Kaslo unveils fresh sound with Watching the Carousel Collapse
By Kelly Vormelker, Staff Writer
October 12, 2007 | noon
Watching the Carousel Collapse is causing anything but a cave-in for local band Kaslo. Its first studio-recorded album finds the band with increased instrumentation on each track and a new, polished sound.
Kaslo is completing a full transformation with the release of Watching the Carousel Collapse. The Athens-based band has grown from playing coffeehouse, open mic shows with only its founding members, Teddy and Clay, to a record-release show at Donkey Coffee and Espresso Friday, Oct. 12, at 8 p.m. with a full, seven-piece band.
Veteran fans will find something different with this album than anything that Kaslo has ever performed live. Many of the tracks have been enhanced with effects that only a studio can easily provide, and the new album also has different instrumentation, including cello, trumpet and trombone. However, any embellishment that is present on the album will be stripped down as Kaslo plays live at the CD-release show. Fans will see an honest portrayal of what Kaslo has become.
Producer Josh Antonuccio defines the band’s sound as “intellectually minded, melancholic pop-rock.” Speakeasy spoke with Kaslo members Teddy Humpert, Luke Brevoort and Clay Flaherty to decipher what exactly that means.
SE: What do you hope Watching the Carousel Collapse achieves for Kaslo?
Teddy: The album is a tangible representation of our music. Now people don’t have to come out to live shows to hear us. This is something they can hold onto.
Luke: I hope people have a lot of fun going out and supporting it. We want them to pop veins in their necks while they are singing along to it.
SE: Can you talk a little bit about the process of recording this album?
Teddy: We went in at the end of November 2006 on the naïve assumption that we could actually have it out in the winter. It ended up being a 10-month long process—from getting in and doing basic tracking at 3 Elliot Studio to layering on countless other things that we didn’t expect to be doing.
Clay: To say that it was a stress-free operation would be an outright lie. I think the stress was worth it, though. We just came out with a few gray hairs and maybe a few minor drinking problems.
SE: How did the album turn out “mightier” than you expected?
Luke: A lot of the songs got really big — huge actually. For most of us it was our first major studio-recording experience. We got excited at the possibilities of being able to throw everything but the kitchen sink in, and so we did.
Clay: We didn’t do that on every song necessarily. “Hospital Nights,” one of the first songs we recorded, was originally a very acoustic song. Now there are 17 Teddys at the end of it doing chorus and harmony.
SE: Is the album going to be a lot different for fans who are used to your live sets?
Teddy: I don’t think any of us are under the impression that we are going to recreate the album when we go into a live show. We have all these different minds that are going to do what they want to do.
Clay: I think people pay money to go to live shows. They don’t pay money to just get verbatim what they get on the album.
SE: How did you choose the material to go on this album?
Teddy: It was the full extent of what we had originally. The 12 songs that are on the album now are what we felt comfortable putting down, and then it was a money and time thing.
SE: Where did the artwork for the cover come from?
Luke: Our cello player Michele came out of nowhere and just blew our brains with it. She is really adaptive at Photoshop and hand drawing as well. We had been looking at pictures of carousel horses, and then all of a sudden she sent this to us, and that was it.
SE: Now that the recording process is over, would you change anything that you went through?
Teddy: We could keep going back and changing things, but you get stuck in that process.
Luke: Some bands like Radiohead operate like perfectionists. The way I see it is that doing a record is supposed to be like a snapshot of what you are doing at the moment. The record is an honest portrayal of Kalso right now.
SE: How much has your sound changed since freshman year playing in the dorms?
Teddy: Astronomically, the structure of the songs is the same. For the most part it is the instrumentation of having different members.
Clay: We are very organic at this point where everyone contributes something at the same time.
SE: Is Kalso now comparable at all to the bands you were a part of in high school?
Teddy: I was in a pop-punk band all of high school. Sufficed to say it was fast, three-chord cover songs. Not that the lyrics have changed that much, we still write about the same stuff. We did record an album, a five song EP. I think the songs are still available online, if anyone is looking to embarrass me.
Clay: I was in a local band here called Speakeasy, which is actually where your publication gets its name from. I was best friends with founding editor Cara McCoy. She asked if she could use our name for the site, and that’s how you guys got your name. We played the first round of benefit shows that you put on, and that’s a bit of history for you.
Luke: I was in a really silly band that wrote really silly songs. We spent more time making stupid movies and stealing equipment from Guitar Center than doing anything else.
SE: What were the coffeehouse, open mic shows like in the beginning of Kaslo?
Teddy: They were venues where Clay and I had deadlines. It forced us to get a set together.
Clay: I think it was important because it is so much more nerve-racking to be on stage with only one other person than it is to be with a full band. It is essentially like being up there naked, and if you screw up, or you have some kind of a blemish, everyone sees that.
SE: Do you have any long term goals for Kalso?
Teddy: I have been operating under the mind-set of not looking past the next show. So far, as long as we have shows scheduled, I know that we will be together for at least that long.
Clay: We are planning on sending the record out to some labels because it costs almost nothing to do. If we get interest, great, if not, we aren’t going to lose sleep over it.
Kalso will debut its new album Friday, Oct. 12, at Donkey Coffee. The cost is three dollars, and the show starts at 8 p.m. Dayton's acoustic favorite Joe Anderl will be opening the show, and singer-songwriter Jake Householder will be making an appearance as well. Fans of Kaslo should turn out to support the band as the members unveil their revised sound.
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For more information about Kaslo and for a preview of the band’s new album, check out Kaslo’s MySpace.