{"id":9623,"date":"2014-12-11T13:48:01","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T13:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=9623"},"modified":"2014-12-11T13:48:01","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T13:48:01","slug":"conduct-all-the-rest-is-irrelevant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2014\/12\/11\/conduct-all-the-rest-is-irrelevant\/","title":{"rendered":"conduct :: all the rest is irrelevant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CONDUCT\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Sheldon Birnie<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere the germ of the idea comes from, to me, isn\u2019t very remarkable,\u201d explains Nick Liang, of Conduct, one afternoon at Little Sister Coffee Maker. Liang, along with bandmates Rob Gardiner (drums) and Stephen Kesselman (guitar), are here to discuss their upcoming LP Fear & Desire,<\/i> as well as their new split 7\u201d with their pals and tour partners Tunic. \u201cWhat I think is interesting is what we bring to the songs or ideas, which is completely collaborative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as far as the notes go,\u201d Gardiner adds, with a grin. \u201cNick brings a lot of the notes, or sounds, to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I find interesting and compelling in music, particularly, is seeing the unspoken cues or seeing this very specific language that has been fostered between people,\u201d Liang continues. \u201cWhen I see a band live, what\u2019s interesting isn\u2019t seeing a band play a song by rote, it\u2019s these unspoken cues, or things that aren\u2019t even musical necessarily. I think those are the things that are compelling. And I think we\u2019ve played music together long enough and have been friends long enough that I think we have a lot of things are second nature now, unspoken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, although Conduct is a relatively \u201cnew\u201d band, the history between its members goes back years. You could even say that Conduct is a new \u201citeration\u201d or dynamic that rose from the ashes of Departures, which featured Liang, Kesselman, and Gardiner, along with Tunic\u2019s David Schellenberg on bass and Cannon Bros\u2019 Allanah Walker on guitar and organ.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t really a conscious decision to switch gears,\u201d says Kesselman. \u201cIt happened very organically and then we decided to change the name, according to the different music we happened to start playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The songs on Fear & Desire<\/i> are dark and haunting, at times brooding, almost claustrophobic, other times sharp and angular. Conduct\u2019s live performances are powerful, loud affairs, band and audience buzzing with anxious intensity. It is outsider music, to be sure, but that\u2019s the point. One thing that quickly becomes apparent when speaking with Conduct is that<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were songs, the first half of [Fear & Desire<\/i>] were played with Departures in different forms,\u201d explains Gardiner. With only half an album worth of songs ready, Conduct booked studio time in Chicago with legendary producer and engineer Steve Albini. With the clock ticking, the boys buckled down and completed the remaining half of the songs on time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe figured it all out and it turned out well,\u201d a satisfied Liang asserts, before explaining that the decision to book with Albini was one they hadn\u2019t taken lightly. \u201cIf you\u2019re gonna spend the money to record in a studio, it was a guarantee that that part of it wasn\u2019t going to fail. And because he\u2019s sympathetic to the kind of music we\u2019re trying to create, there wasn\u2019t time wasted in long discussions about certain ideas or how we want to behave, things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering that the band has only been operating as Conduct for a short period of time, it might come as a surprise to some that the band jumped not only into recording a full length album, but also undertaking a large US tour without a record. But you quickly learn that Conduct is a band that operates strictly on their own terms and with their own well defined, internal parameters for success.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe intent of our playing music is trying to satisfy our own creative whims,\u201d says Liang, \u201cand that\u2019s it. We really don\u2019t pay any credence to outside considerations. The only opinions that matter are the ones within the band.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this goes for life in general,\u201d Liang continues. \u201cHaving a direct relationship with the things you engage with is key to being content. Once you\u2019ve booked the tour, and gone on that tour, that\u2019s a success. All the rest is irrelevant. You want to make a record, the minute it\u2019s recorded, that\u2019s a success, whether anyone ever listens to it or not. We went and completed the goal we had. Once the vinyl is in our hands, then that\u2019s another success. It seems ridiculous to consider outside things that are outside of your control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out Conduct\u2019s the release party of <\/i>Fear & Desire\u00a0at the Good Will\u00a0December 19 .<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sheldon Birnie \u201cWhere the germ of the idea comes from, to me, isn\u2019t very remarkable,\u201d explains Nick Liang, of Conduct, one afternoon at Little Sister Coffee Maker. Liang, along with bandmates Rob Gardiner (drums) and Stephen Kesselman (guitar), are here to discuss their upcoming LP Fear & Desire, as well as their new split […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[207,261,563,673],"class_list":["post-9623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-conduct","tag-dial-tone","tag-local","tag-noise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9623","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}