With a sound that puts southern rock, Deep Purple-style keyboards and heavy jamming in a nice gumbo brew, MKoC are here to just have a good time and jam.
Organist Ross Karpalman breathes a sigh of relief now that the CD is in stores. But is he happy with the finished product?
"Oh man, absolutely," he beams. "It`s cool to hear the songs completely recorded because a lot of these songs are four years old. We�ve been jamming these songs for a long time so it�s good to hear them all done."
First-time listeners of the band may notice one slight absence - vocals.
Instead of having a singer to clutter up the tunes, MKoC prefer to let the instruments do the talking.
Karpalman explained recording without a vocalist wasn`t really a
conscious decision... but at the same time, it was.
"It was a bit of both," he commented. "We just kind of wound up (being an instrumental band). We tried a bunch of different singers but nothing
really worked.
"We we started jamming, we weren`t very serious, we were just writing
music to please ourselves," the hulking organist continued. "And with a
singer, they couldn`t really keep up. We kinda fill everything up."
That`s not to say the band, rounded out Jimmy Bower on guitar, Joey LaCaze, drums; Andy Shepherd on bass and Paul Webb, guitar, will never employ
a vocalist. Karpalman said for future releases they may consider using a vocalist, or some guest singers, on some of the songs.
And later this month, they will be releasing a 7" on Man`s Ruin Records
that will see the legendary Scott (Wino) Weinrich on vox.
"It was really cool to work with him," Karpalman said. "We used to drive around blasting The Obsessed. It was like working with one of my idols."
MKoC also had CoC vocalist Pepper Keenan lend his vocal talents on the band`s demo, as he sang on the group`s cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd`s Cheatin` Woman.
While some members of Clearlight have worked and are members of some extremely heavy bands (Crowbar, Down, Eyehategod), the organist has found the MKoC sound is appealing to people who wouldn`t have listened to the aforementioned bands on a dare.
"It`s weird to see some of the older classic rock people at the shows,"
he continued. "It`s common to see a kid with a mohawk headbanging beside
some older guy with a Led Zeppelin tattoo.
"It`s really cool that our sound can spread to such a big gamut of
fans," he continued.
The support from other NOLA bands also helps out, Karpalman noted. In a city like New Orleans, he said, starting a band is very simple, due to the fact that there is a huge brotherhood of musicians.
"Everyone loves everyone here," he laughed. "I mean, Jimmy has played in
pretty much every band here... everyone`s pretty tight."
Next for Clearlight is the road. The boys will be doing some dates with CoC, as well as a tour with High on Fire.
But with the music scene looking down on actual musicianship and making
life profitable for rap-inspired, Adidas rock, going on the road is more of a labour of love rather than a payday for the five piece.
"It`s kind of hard to tour nowadays," Karpalman sighed. "I mean we`re all older now and we have wives, families and girlfriends. It`s hard enough to make enough money to survive and it`s almost impossible to come home with any money. But we�re ready to go."
|
