This new style mixes a more chilled vibe with acoustic guitars, crazy synths and big harmonies and catchy vocal hooks whilst still keeping true to their rock roots with some big dynamic kick-ins!
The songs have random structures and mix influences from many styles so as you can imagine not only are we interested in this change of style for Nick and the boys but also we were keen to witness them live, so we booked them!
You might have read our review of Kuato's demo in July's magazine but now you can find a small clip of our chat with them here and a full version on our website as well as see them play at our gig at The Maze on October 27th, the Kuato web is spreading and we for one are caught up in it!
Interview
Gaz – How did Kuato start and what have you been up to recently?
Nick – Well Mark and I were in a band called Moth, who you guys know of, you reviewed our last ever gig…anyway, for the last few shows Moth got Dan in on keys but then Dave the bassist from Moth left and we didn't want to really just get a new bassist and call ourselves Moth anymore as Dave was such an important part of Moth so instead we stopped for a bit and me and Dan had already started working on some different material, using more laptops and acoustic guitars and things. After Moth split we still wanted Mark to drum as he is great, so basically after we'd written a bit, it went from there.
Dan – We started writing and sorting songs out properly about a month after Moth finished, so October last year.
Nick – We have an annoying way of writing songs, we start them and get to a point and then leave them sitting so we always have 4 or 5 songs half done and it takes us a good 2 months to finish new songs generally so it took a while to get a set together.
Dan – The first gig was a few months ago and the set was a bit…erm…sparse, we had just enough material, we filled in with some old Moth songs! The gig we did at The Maze though was the first gig where it was our own set. So it has been a slow process over the last year.
Gaz – How do you write your songs?
Dan – Either Nick has a guitar riff which we record and I go mental and add loads of weird stuff or I have some weird stuff and Nick makes it more structured by adding lyrics and then guitars.
Emma – They reign each other down, Dan stops Nick being too emo and Nick stops Dan being too disco!
Nick – Not emo, you mean prog!
Gaz – So for people who heard Moth, how would you compare the new Kuato stuff to that?
Mark -It is completely different.
Dan – Someone I know made a nice comparison, they said if Moth were Soundgarden then what we do now is like Chris Cornell's solo stuff…..
Nick – What wanker said that!! Its crap!
(Everyone laughs)
Emma – It is more epic than Moth!
Nick -Well Moth were a rock band and I don't really class us as rock in a way, you can't really put synths and keyboards with a real rock band.
Dan – You can, but you end up with either a bad nu-metal band with a guy over the keys shaking his head, or Van Halen!
Steph – You say you don't think Kuato is a rock band and it is hard to put in a genre, so where do you draw your influences from?
Nick – We say we're not a rock band but there are rock influences and some of the songs have bits of rock in so that isn't strictly true, we aren't as rock as Moth though!
Dan – We are all boys so there is a need to make loud noises!
Nick – My influences are rock based, I love all my grunge and as Moth were, that is evident but I got to 24 and suddenly thought I am a bit bored of all these big loud guitars and I picked up my acoustic again and even though my heroes are bands with big loud guitars, I found it a great challenge to write big songs with a soft acoustic guitar and that's where the Kuato stuff comes from. In the last year or two I have got into a lot more new folky stuff and other things I didn't used to listen to.
Dan – Yeah I am into a lot of electronic stuff but I can't write songs, I just make stupid noises! I think that is where Kuato's sound comes from…my talent at making stupid noises mixed with Nick's talent of writing great songs!
Nick – Dan remixed Bold Incision for Moth and he just takes a bit of the key and some vocals and goes mad…it ended up being one of Moth's best songs!!
Emma – Dan's influences are the Pet Shop Boys though!
Dan – Yes I love Chris Lowe and Erasure's Andy Bell is another hero.
Nick – …what about you Mark?
Mark – Everything and anything, world music, percussion….I started with indie rock roots though heavy rock and now I play things I enjoy and that challenge me. I just went to Womad (World of Music, Arts and Dance) festival.
Nick – next year you can come to The Fairport Convention! It is the best thing in the world!
Dan – Me and Nick are suckers for folk music!
Gaz – Tell us about your recording?
Dan – We recorded it in my bedroom with a minimum set up and isn't finished really that is why we haven't released it as our live sound includes the drums but that demo is just sampled beats.
Nick – We recorded percussion….it was a box of Lego being shaken! SOunds just like a snare. We should use it live….mic up a box of Lego and get Mark to shake it!
Dan – On the acoustic songs he could make models…a house maybe?
Mark – Or a life size drummer and replace me see if you notice!
(Everyone Laughs)
Nick – Writing-wise we wrote the songs as we recorded the demo so the songs on that demo are the first 5 songs we wrote!
Dan – The writing and recording help each other but we start with ideas, we have ideas still from months ago that we have left half done and things.
Nick – We mess around with songs a lot some of the songs are left for a while and we come back to them and change them then leave it again and that is different to Moth or any other band I have been in…in Kuato we give ourselves freedom to re-write and experiment which is fun. We don't keep the whole solid structure either, it just sounds however it does, no verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle 8, chorus stuff….unless we want too….we are just boys messing around with noise!
Dan – I don't work well in rehearsal situations because I listen to songs and then sort of process the idea then think of what can make it sound good but by then the rest of the band has moved on but with this Nick gives me ideas and leaves them with me and, then I throw myself into it and then we come back and change it round until we are happy.
Steph – What is happening in the future?
Nick – We are going to kill Keane! My plan was to shoot Jamie Cullum into Keane…
Dan – With Dido too…and mash them with a giant masher!
Nick – We are trying to get out there and gig more, we have been lucky as Ed at The Maze and a few others have picked us up and championed our stuff which is great. We don't want to play the same old places, we played The Angel a lot in past bands so we want to get known.
Dan – Start in Nottingham, then tour, get to London and spread the Kuato web….then quit work and do this!!
Nick – We have found it difficult really, the scene is so good and it is hard to get gigs but we have had good response but we'd love to play Junktion 7 or Rescue Rooms…Moth played there and it was great we crashed Phish's gig….
Dan – We turned up and Phish's stage guy didn't know there was a support so we basically crashed the gig!
Nick – We just need people to help pick us up, people in the know help us!
Steph – Okay so who do you want to shout out to and thank!
Nick – Kim, Ed at The Maze, Jim at The Angel, Rog and Dirty Joe for his microphone!
Dan – We borrow stuff off everyone! Richard Edge for reviews!
Nick – Emma for getting us to sort things out! Dave from Moth!
You can see Kuato at The Maze on October 27th and at The Old Angel on 2nd December.
www.myspace.com/kuatoband
On the 9th of July 2004 Saggy Pants put on it's first ever promotion, things were different then, we had no magazine, wrote fewer reviews every month for our website, half the venues that now grace our city didn't exist, half the Saggy Pants team were off doing something completely different and most of all most the bands in Nottingham today hadn't even been thought up! On that bill was a band called Moth who in our own words were "a beautiful hybrid of catchy, fun, intense and powerful rock", they were powerful grunge at it's best and in September 2005 we were sad to hear they had split up. So what became of Moth's members? Well earlier this year we were pleased to hear that they had a new project, after former Moth bassist Dave moved away, Nick and Mark had joined with keyboard mastermind Dan and formed Kuato. Since this forming Kuato have played a few gigs in Nottingham at The Old Angel and The Maze and after hearing their 5 track demo we had to catch up with our old friends and have a chat as this new project was just as expressive and powerful but with a completely new style!
