{"id":1865,"date":"2010-11-03T11:15:02","date_gmt":"2010-11-03T16:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/downthelinezine.com\/archives\/?p=1865"},"modified":"2022-01-29T00:33:19","modified_gmt":"2022-01-29T05:33:19","slug":"king-never","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downthelinezine.com\/archives\/king-never\/","title":{"rendered":"King Never: The Ability to Defy Genres"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is a great interview about a band that Matt Crosslin recommended to me. I still find that the best music comes through word of mouth, and this is definitely one of those times. King Never is a great act that is the brainchild of Matt McCabe. After the release of the album Possibilities<\/em>, McCabe brought in Jordan Reading in on bass and Evan Parandes in on drums. Possibilities<\/em> was released this year and Matt did a review on it in the last issue. This is one of those albums where you can use the \u201calternative\u201d label and it actually applies. This is definitely an alternative to the mainstream. The songs are so well crafted, the layers so fluid and smooth, this becomes one of those discs that you wish you had come upon even sooner!<\/p>\n

Matt McCabe has been around the scene for many years: prior to King Never he was in a band called Able Cain. In addition, he has contributed music to Farewell to Juliet which I am sure our readers are familiar with. The link to the album Possibilities<\/em> will be found at the bottom of the page after clicking on the bands website. The cost is inexpensive and I am sure you will end up enjoying this as much as we at Down The Line have.<\/p>\n

How would you describe the music of King Never if you had to classify it within a genre? <\/strong><\/p>\n

A mix of alternative and progressive rock with some ambient textures thrown in. Or simply pop songs with some twists and turns thrown in.<\/p>\n

What are your primary influences in your music? <\/strong><\/p>\n

My two biggest influences are The Police and King Crimson. As a young player, I tried to emulate the guitar sounds and parts of Andy Summers, Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew. Later, I clued into the guitar-work of Jamie West-Oram of The Fixx, Derri Daughtery of The Choir, and David Torn. All these players approached the guitar in a more atmospheric, or part driven approach, instead of just strumming on power chords or playing a million notes a minute. Their guitar parts served the songs, not their egos. And logically, my approach to songwriting has also been influenced by those bands. They tended to shy away from strict verse-chorus-verse-chorus song structures and weren’t afraid of playing in time signatures other than 4\/4.<\/p>\n

Can you describe what the songwriting process is for King Never? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Most of the songs start with a guitar part. I love playing with different guitar effects and the actual sound frequently suggests or inspires a guitar part. Then I try to write some complementary parts to flow together nicely. Once I have a couple parts down, I’ll start working on the computer – copy and pasting together some sort of song structure and perhaps working on a basic drum part. I may experiment with different bass lines for certain sections to further flesh out the arrangement. At this stage, I really view songwriting as putting a puzzle together – finding the right pieces to make the final product.<\/p>\n

The mood of the song will frequently suggest a certain lyrical approach and I may have a couple of phrases that pop into mind. Usually the first verse comes relatively easy lyrically. Subsequent verses are more difficult, while the chorus is the most difficult because you have to tie it all together.<\/p>\n

Up until about two months ago, King Never was strictly a studio project. I’m now working with a bassist and drummer and hope to tap into their creativity for future songs.<\/p>\n

As an independent artist, what are your feelings on the digital music age as it exists today? Do you think it is even possible to make a living off of making music anymore?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think the current state of affairs is great for independent artists. Because you can go direct to your fans and cut out all the middlemen who soak up your profit, it is possible to make a living as a musician. It just takes some ingenuity, hard work and good music. I’m not there yet, but who knows?<\/p>\n

Can you give me a bit of history to your musical roots? What other bands have you played in, and are there other bands of interest that you have played with? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I started out playing clarinet, bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet in school bands beginning in elementary school and ending in high school. By the time I hit junior high, I figured I should pick up a cooler instrument. It was either the keyboard or guitar. I chose guitar. I wish I remembered my thought process, but I do remember agonizing over it for quite awhile. By high school I was playing in my Church’s youth group band and the orchestra in “big church”. In college, I founded the band Able Cain with singer Greg Asher and bassist Jordan Reading. Not so coincidentally, Jordan is now the bass player for King Never. Anyway, as often happens, after college the band broke up and we moved on. Around that time, about 1995, I started using the name King Never for my own musical endeavors. I’ve played in other bands, but Able Cain is probably the only band I’ve been in that people outside of Northern California would recognize.<\/p>\n

I am new to your music and Possibilities<\/em> is the only album I have purchased so far. Can you tell me the difference musically between Possibilities<\/em> and your other releases? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, King Never started as an ambient project, featuring just me looping guitar. The first album, Ambient Guitar Noise: Volume 1<\/em>, is all guitar loops. By the time of the second album, Orphans, Misfits and Fragments<\/em>, I felt it was time to write some proper songs and collaborate with other musicians.. Greg from Able Cain and my wife Kristy sang and Jeff Elbel from Farewell to Juliet and Ping played some guitar parts. I played all the other instruments and sang some background vocals. The third album, Lullabies & Sleepless Nights<\/em>, harkens back to the ambient roots of King Never. I was inspired by the birth of my son and thought I really needed to do a “Volume 2” in the ambient guitar series. The newest album, Possibilities<\/em>, is a new direction for King Never. I finally decided to take the plunge and be the singer. This was a big step for me personally as I’ve never considered myself a singer, just a guitarist. Kristy also sings background on a few tracks. Part of my rational for singing was to simplify the prospects of putting a band together. I figured if I could sing and play guitar, all I would need was a bassist and drummer and we could gig. So that’s the plan. Stylistically, the songs are similar to Orphans<\/em>, but the emphasis was on keeping the number of guitar tracks to a minimum to hopefully make it easier to pull off in a live context. Also, whereas Orphans<\/em> was a collection of unrelated songs, Possibilities<\/em> tells one story from start to finish.<\/p>\n

Is there a piece of art (literature, music, film) that you feel is heavily important and influential in what you do, and why so? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes. First off, the name King Never comes directly from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. With regards to Possibilities<\/em>, the main character was highly influenced by some of the themes in Crime and Punishment – as well as some of the imagery. I also drew on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for inspiration. And obviously the theme of mercy and redemption is Biblically based – but the album is not meant to be a “Christian album” nor is King Never a “Christian band”. I think labels like that are rather silly and one dimensional. I mean, does it really matter? The subject matter of the songs either resonates with you or it doesn’t. My hope was to touch on issues from a more universal perspective. I don’t want to exclude anyone because of an arbitrary label…or let anyone down, for that matter!<\/p>\n

What is in your cd player\/ipod\/record player right now? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Incident<\/em> by Porcupine Tree and Burning Like The Midnight Sun <\/em>by the Choir. The Police are always in rotation.<\/p>\n

Are there any plans to take King Never on the road in the future? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I hope so. Right now I am focusing on getting the guys up to speed on the songs… with a slight detour to record a cover of a traditional Christmas song.<\/p>\n

You were in Able Cain. Are there any plans to re-issue the “rarities” release? Also can you give me the story behind Able Cain, how you guys formed and why you split up? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, I was in Able Cain. I don’t have any plans to re-issue “Rarities” at the moment because my hands are pretty full with King Never and the studio. But, who knows? Maybe sometime in the future if there is enough interest.<\/p>\n

Able Cain was founded by myself and singer Greg Asher. I seem to remember that one of my college roommates told me he had met this singer at church who was really into U2 and wanted to start a band. He said I should give him a call. I did. This would have been 1993. Our first attempt at a band was called Jericho Road. It was basically a glorified praise band, but we did do a few originals. Greg and I weren’t really happy with the direction musically, so we disbanded and started looking for a new bassist. I should mention that Eric Foster, who later became Able Cain’s second drummer was in that band – we knew each other from high school. Anyway, we placed an ad in the local newspaper. I think we listed our influences as U2, The Police, Simple Minds, etc. Jordan Reading called, after being convinced to do so by a friend – even though he hated U2. About this time, Greg and I had come up with this song called \u201cFire Flower.\u201d We played it for Jordan during our first meeting together and he instantly came up with this great bass line. He was in. Shortly thereafter, we added keyboardist Eric Schrepel who we knew from a previous band I was in called Mercy Cafe. I think Greg knew drummer Leo Gunther from church so we recruited him too. Leo had a previous commitment playing with Rich Lang, who was a real signed artist, so we were only going to use Leo for our demo of \u201cFire Flower,\u201d \u201cCloser\u201d and \u201cBleeding Spirits.\u201d Once we finished the demo, we asked Eric Foster to join as our drummer for gigs and subsequent recording. \u00a0Splitting up wasn’t really a planned thing. I forget the exact dates, but both Eric Foster and Eric Schrepel moved away during the summer of ’94. We asked Leo to drum for us again and we continued on as a four piece. We felt Schrepel was un-replaceable so we didn’t even try! The following spring\/summer, Greg got married and his priorities changed. Then, I graduated from college and figured I needed to get a real job. I moved to Sacramento and worked there for about 6 months – until I was laid off. So I moved back to Chico and met my future wife and my priorities changed. A few years later, Greg and I tried to get a band together, but it was never really the same. We were going to use the name Mild 7. We wrote one song which I eventually released on King Never’s Orphans, Misfits & Fragments <\/em>called \u201cGone.\u201c<\/p>\n