![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/kenmode.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
by Chris Bryson<\/b><\/p>\n
Never a band to tread the same path twice, KEN mode\u2019s return seemed destined to cover new ground. After having taken on bold variations of sound all rooted in the jagged rage of noise, the guys have landed in darker territory on their newest offering <\/span>Loved<\/span><\/i>. And judging by the first couple tracks released from the album, the KEN mode fury is alive and well.<\/span><\/p>\n With <\/span>Loved, <\/span><\/i>KEN mode evolves further. Jesse Matthewson, guitarist and vocalist of the band says that with regard to lyrics, a part of this evolution comes from his bandmates increased involvement in the process. \u201cIn the past the lyrics were always a lot more personal. The last two albums the tone has kind of been changing a bit as I incorporate more writing from my bandmates into it. The new one, <\/span>Loved<\/span><\/i>, there\u2019s a lot more content that both Shane (Matthewson, drummer) and Scott (Hamilton, bass) contributed, as well as just other people around us in our lives,\u201d says Matthewson.<\/span><\/p>\n He describes a massive list of ideas, word combos, and entertaining phrases that they\u2019ve been working on since they started writing things in 2012. \u201cIt\u2019s just a file that I\u2019ve maintained. And it\u2019s ridiculously long at this point and Scott will text things from Saskatoon to us or we\u2019ll be out and someone will say something and Shane will go, <\/span>\u2018the list.\u2019<\/span><\/i> So I write it down,\u201d Matthewson says with a laugh.<\/span><\/p>\n Loved <\/span><\/i>also finds KEN mode venturing into new musical realms. \u201cFor us we\u2019ve been shifting and changing things just to one entertain ourselves and it\u2019s kind of nice when people don\u2019t know what to expect. Like with our last record it was much more on the kind of indie rock, noise punk kind of tilt, and this new one I\u2019ve especially been kind of linking more with a lot of black and death metal over the past couple years because there\u2019s been a lot of really cool, really noisy, dark music coming out that\u2019s just for some reason I kind of have these ebbs and flows with my relationship with metal,\u201d explains Matthewson. \u201cSome years just don\u2019t give a shit and then other times it clicks. And I think a part of that is just the general cultural atmosphere right now with the political spectrum and just the nature of the way technology is making everyone have anxiety issues. I kind of feel like this record is our reaction to that general climate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Since the release of <\/span>Success <\/span><\/i>in 2015 KEN mode hasn\u2019t done any touring, and this time around the Matthewson brothers have their business savvy-meets-music industry MKM Management Services to deal with as they prepare for the release of <\/span>Loved. <\/span><\/i>Veterans to the touring and business side of the music industry, Matthewson gave some insights into how they hope to make things work.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to be doing much more than two, two and a half weeks at a time and stretching the entire cycle kind of out. I think it\u2019ll make it so it can go out longer, but at the same time we\u2019re done with the days of just needlessly pounding the pavement. We did that for a good six, seven years of being everywhere constantly,\u201d says Matthewson. \u201cAnd we\u2019re not like the type of music that\u2019s popular enough for that to really be sustainable anyways, so, we put in the time, we pushed it as hard as we could. And now with the data we\u2019ve collected we hopefully know where it\u2019s more worthwhile to actually tour now when we want to do it, and when we have an album to promote.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Matthewson describes this data as invaluable for musicians looking to make their tour as effective as possible. From sources like Bandcamp to online stores to social media and SoundScan, being able to dig into demographic and geographic information, Matthewson knows firsthand how beneficial taking the time to analyze this data can be.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people book tours based on that sort of thing. You plot out where the right cities to hit on the right days are based on how much you sell and how many fans you have and how many followers. And that way you can kind of maximize the potential for the dates you\u2019re trying to approach,\u201d explains Matthewson. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of the mentality that we\u2019re going to take when touring from now on where like if we\u2019re going to Europe we\u2019d want to hit Paris, London, maybe Berlin, cities like that where we know we have good followings and if we\u2019re not going to hit that on a run there\u2019s no point to even going so what are we doing, kind of thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n KEN mode chose to continue their tradition of rotating producers by working with Andrew Schneider on <\/span>Loved.<\/span><\/i> \u201cWe kind of like to change it up frequently just to see what our new idea will sound like through a different filter. Because that\u2019s essentially why we\u2019re working with producers who do what they do because you like what they do as their own art and you want to see how that mixes with your own art,\u201d says Matthewson. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve wanted to work with Andrew Schneider for quite a few years and it just kind of worked out that now was the time that we pulled it off and I think it worked out absolutely perfectly,\u201d says Matthewson, and when asked about whether it turned out how he thought it would, said \u201cto be honest I don\u2019t really know what I had in mind. I knew what he was capable of, and I knew kind of what we wanted to sound like in the end but I think it actually exceeded my expectations. It was a very cool experience. I don\u2019t think it particularly sounds like any record Andrew\u2019s done before and it definitely doesn\u2019t sound like any record we\u2019ve done before.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Loved is set to be released on August 31 and will be followed on September 28 by what will surely be an ear-shredding show at the Good Will Social Club.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Chris Bryson Never a band to tread the same path twice, KEN mode\u2019s return seemed destined to cover new ground. After having taken on bold variations of sound all rooted in the jagged rage of noise, the guys have landed in darker territory on their newest offering Loved. And judging by the first couple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[419,518,563,567,607,661,766,806,1104,1311],"class_list":["post-11181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-hardcore","tag-ken-mode","tag-local","tag-loud","tag-metal","tag-new-music","tag-punk","tag-rock","tag-winnipeg","tag-yes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11183,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11181\/revisions\/11183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}