We three Kings

>> Chopped in half, King Cobb Steelie still have their chops

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

In a recent interview with the U.K.'s Mojo magazine, AC/DC's Angus Young mentions that his band has essentially put out the same record over and over, merely changing the jacket art each time. In AC/DC's case this may work, but most bands that merely rest on their creative laurels and sleepwalk through albums end up sounding stale and mundane.

On the other hand, Toronto's King Cobb Steelie have managed to strip away previous directions in favour of new ones with every record. There's the ambient loops of You Said a Mouthful, the indie rock of their self-titled record, the thick dub style of the Bill-Laswell-produced Project Twinkle, the flirtings with electronica on Junior Relaxer and now Mayday, where all 11 songs fit conveniently in a pop format. Mayday has all the dog-eared pages from their previous records but it's probably the closest they've ever come to commercial pop.

"I think we make a conscious effort to change with each record," says guitarist/singer Kevin Byrne. "On this record it was both conscious and unconscious. When we started writing the record we were definitely really interested in trying to write a pop song with the typical format of verse, chorus, verse, double chorus, out."

Byrne insists that the biggest changes for the band were somewhat forced. Having lost three members of the band since the last record, most of Mayday was composed on computer with help from sequencers first. King Cobb Steelie's writing process for Mayday would start with a drum loop or a sequenced drum program and then Zip discs would be passed on to the other members so samples could be added on. Once the song started to take shape it would then be arranged and the live instrumentation would go over top.

By the time the band went into the studio the songs were pretty much already written. "A lot of our songs have always come out of extended jams in our rehearsal space. For Mayday a lot of the writing could be a little bit more meticulous because we are just moving boxes around on a computer screen. It was definitely an interesting experience, using Q-Base and samplers, but we also like to draw on our experience of being a live band for nine years, so I think we'll continue using both influences."

Part of the reason that Mayday sounds so different from previous records is because it's the first they've put out in three years. Having just switched labels, King Cobb Steelie were stuck in the major-label waiting game and took time to learn the technology for their new songwriting process. Another block was the going back to the inevitable day jobs before finding a label.

"When you work a 40-hour week and start writing at 10 every night, you can get really burnt out. I guess the truth is that we're just really slow and lazy."

With Trip the Off at Foufounes Electriques on Monday, Dec. 4, 8pm, $6