How the band got started?
Chris: Lucy and I started playing together in an attic, for about six moths, we ran into our old drummer Dave Weeks at a bar. We were a three piece for a year. Matthew joined in late 1999, and we now have a new drummer Barrett Wilke. Wow, that wasn't a very exciting story.
How did the name Kinksi come about, anything to do with Natasha or Klaus?
All: Laughter!
Lucy: We really big fans of German Kraut rock 70's music, when we were starting this band a friend of our said you should call this band Klaus Kinski, making fun of us cause we like German music, so we kind of like the name, even though he was making fun of us.
What inspired you to write mainly instrumental music?
Chris: Each of our records has at least one track with vocals, like Lucy was saying 70's German Rock, a lot of Japanese current stuff were into, a lot a times vocals can tie you to the verse chorus, sort of restraints of writing, were not against vocals if they fit we can work them in.
How do you go about writing your songs?
Matthew: Chris will often bring in an idea or a germ, which we'll play around and develop as a band. Sometimes over very long periods of time, sometimes it comes together rather quickly, but more often than not it's a process of working with sound and structures. It can be trying but in a lot of ways it’s a fulfilling way to go about it.
Chris: I remember a while ago, Paul Westberg (of The Replacements) said "If you can't write a song in twenty minutes, it's not worth a shit!" So, Paul Westerberg would not fit in this band.
How do you feel "Airs above your Station" differs form the past albums?
Chris: It's not drastically different, it's a development, better production it's a natural progression for "Be Gentle with the Warm Turtle."
Lucy: A major difference is it's heavier, similar in style!
Chris: The last album was a little more spacier; this one's more direct.
The Kinski sound in comprised of many layers of guitars, what type of effects do you use?
Lucy: We don't use any effects!
All: Laughter!
Chris: Some of the guitars are actually flutes through effects. Most of the effects are just straight pedals, like reverb, echo and tremolos, alternate tunings.
Matthew: We spend a lot of time trying to find sounds with the pedals that we have. We use a lot of farm animals on the album too! We don't credit that on the album.
All: Laughter!
How is it being on Subpop Records?
All: Great!
Chris: I think the best thing is they send it out to everywhere, its there if writers and record store want to check it out!
What are the future plans of Kinksi?
Lucy: We're going to South by South West next month, and a East coast tour in April and were going to Japan again in May.
Chris: And probably another US swing this summer too.
How would you feel about performing live shows with Mogwai?
All: OK, we'd do it.
Chris: Actually back in the day when we were a three piece. The first time Mogwai was to play Seattle, we were scheduled to play. We got kicked of the bill at like a week before the show, because they had some friends they wanted to play with. We were pretty upset. |