The shoegaze movement has been having something of a resurgence in recent years, with Portland band Kallai all set to take advantage with their amazing sound! Always/Never is a cool sounding song with a dreamy vibe, perfect for fans of the shoegaze genre. Find out more about Kallai in our interview with Cate from the band below!
By Jane Howkins
You recently released a new single titled Always/Never. What can you tell us about the song?
Always/Never is a song I wrote during that first summer of the pandemic. The music project I had been in at the beginning of the year fell apart, and I had a ton of time on my hands. That also coincided with some rather large personal changes, and I was reflecting on who I was in my 20s. That all mixed together into this shoegaze song that imagined a conversation between me and my younger self about why all of her relationships kept failing.
How has the reception to Always/Never been so far, and where can it be purchased?
We’ve been very happy with the reception! We try to keep our perspective here, but as a brand new band, we’ve been heartened to see how many people have taken the time to listen to the song. We’ve been touched by the nice things people have had to say about it – in particular our fellow musicians and dedicated fans of the genre-space that we’re in.
Do you have any more singles planned for release soon?
Our second single, Palisades, will be out on the 10th of May. It’s a track with a bit more of a post-punk influence, with David taking the lead on vocals and me doing some backing tracks.
Your debut EP is coming out soon! When will it be released and what can we expect from the record?
The EP is going drop in mid-to-late June. It is really a time capsule of our first 6-9 months working together. It started out as a collection of demos that David and I had sitting around already. So it is really a small sampler of our various influences and songwriting approaches. There’s a bit of shoegaze, some post-punk, some synth-heavy meditative bits, and a dash of faster/heavier seasoning.
Your music has a unique shoegaze/alt-rock sound. What/who are you most influenced by? What have you been listening to recently?
There are probably three big categories that our influences fall into. There’s your well-known shoegaze and alt-rock stuff like Slowdive, Swervedriver, etc. There’s post-punk stuff like The Cure or Echo & The Bunnymen. Then there’s this whole wide range of darker and heavier acts like Hum, Chelsea Wolfe, Spotlights, or Iress that are influential on Daniel and I in particular. We all have other particular areas that we are influenced by or interested in. David is really into ambient electronic music. Daniel’s background is in metal and industrial music. Brian loves early U2. I got my start in the punk scene, but listen to a pretty wide range of music.
How did you get together as a band?
Daniel and I played together in an electro-gaze band called Luscious Apparatus, while David and Brian were in the shoegaze outfit, Lost Echoes. Both of those projects went on extended hiatuses last year, and the four of us were all sitting around still wanting to write and perform. Our two bands had played a show together with our mutual friends, Darkswoon. So we had all either met or at least been aware of one another already. We decided to test out writing and playing together last summer, and so far so good.
You’re from Portland, Oregon. What is the local music scene like in your area?
I would say that for the most part it is a pretty supportive music scene – or at least more so than others of which I have been a part. As an example, we had a great reception at our first show earlier this month. A lot of people we know from other bands turned out to support us there, and others have had a ton of kind words for the single. On the flip side, our venues are still in a really tough spot coming out of all of the health emergency shutdowns. So booking is more difficult than it was years ago, and that means new artists like need to think a bit more DIY than we might have in 2019.
Do you have anything else exciting coming up over the next few months?
Aside from the EP, we are focusing on live performances through the summer. I am going to cross my fingers right now, but we should have something big & exciting to announce here in the next couple of months in that DIY spirit.
Do you have any tour dates lined up for the UK?
We are a ‘very’ small act and the economics of touring are brutal, so we are focusing regionally on the Pacific Northwest here in the US for the time being.
It pains me greatly to say it, but even if we were large enough that a large tour outside of our region made sense, I would have to think long and hard about a swing through the UK in a way similar to how I would have to consider touring ‘red’ states here.
I absolutely love the country. My wife and I have several good friends who live there, and we spent an amazing few weeks there 7 or 8 years ago to see bands like Arab Strap and Slowdive. But the UK’s mainstream press has been fueling a dangerous moral panic against transgender people over the past few years that has been embraced by both the Tories & Labour there, and by far-right Christian Nationalists here. This has resulted in rising rates of anti-LGBTQ violence, and restricting access to vital life-saving healthcare. Sitting here in the US, we’ve seen propaganda out of the UK like the recent Cass Review being leveraged by far-right groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Heritage Foundation who have the explicit goal of eliminating LGBTQ people from society. All of which is to say that travel to the UK is a significantly less safe and less welcoming prospect for us than it was 7 or 8 years ago.
I really wish we did not have to have considerations like this about the ‘red’ states I used to call home or places we love like the UK, but that is just the unfortunate state of the world right now.
Any last words for the fans?
We’re happy you exist! Keep doing that!