For a band such as Chicago’s Russian Circles, life might become a little easier if they added vocals to their heavy instrumental sound, but according to their bass player Brian Cook, the reason for not getting a singer is really very simple.
“I don’t think there’s any objection to that at all, it’s really that it’s just a pain in the ass,” he laughs, “It started off, it was like ‘oh yeah, it kinda works on its own, we’ll get round to that, adding those vocals in one day’. But it’s so much easier to do all this shit when you don’t have to worry about monitors, and PAs and microphones and vocal levels, and someone’s throat being sore for a week on a tour. It’s a hundred times easier to be an instrumental band and not dealing with any of that shit. We can do what we do and not bother with any of that. If at some point it made sense, and we were all really stoked on it and it felt like something that was necessary…no one has a major qualm with having a vocalist, it just works out so fuckin’ nice not having that shit, so let’s keep it that way.”
The band bring their dark and epic instrumental sound to New Zealand and Australia very soon. It will be their second trip to our shores, and Brian informs us how excited he is to return, in his understated manner.
“I’m excited for it,” he says. “I think it should be good. We were there about a year ago, it was a pleasant surprise. I think when you go over the ocean to go somewhere, you sort of inherently expect it to be like playing your first show all over again. But they were really good shows, so we’re excited to come back.”
Being that it’s only the band’s second ever time to our shores, it’s likely that many of the people coming to the show won’t have seen them before. He is reluctant to attempt to describe their live vibe, preferring to let the music and the show do the talking. But he does his best anyway.
“Aww man, I hate trying to describe it in that capacity,” he says emphatically, “you know, when I try to describe it sounds like a drag, but we try to write songs that are instrumentally interesting, that work on a narrative process, sonically, and I would hope that people coming out to see it live would feel like they were being communicated a story somehow, through pure sound. As cheesy as that sounds, I don’t know how else to put it.”
He also informs us that there are two distinct elements to the crowd that they usually draw. That is, musicians, and people who simply dig heavy instrumental music: “It varies,” he describes, “but typically I would say that our audience are music fans, and people who have an appreciation for instrumentation. They show up, ready to watch a show and to absorb a show as people who have an inherent understanding of how instrumentation works. So in that I kinda feel it’s sort of an academic environment. But there’s also people who just show up and they know that the songs are loud and the songs are heavy, and they’re excited to hear loud, heavy music!” he chuckles.
“So there’s pushing [and] shoving,” he continues, regarding their audience, “and we hope that those demographics figure out how to mutually coincide with one another without one type bumming the other out.”
When it comes to his views on the health of the instrumental heavy music scene worldwide, he is a little non-committal and doesn’t feel that instrumental acts should be lumped into the one category.
“I don’t know, it’s kinda hard to tell,” he says, “I don’t feel like we’ve ever been a…I don’t know, I don’t see instrumental music as being its own genre, I just feel it’s one of those things that kinda just happens, and it doesn’t necessarily define a genre. The majority of bands we tour with are bands that have vocals. So when it comes to instrumental music, it’s like, if you write compelling music, go for it. I’m glad that we’re at the point where we can convince people we’re a compelling artist without having vocals.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
