WHO ARE THEY? With-it scenesters can rejoice now that neo-grungy local foursome Ten Kens have been signed, landing on Fat Cat, the UK label who introduced us to Sigur Ros, Animal Collective and more.
NO, SERIOUSLY, WHO ARE THEY? Your confusion is understandable, with-it scenester. Initially a duo consisting of Dan Workman (vocals) and Dean Tzenos (guitar), the Kens home-recorded an album, sent it to a few media outlets and labels, and were promptly contacted by Fat Cat about being signed before they had played a single show ? hence your not having ever heard of them. Lee Stringle (bass) and Ryan Roantree (drums) filled out the lineup, and they re-recorded the disc with Colin Stewart at Montrealfs Breakglass Studios (co-owned by Besnard Lakesf Jace Lasek) to be released on Fat Cat in June.
THAT MUST HAVE BEEN ONE HELL OF A DEMO. Itfs not a demo; it was intended to be a fully completed CD, even if fate had other plans. gWe had it mastered, and we basically took it as far as we could with the equipment we had,h Workman says while sitting in an Annex coffee spot with Tzenos. gPeople liked it. For the most part it wasnft viewed as a basement recording or anything like that.h
After the songs started coming together in jam sessions, the pair isolated themselves and worked on the disc for a solid year, Tzenos explains. gWe were rooming together, and decided we gotta do something more with our lives, we gotta give this a shot.
gWe just sat there, spending I donft know how much of our time in hot summers in this tiny room, just recording this album.h
The disc that resulted from those sessions (on which the pair played all the instruments, drums, keys and bass included) is far from a cutesy lo-fi affair. Ten Kensf songs are thick and full of darkness ? or as much as they can be without turning into metal, which theyfre decidedly not ? and are trimmed with Tzenosf twangy, Morricone-esque guitars, setting a melancholy foundation for lyrics that touch on betrayal and violence.
ARE THESE DOUR, SERIOUS MEN? Not so much. They both have an easy, affable manner, which isnft as surprising when you learn their day jobs ??after having met at Sheridan College, Tzenos forged a career as an animator whofs worked on the preschool-oriented show The Backyardigans, while Workman went on to become the creative director for Joe Boxer.
Tzenos attributes their sound to growing up with industrial and grunge in the late e80s and early e90s. gThere was a lot of aggressive stuff, but at that time it wasnft weird. I find it stranger now that wefre playing heavier stuff, people are like, eWow, thatfs heavyf and wefre like, eIs it really that heavy?f I guess it is.h Those influences are easy to spot on songs like gThe Alternate Biker,h a spoken-word number with a crushing riff, whose lyrics Workman often reads from a dusty old hardcover at their shows. (For the record, their March 5 CMW show will be their seventh ever.)
ARE THEY JUST LUCKY BASTARDS, THEN? Theyfd be the first to admit that they caught a break. Workman says, gA lot of bands we were talking to were like, eWhat the hellfs going on? How did you guys manage to do that?f And we were like, eI dunno, we thought that was the way it was done.fh But from spending a full year honing their disc with Terminator-like precision to the intense practicing they did before starting to play shows, you couldnft fairly accuse them of waltzing into position without working for it.
gWe took our time,h continues Workman. gWe rehearsed like you wouldnft believe. We wanted to make sure that once we stepped on that stage we knew exactly what we were doing.
gIf we only get one shot at this,h Tzenos adds, gbetter to make it fuckinf solid.h