Lang Leav (2016)

—The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion, Meghan Daum (2014)

—The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety, Alan W. Watts (1951)

—The Woman I Wanted to Be, Diane Von Furstenberg (2014)

—Things to Do When You’re Goth in the Country And Other Stories, Chavisa Woods (2017) 

—This is It & Other Essays on Zen & Spiritual Experience, Alan W. Watts (1960)

—This Is Where I Leave You, Jonathan Tropper (2003)

—This One Summer, Mariko Tamaki, Jillian Tamaki (2014)

—Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots, Jessica Soffer (2013)

—Touch, Courtney Maum (2017) (X) 

—Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer (2003)

—Valley Fever, Katherine Taylor (2015)

—Veronica, Mary Gaitskill (2005)

—Visible Empire, Hannah Pittard (2018)

—Watch Me, Anjelica Huston (2014)

—We Were Liars, E. Lockhart (2014) 

—We Wish You Luck, Caroline Zancan (2020)

—West of Eden: An American Place, Jean Stein (2016)

—What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Henry Farrell (1960)

—When Watched, Leopoldine Core (2016)

—Where'd You Go, Bernadette, Maria Semple (2012)

—Widow Basquiat: A Love Story, Jennifer Clement (2000)

—Wildflower, Drew Barrymore (2015) 

—Writers & Lovers, Lily King (2020)

—Your Voice In My Head, Emma Forrest (2011)

—200 Women: Who Will Change The Way You See The World, Geoff Blackwell, Ruth Hobday (2017)

—365 Style, Nicky Hilton (2014)

[earpeeler]

Squared Circle Pit – #17 - KEN MODE's Jesse Matthewson Talks Canadian Wrestling

Squared Circle Pit – #17 – KEN MODE’s Jesse Matthewson Talks Canadian Wrestling

He’s from Winnipeg, you idiot! We have KEN Mode frontman Jesse Matthewson on the Squared Circle Pit this week. We spend a lot of time talking about the Monday Night Wars, what Raw and Nitro did well, and what they failed at. We talk about keeping up with the frenetic pace of wrestling nowadays, and some of Shane’s favorite matches. http://traffic.libsyn.com/metalinjection2/17_Squared_Circle_Pit_1…

[m3t4ln3rd]

KEN mode release video for new track "Throw Your Phone in the River"

Band: KEN modeSong: “Throw Your Phone in the River”Director: Christopher Mills & Tyler FunkAlbum: NULLRelease Date: September 23rd, 2022Label: Artoffact Records Guitarist/vocalist Jesse Matthewson said of the song: “‘I can’t help you if I can’t even help myself. I’m drowning in this cyclical mess, and it just won’t finish me off.’ This is pretty much the sentiment of this one. I wrote it in…

[theseventhhex]

KEN mode Interview

KEN mode

Photo by Brenna Faris

KEN mode have returned with their seventh full-length ‘Loved’. The album represents yet another pivot point in the group’s sound, a departure from the indie/noise punk focused songs on their previous album, ‘Success’. On ‘Loved’ the group delve deeper, and darker than ever before. This vicious full-length may be the group’s quintessential statement of violence and despair made sonic. Drawing from not only the desperate noise and industrial sonics of the 80’s and 90’s, KEN mode has mixed in the decidedly more extreme tone and presence of death and black metal, expertly captured by Andrew Schneider’s sick vision of noise and girth. With a newfound focus and desire ‘Loved’ is the most collaborative effort KEN mode has ever put together and it continues the band’s impressive progression to date… We talk to Jesse Matthewson about having more fun, doughnuts and Ronda Rousey…

TSH: What was at the heart of your lyrical content this time around for ‘Loved’?

Jesse: The current state of the world was definitely impacting a lot of the lyrical content on ‘Loved’. Also, this album is the most collaborative that the band’s lyrics have ever been too. For the last six years I’ve just been taking notes on my phone of things people say around me. In addition to this my bandmates will send me messages with different quotes and word combinations that we all find entertaining and I’ve been injecting a lot of those into the lyrical content as well. I’ve almost treated a lot of the songs as an editorial type of job in ways. It makes for a new challenge for us because we are changing up the way that we are doing things, it’s more fresh and involves a more family like kind of atmosphere.

TSH: Do you still prefer to not have parameters in place with your songwriting?

Jesse: Definitely. We never have parameters around what we are writing about, we just write whatever we want to, but the sentiment and structures have to feel professional and like they are of a certain standard. The actual subject matter doesn’t matter that much to us; it’s whatever is inspiring us to write something that we feel means something.

TSH: Also, this time around you guys wanted to get back to playing as a band and being in a position where you were doing it for fun...

Jesse: Totally. We wrote this album in a completely different way to any other album that we’ve written. Most of the riff ideas were written by Scott and I just hanging out and throwing around ideas and reacting to each other. We also worked with a friend of ours in Winnipeg, Drew Johnston. We played with him for over a year and a half and he helped us put together a lot of this record, especially since Scott lives further out. Drew supported us a lot and we played as a three-piece whilst Shane constructed the beats to the riffs that Scott and I wrote. Overall, it was just great to just inject some fun into the equation, despite this album sounding like we are having the least amount of fun, haha!

TSH: ‘Loved’ is heavier overall and a lot more experimental than previous works, but there’s also the factor of including jazz and industrial influences...

Jesse: Yeah, that’s just what we’ve enjoyed listening to recently. In 2016 I listened to a lot of jazz, for some reason the genre just really spoke to me. Also, I thought it would be a cool idea to try out some new things with different instruments on this record. The saxophone was also something that specifically worked well with the tones of our guitar and bass.

TSH: Longtime KEN mode collaborator Randy Ortiz did the excellent artwork for this record. As soon as he posted it you knew it was going to represent a lot of the narratives on this record...

Jesse: Yeah, I mean there is so much that is going on with this album cover - it’s both terrifying and unendingly amusing. I feel like that picture wraps up all these feelings at the same time and is the perfect representation of this almost joker like response. It brings to mind absolute terror, yet you can’t help but laugh. The artwork itself was done in 2016 and as we were creating the music we wanted it to live up to that image - even before we talked to Randy. I pitched the cover to my bandmates and they were all on board. We kind of used this picture to create an artistic arms race, where we needed our music to live up to it and we tried to bring up the feelings that this picture brings up in people.

TSH: What do you recall about fleshing out ‘The Illusion of Dignity’?

Jesse: It’s interesting because we significantly changed the structure of this song after we did the pre-production demos. Me and Scott came up with the riff and one day Shane came into the room and started playing along to it. It had a sick, drunk and swampy groove to it and the original working title was ‘Drunk Sex’. But yeah, it was all based around the initial riff. We wanted to hear it repeated, but it was a matter of how to execute that without it becoming boring. I’m happy with the changes we made because we were able to make it something we could beat to the ground whilst still making it engaging, and I think this was mainly because of the interjection of the saxophone in the latter portion of the song. It’s also worth noting that this song was the first time that I vocally caught this specific feeling that I’ve always wanted to in songs - very much like an old Swans, Black Flag and Henry Rollins type of feel.

TSH: What does ‘Fractures in Adults’ convey to you?

Jesse: It takes me back to early 2017 when I was dealing with a bit of depression. A lot of the words on this song are very personal, as opposed to the rest of the record. This song also has a lot more inside jokes and fun wordplay going on, specifically with the riffs themselves. This song entails such an interesting combination of influences being that it was written by a different line-up to the rest of the record, yet it still manages to fit in very well.

TSH: Do you feel that the benefits of Facebook for bands has become somewhat less valuable over time?

Jesse: When social media first came to prominence it was a very good tool for a lot of independent bands, but I’ve recently found that with every record cycle it becomes worse and worse, especially since Facebook completely monetises everything. We’re not a huge band but we have like 28,000 followers on Facebook and our average post only gets seen by 1,000 people - and they expect you to pay for everything if you want to be seen. What is even the point of having a Facebook if we can’t communicate with our fans?

TSH: Would you rather have things back to how they were prior to the rise of the internet?

Jesse: It makes me sound like an old timer, but I prefer the way things were prior to the internet becoming so huge. It was better when you were not constantly being barraged by technology. These days it seems like everyone has complete attention deficit disorder - always wanting that bump of something new and exciting, and it’s made record cycles shorter than ever too. The attention dies down a lot quicker than previous generations for album releases. It’s a lot more intense putting out an album with all of the stress in doing everything right. It becomes the world’s chance to react to your work and you have no control from that point onwards.

TSH: Do you still make sure to get your fix of doughnuts often?

Jesse: Ah, yes. I’m very much a fan of my Saturday morning doughnut fix, but I keep it limited and only treat my body to a pile of garbage on the weekend.

TSH: Being a fan of MMA, what did you make of Ronda Rousey’s transition to the WWE universe?

Jesse: I actually have been following WWE a bit more just because of Ronda Rousey. I think it’s awesome that she’s having a lot of fun, and surprisingly, she’s picked up a lot of it very quickly. I think she’s going to take women’s wrestling to a new level. However, I hope she doesn’t hurt anyone too much though. Some of the judo tosses I’ve seen her pulling off are mildly scary! But yeah, I’m really happy for her.

TSH: Are your intentions with future KEN mode material to always constantly be learning, creating and finding new goals?

Jesse: Yeah, absolutely. We need to keep it interesting, otherwise what the hell are we doing with ourselves? We’re not selling a lot of records, so there’s clearly no reason for us to be doing this for some kind of financial gain. For us, it’s all about at least satisfying our own artistic desires and keeping things interesting on that front. If people like it, that’s awesome and it’s the icing on the cake.

KEN mode - “Doesn't Feel Pain Like He Should”

KEN mode - “Feathers & Lips”

Loved

[metalindex-hu]

KEN MODE - Klippel az első új dal: Doesn't Feel Pain Like He Should

KEN MODE - Klippel az első új dal: Doesn't Feel Pain Like He Should - http://metalindex.hu/2018/06/07/ken-mode-klippel-az-elso-uj-dal-doesnt-feel-pain-like-he-should/ -

A hardcore/metal keveréket erős noise rock hatással nyomató kanadai KEN Mode trió hetedik albuma Loved címmel jön ki augusztus 31-én, és az Andrew Schneider producerrel (Unsane, Cave In, Daughters) felvett lemezről, a 2015-ös Success album folytatásáról máris ott az első előzetes dal, a klippel kísért Doesn’t Feel Pain Like He Should.

“Egy olyan albumot szerettünk volna elkészíteni, amelyik tükrözi egy gondolkodó ember reakcióját a jelenkorunk politikai/technológiai környezetére – mondja a frontember Jesse Matthewson. – A tökéletes lemezt akartuk elkészíteni, amit ismétlőre raksz, miközben a fizikai korlátaidat maximálisan próbára teszed annak érdekében, hogy akár csak időlegesen is, de elnémítsd a zajt, ami folyamatosan zúg a fejedben…“

  www.facebook.com/kenmode

  KEN MODE – Doesn’t Feel Pain Like He Should (a 2018-as Loved albumhoz)

[terrieallison510]

Squared Circle Pit #17 – KEN MODE’s Jesse Matthewson Talks Canadian Wrestling Awesome Black Metal Stuff! He's from Winnipeg, you idiot! We have KEN Mode frontman Jesse Matthewson on the Squared Circle Pit this week. We... The Most Offensive T-Shirts Are Here!! from Terry A RSS Feed via IFTTT

[screamingforyears]

IN A MINUTE:

A POST_PUNK EXPRESS… // “AGORAPHOBIC” is the latest single from @bara.hari’s forthcoming debut LP titled ‘Lesser Gods’ (5/26 @remissionentertainment) & it finds the “LA-based dark pop songwriter & producer” facing her internal anxieties across a 3+ min stretch of trip_hopped ElectroPop. @bunny_xmusic are here w/ “DAYDREAMING,” the final single in the run-up to their forthcoming LP titled ‘Love Minus 80’ (TBA @aztec_records) & it finds the NYC (with love)-based duo of Abigail Gordon + Mary Hanley bringing the “Italo Disco & Retrowave 🎹🌴” goods across a 3:51 clip of tranquil SynthPop. “I CANNOT” (@artoffact_records) is a new standalone single from @kenmodenoise & it finds the Winnipeg-based quartet of Jesse Matthewson (guitar/vocals), Shane Matthewson (drums), Scott Hamilton (bass) & Kathryn Kerr (saxophone) not fucking around w/ this lurchingly brutal bout of “equal parts My War, 90's metal core & some noise post rock” “CYNTHIA” is the final single/title-track from @qyburnmusic’s forthcoming LP (TBA @matriarchrecordsuk) & it finds the Los Angeles-based “master necromance” holding court & spreading the dark word by dropping another banger ass track for his fellow conjurors that’s chockful of synthetic dread, ominous beauty & deeply plaintive tones… on repeat!

////

[sinceileftyoublog]

KEN Mode Interview: Sound That Bites

Photo by Brenna Harris

BY JORDAN MAINZER

When I interviewed KEN Mode’s Jesse Matthewson five years ago around the release of their great Entrench, he was working an office job, thought about in the same circle as a band like Pissed Jeans who sing angry, self-deprecating office jock rock. Five years later, life’s a lot different. (“Feels like an eternity,” he tells me.) This time, he’s calling from a new job--the music management company he’s started with his brother and bandmate Shane. It’s been a full three years since they released Entrench follow-up Success, a stylistic change towards the quieter and a comparative critical flop. After that album, Matthewson was burned out but kept going. He immediately started experimenting with some of the songs that would become their latest record Loved, recorded and co-written with new bassist Scott Hamilton, co-produced, recorded, and mixed by Andrew Schneider, and featuring saxophonist Kathryn Kerr on a few tracks. Loved is a step back to the noisy but also a step forward in sonic diversity.

After Loved was recorded, Matthewson went to Thailand to train in Muay Thai, which he practices regularly. (He participated in its over headphones while there.) Fast-forward to now, and the band is on their first tour since the Matthewson brothers started their own company, and they’re simultaneously balancing both professions--and the fitness regime. They’ve got a week more in the Northeast U.S. and Canada and then spend three weeks in Europe. In 2019, they hope to return to both the U.S. and Europe (and obviously tour Canada) and maybe even Australia.

Read the rest of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, below.

Since I Left You: Do you think Loved sounds more like Entrench than Success?

Jesse Matthewson: Yeah, there are obviously similarities between what we’re doing now and what we’ve always done in the past. But I do feel like this is an entirely new beast that utilizes maybe some of the same skills we’ve used in the past. A lot of the styles of the riffs are a fair amount different. Vocally, I feel it’s got a wider range and, if anything, more intensity than I think we’ve ever had. The songwriting itself--every time we change bassists, we have a new feel. This is the most collaborative effort we’ve ever had. Scott and I developed all the riffs as opposed to either one of us going into isolation and presenting something.

SILY: When you collaborated together, was that after or before you went to Thailand?

JM: I actually went to Thaliand immediately after we finished recording it.

SILY: Then it went to mastering?

JM: We were mastering it when I was in Thaliand. It wasn’t super fun doing it over headphones, but I had Shane back here listening on big stereos and Andrew listening over in Brooklyn. At least we had good fresh ears around the equipment.

SILY: What made you want to study Muay Thai?

JM: I’ve been training it the past 11 years in Winnipeg anyway. Since it’s the national sport of Thaliand, they kind of invented it. It’s known as the mecca--if you want to learn from the best, you go to Thailand. A friend of mine and training partner was out there for three months at the beginning of the year. He was trying to get me to go, and I knew logistically, the timing wasn’t the best, but at the same time, I didn’t have a ton to do work-wise at the beginning of February. I had a life savings worth of aeroplane miles and spent next to nothing and stayed there for like a month.

SILY: What does practicing Muay Thai do for you?

JM: It’s like music--especially extreme music. It’s something you never stop learning. It’s also a natural form of anti-depressants for me. I need exercise to regulate all the chemicals that are flowing through my body and potentially throwing my brain off track. I suffered from depressive episodes since I was a teenager, and this has been the ultimate way of managing that process. I haven’t had very many problems since I started doing Muay Thai. 

Exercise is obviously important to any healthy adult--we’re animals, after all, and we need to release that. Our lifestyles of sitting around in jobs is not a natural process, and our bodies and minds are meant to have fight or flight going on. If you’re having those responses to stupid bullshit with other people in an office, you’re not getting that release you need. For me, it’s such a major way to blow out some steam. When I was younger, music used to suffice, but at least since I was 25, I know it wasn’t enough. I kind of need the combination to remain relatively chilled out.

SILY: It’s an interesting juxtaposition with a song on Loved like “Feathers & Lips”. You’ve mentioned that’s inspired by politicians who seem aggressive but can’t fight.

JM: A lot of the most aggressive, biggest assholes are big fat dudes. What the fuck? [laughs]

SILY: They can’t control what’s inside them, and it manifests itself in the worst ways as opposed to in a controlled, healthy, productive way.

JM: A lot of fighter types were more aggressive bully types until they started training and fighting. That started to regulate that. That weird psychological side to them. With training any kind of martial art, you get humbled early on. It’s not like I had a problem with aggression--I had never even fought in my life before starting to train. I had never thrown a punch or been punched. For me, it’s that constant learning for something I’m not naturally good at. I’m not an athlete, which is funny because in the touring circuit of the style of music we’re a part of, people treat Shane and I as almost jocks because we’re fit. It’s funny, because we’re the furthest thing from that. We just exercise so we don’t go crazy.

Loved album cover by Randy Ortiz

SILY: Switching gears--the song “Not Soulmates” is about relationships. What made you want to sing about that?

JM: It wasn’t even so much wanting to sing about it; it was just the most entertaining lines that came out. [laughs] The idea of “not soulmates.” 

Writing for us is a collaborative effort. I take a bunch of lines and try to string these entertaining soundbites into a cohesive narrative with my and other people’s writing. The whole concept of KEN Mode lyric writing has totally changed over the past couple records. It used to just be me writing. Over the last record, it’s a whole band plus people around us. There are lines on this record that my father wrote, that Scott’s wife Cate wrote, that our comedian friend Garrett Jamieson wrote. It’s really a wild mixture of people surrounding us in our lives. It makes it more of a sense of family. It makes it way more fun. I enjoy that as a concept. This band is more than just a band to us at this point.

Circling back to the actual content of that song, the best parts of it are Shane referring to our emotional baggage with the concept of marriage. The main chorus line Scott’s wife sent to him when they were on a bit of a vacation on the West Coast, which pulled the whole thing together.

SILY: So they wrote lines without even knowing?

JM: Yeah. People saying something that we think on paper is funny and turn it into something completely different. [laughs]

SILY: Are you currently in a relationship?

JM: I am presently. I wasn’t when a lot of this record was written.

SILY: Do you think you would have written a song like this, independent of your personal life?

JM: Yeah. There are are definitely some aspects that are a time and a place that I pulled specific narratives from. But I think a lot of the concepts still remain the same.

SILY: The closer, “No Gentle Art”, is different than the rest of the song, including the arrangement, length, peaks and valleys. How did you come up with that song?

JM: The beginning stages of that song I think I was writing playing alone around Christmas of 2016--maybe even 2015. I can’t remember. It was one of those years. I started with that pulsing knocking sound on the bass. I started playing the first riff and looped it around for what must have been 45 minutes, in a bit of a trance. That’s how that song got going. We didn’t really make much of a song of it until we did a pre-production demo in May of 2017 where we were basically recording the material we had until that point. We had that riff. I had an idea of where I wanted it to go with the ending section. We basically pasted two pieces together and experimented over the top of it. That’s where we got a little more of the beat over it. The lyrics were a combination of my and Scott’s writing in the studio. After that, we started to piece together things and edit things and created more of a build with it--that chorus line that breaks off of that first bass line, when it’s just that distorted bass. I also edited the lyrics probably a little bit before we recorded the album proper. Scott lost his father in October of last year and did some writing as a reaction to that, and some of those words were too powerful not to use, so they replaced some of the other ones of the song. And right before the tracking, we came up with the parts for Kathryn on the saxophone, and that again created a very different shift for that song. But to me, it made it feel like more of a song, whereas the pre-production demo was two very noisy parts squished together. It was a cool idea, but we wanted to create more of a narrative. We got there. We hit the nail on the head.

SILY: Her saxophone playing on “The Illusion of Dignity” appears just at the end, but it’s really prominent throughout “This Is A Love Test”. How did you come up with her saxophone parts in general?

JM: Initially, my big plan was that I wanted to have cello and saxophone all over the record. We messed around a bunch in those pre-production sessions. The cello parts felt muddy. It didn’t fit with the tone of the guitar and bass and kind of clouded the overall vision of those songs. We felt like the saxophone parts, the tone cut better and fit in more properly with what we were trying to accomplish. Yet, as we recorded the album, we realized we didn’t want it to be a gimmick we were leaning on constantly song-by-song. So we wanted to make it much more punctuated and make the parts mean something. 

“The Illusion of Dignity”, it came across more like a free jazz solo at the end. It helped decompose that song. It’s got that lurching, drunken feeling. I wanted to lean back on that--I hate to call it sludgy, because I don’t like that term--it’s kind of swampy. Super down-tune. I like the idea of having the chaotic sax coming back on top of that, particularly the way Shane switches over with the 8th note on the kick drum beats. That’s one of my favorite moments of us as a band.

Switching over to “This Is A Love Test”, we felt that needed proper parts written. When that song kicks off, the imagery felt like a noir film, like dark jazz, this very, very ugly lounge scene. That’s why we came back to the saxophone in a very different way. We wanted to keep it fresh--it’s not being used the same way every time. Shifting keys again in “No Gentle Art”, it’s basically a tool of chaos.

SILY: Do you listen to a lot of free jazz or punk that uses jazz instruments?

JM: Yeah. In 2016, I got more heavily into jazz. I had never delved into it too deeply. I was listening to a lot of jazz through 2016, which gave me part of the inspiration to experiment with those instruments. But also the post-punk bands I’ve been listening to--the no wave scene. There were a couple bands that put out noisy records I enjoyed who used sax on a lot of their tracks. I liked the way they were using it, in a sort of art rock context. We didn’t use sax as heavily as originally intended, but I think the way we used it was refreshing but not annoying. I know that’s one of the main complaints people have when sax is used non-traditionally. It just kind of comes across as a stupid gimmick. People don’t even like instruments out of the realm of guitar, bass, drums. If that’s a deal-breaker for our record for some people, so be it. It doesn’t beat people over the head, but it creates some really cool aspects.

SILY: What jazz or punk artists were you listening to at the time?

JM: Parlor Walls put out a record I really like in 2017. They used a lot of saxophone. I was listening to a lot of BadBadNotGood. Mouse on the Keys, although they didn’t use saxophone--they’re largely just two pianos and drums. There’s a whole bunch of jazz I’m not going to remember off the top of my head.

SILY: How are you adapting these songs live without the extra instrumentation?

JM: Ideally, we’d like to start taking Kathryn on tour with us, but it’s not going to work out in the fall. So we literally just took her samples on the record, and we have them in our sample pad. We’re in the process of learning how to play with them. I hope that works. We’ve done that in the past with Eugene Robinson’s collaboration with us on “Blessed”, and we’ve done that for chaotic cello parts. I really hope we can play it properly.

SILY: Five years ago, you were working an office job. Now, you’ve started your own company. Are you generally a bit more satisfied with life?

JM: Oh, 100%. At times, I almost have to take a step back and marvel at the fact that I played a long game, and so far, it seems to be paying off. The only reason I ever got a Bachelor of Commerce was because I thought that was the only way I would be able to make money being involved in the only industry I actually care about: music. It’s always been a problem when it came to schooling. I could never excel at anything the way I felt I should because music was always taking the front seat. It was the monkey on my back. I figured if I got a business degree, I could work in music and actually make money in something I found interesting. I’m not gonna lie, one of the reasons I was interested in touring full-time was because I felt like nobody would take KEN Mode seriously unless we did that, and the rest was to develop some contacts to see whether I could spin a job out of this industry. When we burnt out at the end of Success, we pitched this idea that we’d use our book learnins’, put ‘em to good use, and we formed this practice. Over the past couple years, it’s taken off quite well. We’re making a living off of this. It’s pretty cool.

SILY: You’re your own boss, so it’s not like you have to ask for time off to go on tour.

JM: Nope! Though that side of things we’re mildly terrified about. Obviously, we have a bunch of dates coming up, and this is the first time we’ve attempted to tour since we started these jobs. We’re gonna see how this works, attempting to keep up with work while on tour. The runs aren’t nearly as long, but at the same time, we think they may be about the maximum amount of dates we can do at any one time while keeping the train on the tracks.

SILY: Anything else you’ve been listening to or reading or watching lately that’s caught your attention?

JM: This year’s been kind of weird. I’ve been enjoying a lot of blackened death metal but nothing has stood out in the way that I’m gushing. I just got the new Imperial Triumphant record in the mail. I enjoyed that a lot. The new Craft record. Otherwise, I feel kind of weird there hasn’t been much outside blackened death metal to me. It’s the main genre that’s been saying something to me. It’s telling of the mind-space that I’m in. Even artistically speaking with movies and TV, nothing’s really wowed me lately. Maybe I’m depressed.

Tour dates:

Oct 25 Photo City Improv & Live Music Rochester, NY

Oct 26 Bovine Sex Club Toronto, ON

Oct 27 Turbo Haus Montreal, QC

Oct 28 La Source de la Martinière Québec, QC

Oct 29 HOUSE of TARG Ottawa, ON

Nov 15 Le Temps Machine Joué-Les-Tours, France

Nov 16 L'Astrolabe Orléans, France

Nov 17 Void Bordeaux, France

Nov 18 Rex Toulouse, France

Nov 19 Blacksheep Montpellier, France

Nov 20 Chez Raymond Clermont-Ferrand, France

Nov 21 Romandie Lausanne, Switzerland

Nov 22 L'Antonnoir Besançon, France

Nov 23 Die Stadtmitte Karlsruhe, Germany

Nov 24 Cbgc's Gigors, France

Nov 25 Circolo Magnolia Segrate, Italy

Nov 27 Le Ferrailleur Nantes, France

Nov 28 Fort De Tourneville Le Havre, France

Nov 29 Petit Bain Paris, France

Nov 30 Le Bistrot de St So Lille, France

Dec 01 The Macbeth London, UK

Dec 02 Magasin 4 Brussels, Belgium

[metalinsider]

Interview: KEN Mode's Jesse Matthewson talks about their 'Success'

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KEN Mode have always had an Amphetamine Reptile noise rock heart beating beneath their hardcore exterior. For their sixth album, Success, the Canadian band fully embraced the former sound, calling in Steve Albini to record the album. If listening expecting to hear a metal album, you might be disappointed, but it’s a rewarding album that transcends genres. Jesse Matthewson caught up with up on the…

[m3t4ln3rd]

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[wrepisodes]

WR #71: "Tex-Mex Single of the Year" with guest Jesse Matthewson of KEN Mode

KEN Mode frontman Jesse Matthewson joins the fellas to talk about his band's grueling tour schedule, the Juno Awards and this week's randomly-generated theme word, "king". Witchpolice Radio (as a podcast) is available for free download and streaming. Check out the archives at http://www.witchpolice.com/p/podcasts.html. It's also broadcast Monday nights at 11 pm on 101.5 UMFM in Winnipeg, or umfm.com if you're not in Winnipeg.

[terrieallison510]

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Awesome Black Metal Stuff!

He's from Winnipeg, you idiot! We have KEN Mode frontman Jesse Matthewson on the Squared Circle Pit this week. We...

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