Interview mit Toby Driver von Kayo Dot

Your music is associated with a lot of different genres. How do you feel about these attempts to categorize your sound?
I think people use genre as a descriptor when they don’t know what else to say. In 2020, though, I think that any well-listened person has developed way beyond thinking about music in that way. We all have access to an infinite supply of music from every corner of the world, and it’s going to influence every musician more and more into the future, so we all might as well give up on trying to hold onto genre ideas now before we make a fool of ourselves.

In any case, you use countless different kinds of sounds in your music. Are there even genres that you would never touch?
I don’t know, what’s a genre in 2020? Seems meaningless. But anyway, as an example – I absolutely hate the sound of reggae but I totally love the sound of a steel drum – an instrument that is pretty much exclusive to reggae. So if I used a steel drum in my music, does that mean I’m using reggae? I mean this is just a dumb line of thought.

You have been making music for a long time and you are involved in numerous projects. What comes to your mind when you look back on your artistic career?
I see each album as its own little world, with its own characteristics and identities, and that my oeuvre is like a big universe map. They’re markers of place and time, and are true portals. I’d say that looking back on my artistic career, it’s still too soon to have any answers. I can’t foresee the conclusion or the meaning, and have a long way to go… as long as I can survive.

You recently started a kind of small online fundraising campaign because your live shows couldn’t be properly financed anymore. What do you think is the reason for this?
You’re talking about our Autumn 2019 tour in the US and Canada. The reason was that the booking agent we used for that particular tour had no idea what he was doing, he was a complete amateur pretending that he was a professional, he waited too long to start working and he ended up booking some really shitty situations. So the band ends up in a position where either 1) we refuse to do the tour and cancel the dates, but then we don’t have any tour dates surounding the release date of the album so we totally lose that momentum, or 2) we do the tour anyway and hope that it goes better than expected, although it probably won’t. We lose either way. Things like this are exactly why bands get SO ANGRY at booking agents – because you give them your trust, and then they basically have the power put you in a lose-lose situation if they just end up being shitty or lazy at their job. No one has any business being a booking agent if they can’t simply understand how much their artists are relying on them. Needless to say, we aren’t working with him anymore.

As tirelessly as you create and release new music, one might come to think that you never have a creative low. Do you never hit a point at which you run out of ideas?
Not at all. But I do have many moments in which I have run out of resources, and those moments are quite hindering. If someone ever gave me a huge grant, I’d be able to make wonderful, unprecedented use of it in the arts.

Do you sometimes face technical challenges because you’re constantly trying out new things instead of just following a certain pattern?
Yes, always. But that’s kind of the point. I want to make sure that every next thing I do is a challenge through which I can learn something and become a better artist. If I’m creating something and it seems too easy, then it doesn’t strike me as a good work of art.

Your songs are very different from each other, so they can certainly be called unpredictable. What is the red thread that connects them in your opinion?
The thread is myself and my simultaneous quest for and refusal of identity.

An album is usually seen as a unit that should ideally be coherent. In your opinion, how do you prevent eclectic songwriting like yours from resulting in chaos?
Unified production. Use the same instruments on every song, use the same recording techniques, use the same musicians.

Let’s talk about your current record: „Blasphemy“. New albums are often described very flowery by labels and critics and not always in accordance with the self-perception of the artists. So how would you yourself describe your new album?
It’s a political album wrapped up in an allegorical sci-fi/fantasy tale. Kind of like Frank Herbert’s „Dune“. It’s got relatively straightforward songwriting structure, expresses an upbeat, live rock ’n‘ roll kind of feeling, tries to capture some of the energy of bands like Iron Maiden moreso than melancholy goth bands, although the goth thing is still in there a bit. All those elements are a new thing we’ve tried out on this one. The composerly nuggets in here are the way I’ve tried to use sophisticated harmony and modulation without it being too obvious to the listener. „Hidden Prog“ is what we can call it. It’s also a metal album written without using the low string of the guitar, which I felt was a clever and fun challenge, and an explicit thumb-of-the-nose towards every boring and unoriginal metal band out there.

Your label describes the album as more direct and less escapist than your previous releases. Do you agree with that?
Sure, like what I just said in the previous answer. It’s also „not escapist“ in that it really is about our world, our present moment, there’s no wish to be taken away from it all, but rather a wish to confront it.

You may be the driving force in KAYO DOT but there are also other artists that take part in your music. How much influence did the other musicians involved in „Blasphemy“ have on the record?
Every one of my albums is composed with my specific band members in mind. I always try to make the best use of what they’re especially good at, and make it sound like the music was written especially for them. This extends to the producer and recording studio as well – I knew that I wanted to do another album with Randall Dunn, for example, so I wrote the music in a way that would suit his style. Our previous album, „Plastic House On Base Of Sky“, for example, never would have worked as a Randall album.

To my knowledge „Blasphemy“ is a concept album with allegorical characters. Is it, as the title suggests, meant as criticism of religion or do you aim for other themes?
Blasphemy really means being an adversary to an institution, doesn’t it? Blasphemy is actually not blasphemy at all.

Do you think that your listeners consciously follow the story and think about the themes it deals with or do they mostly just care about the music?
Yes, I think our longtime listeners definitely do because they know that the lyrical content of KAYO DOT is always crucial. As for new listeners, I have no idea. But I hope they pay attention to these things. We produced the vocals on this album specifically to be very clear and not too hidden by reverb precisely so that people would be forced to pay attention.

Which track on „Blasphemy“ would you deem to be the climax of the story?
Track 6, „Midnight Mystic Rise And Fall“.

Does the closing track „Blasphemy: A Prophecy“ put a definitive end to the plot of the record or is there a possibility of a direct follow-up concept album?
Jason Byron is already almost done with a sequel to the book, and I believe we’re going to release a split album later this year with a little bit more of the story because it’s within the same album cycle. But there won’t be another full-length album as a sequel – KAYO DOT isn’t known for dedicating that much time just to one theme.

What do got planned next for KAYO DOT?
See my previous answer there. (laughs) I was hoping we could do a lot of touring around the world for „Blasphemy“, but I’ve been having an impossible time finding a proper booking agent and am just not interested in doing a DIY tour. I realize that within this interview it makes it sound like I have a lot of problems with booking agents, and I think that’s funny and also accurate. Lots of people in this industry who are incapable of doing a proper good job. I’m old and experienced enough now to be able to see that.

At Metal1.info we usually end our interviews with a short brainstorming. What do you think about the following terms?
Music streaming: The primary way of listening these days.
Burnout: Happens all the time.
Avant-garde: Fuck the avant-garde.
Mainstream: Controlled by a small number of people at major media companies, and actually way more flexible than most people think if only we could replace those people with shitty taste who are in control.
Coldplay refraining from touring: I never think about Coldplay.
Perfectionism: Will prevent you from ever completing anything.

Once again a big thank you for your answers. Are there any final words you’d like to say to the readers?
Thank you very much for reading about our music, and hope you can check it out!

Publiziert am 11. März 2020 von Stephan Rajchl