Kyshera

Q : What does the band name mean?

A : The meaning of the bands name hasn’t been born yet. You’ll know when it is.

Q : How would you describe your sound?

A : I use the term Konic to describe our sound because the word doesn’t mean anything, I just made it up. I like to think that what we do is at least a little bit unique to ourselves, so why not have our own word for our sound. The good thing about the word Konic not actually meaning anything as well is that we’re at liberty to put out whatever the hell kind of music we feel like, without having to always be ‘alternative’ or ‘progressive’ or ‘hardcore’ or whatever. It’s like a blanket term to describe anything & everything we do, whether that style is consistent or not. I cant guarantee that any song or album we do is ever going to sound like the last one & surely thats a good thing?

Q : Whats with the orange boiler suits?

A : Ah man, unfortunately most people totally missed the point. Some people think that we we’re trying to be pointlessly provocative & some people just thought we we’re trying to say ‘oooh look how scary we are, we’re escaped convicts’ ha ha, like some kind of cheesy Cradle of Filth type thing. The real point to it was that I was trying to say that firstly, our image isn’t important – you cant even see our faces cos we’ve got bags over them ha ha & by using imagery that many people associate with injustice & inhumanity (Guantanamo Bay incase you still haven’t got it!) in a band promo shot, I was hoping to make the juxtaposition that there’s more important things going on in the world than the superficial image concerns of a band. The other point I was trying to make was that everything this band stands for (like substance, depth, longevity etc) is almost SO out of touch with modern culture as to be culturally blasphemous, so I was using that imagery metaphorically to say that we are cultural terrorists.

Q : Why have you got the word ‘Guilty’ on your Guitar?

A : I’m just being honest. I AM guilty, we’re all guilty – of whatever it might be but at the very least, everyone in the western world is guilty of massive hypocrisy in terms of our values, beliefs & lifestyle. There’s nothing wrong with admitting that though, being inadequate is pretty much build into our design as a species – I think being aware of our inadequacy & limitations as humans is healthy.

Q : Whats your views of filesharing?

A : I wrote a blog about this here > http://kyshera.com/site/2010/10/11/p2p-power-2the-people/

Q : Who are you’re musical influences?

A : Collectively? Ooooh, this could get long…Frank Zappa, Melt Banana, Radiohead, Soundgarden, Jaco Pastorius, RATM, Eric Dolphy, Allan Holdsworth, Pink Floyd, Squarepusher, Metallica, Megadeth, Immortal Technique, Manic Street Preachers, Dave Brubeck, Stravinsky, Satie, Bjork, Ravel, Kiss, Debussy, The Beatles, Victor Wooten, Roger Waters, Nirvana, Queen, White Noise, Jeff Buckley, Alice in Chains, Kate Bush, Massive Attack, Smashing Pumpkins, Stevie Wonder, Beach Boys, Shellac, Dead Prez, Prince, Ivo Papasov, Steve Vai, Billy Sheehan, Bulgarian Womens Choir, The Doors, Wildhearts, Penderecki, Tod Dockstader, 5uu’s…I dont know! Lots more probably!

Q : You have the chance to make the ultimate band, who would you have? They can be past or present…

A : Ha ha, imagine a rotating line-up of all of the above in different combinations every time. Man, there’s a lifetime’s worth of inspiration just imagining that!

Q : Who did you vote for in the last general election?

A : I didn’t vote for anyone. I have absolutely no faith in our political structure as a whole (and faith is literally what you need!) so I don’t see the point in voting for anyone within that structure until the structure itself is changed. The corruption of our Parliament is in the design of the system so it is totally irrelevant which puppet gets manouvered into power – and anyone working on any production team for any reality TV show can tell you how to swing a public vote the way you want it to go. It’s not cynicism, it’s the truth – holding on to the idea that voting makes any significant difference to anything at all might make people ‘feel’ good & it might give them a belief system to feel a part of, but it’s wrong. That’s also why I don’t protest – in order to protest you have to still have, deep down, a belief in your ‘leaders’ – a belief that if we all just shout loud enough, they’ll listen & do as we ask. It’s like a collective ‘inferiority complex’, where we don’t feel that we’re ‘allowed’ to just do something for ourselves, we have to ask permission from our ‘betters’. I don’t have any faith at all in the way that our whole political system is constructed & therefore I don’t have any faith in the people that advance to the top of that corrupt system, so voting for them or protesting to them to listen, just seems naive to me. All real social advance has come from large scale public ACTION & until we drop the ‘inferiority complex’ & this blind faith in our ‘leaders’, nothing will ever change for societies’ better. THAT is the truth.

Q : Your lyrics are very political, where do you stand politically?

A : My basic view is that you get the world you accept. Thats why we don’t use the band to overtly support specific causes even though our lyrics are mostly political – because its not about ‘us’ promoting a certain idealogy or whatever, for me whats important is what the majority of people are willing to accept, as that is what creates all of our reality, whether we like that reality or not. So from that perspective, the most important thing in any society is access to proper information & thats why the mainstream media is the biggest enemy to a real democracy. Therefore, I try & use whatever platform we may have as a band, not to tell people ‘what’ I think they should think but to atleast try & get viewpoints out that don’t ever get heard in the mainstream media so that people can hear both sides & make their own mind up. As for where I stand personally, I’m a believer in democracy, real democracy where the decisions in society are made by those that those decisions affect. I believe in freedom of speech (for EVERYONE – even hippies & the BNP) & I believe in public action. I’ve got no idea what label that puts me under.

Q : What are you reading right now?

A : I’m reading ‘The Demon Haunted World’ by Carl Sagan for the 2nd time. An absolutely life changing book, read it!

You sent in your questions by the truck load – this is the first 10! Keep ‘em coming & we’ll keep putting them up! Enjoy!

Q : You use mannequins a lot in your live performances, lyrics and on artwork. What does this symbolize?

A : I use Mannequins as a metaphor for the idea that all of us are ‘blank canvasses’ that are ‘dressed up’ by our culture to be what we become. Some of us are more blatantly open to being ‘dressed up’ than others & are more than happy to completely change their identity in order to fit in exactly the same way as a shop window mannequin will change every season. And just as the purpose of Mannequins is to advertise other peoples products or ideas, so are we.

Q : How do you write? Where does each song originate from? Is there a set way that each tune comes to you or is each one an individual and unique process?

A : Hmmmm, tricky one. Some songs come complete, all in one go, either in my head (like Superstar & Shelf Life) or while I’m playing the Guitar or Piano (Lust, Element, Coalition). Others are put together over weeks or months, a piece at a time as the ideas come (Terrorists, Kill the Messenger etc) – with these songs I can always kind of ‘visualise’ the overall feel & energy that I want but I dont have any specifics, so I just potch around until I hit on it. I tend to think in terms of albums aswell, so one song will suggest the next, if that makes sense! 99% of the time, the lyrics are written after the song has been ‘demo’d’ first with scratch lyrics.

Q : What will you put down first when the idea has arisen for a new track?

A : Whatever it is that has come first. A lot of my songs start as really dodgy midi files, where I’ll hear something in my head & program it in quickly on a cheesy midi piano or something so that I dont forget it! Imagaine that, Terrorists on a cheesy midi piano, trust me, it exists, maybe one day I’ll dig it out ha ha.

Q : So, whats your problem with Emo?

A : I dont have any particular problem with Emo in itself & I sometimes wish i’d never written that fucking blog! I still get bitchy mail about it today ha ha. The reason I wrote what I did about Emo was because at that time, Emo was the ‘in thing’ & the blog was, really, about trends & scenes of all kinds – so I was just using Emo as the current example. Funnily enough, Emo is dead now & everyones moved on, which has kinda proved my point, dont ya think? Ya fickle fuckers

Q : How long until the liberal lefty hippies realise that just because Obama is a man of colour, does not mean that he represents hope for the disenfranchised of the world?

A : How long? I guess, when they realise that nothing has changed. The wealthy & the powerful couldnt give a shit about race, colour, gender, religious or cultural divisions amongst us, these are all things that are used by them to separate & thus control us all by keeping us fighting amongst ourselves. These are not things that figure AT ALL in their dealings. Obama could well have the best intentions in the world but he is only a mere President, which in the world of actual power is the equivalant of a temporary tea boy at a small town comittee meeting.

Q : James , why dont you do Guitar solo’s?

A : I get asked that all the time! It’s not that ‘I dont do Guitar solos’, there’s just been no need so far with the music that’s been written. For me, the music is about the ’sum of the parts’, not about everyone being a hero & if the song aint calling out for Guitar solo, then why chuck one in? Its like a painter throwing some purple into a landscape just ‘cos they feel obliged to. If a song was calling out for a solo, I’d put one in. Ive been playing Guitar for long enough now & I’ve been through the whole sweep picking, shredding phase & come out the other end. Also, I’ve made a massive effort over the last few years to try & ‘undo’ my learning – because when most people play a solo, their fingers are doing the playing, not their soul. The muscle memory in the fingers just runs through the same old scales & licks, most of which were probably copied from someone else anyway & its not genuine, self expressive playing so whats the point? I’m not gonna reel off a pile of blues licks that were being played fucking decades ago or play really fast & go ‘ooh, look what a good athlete I am’ because none of that has anything to do with genuine, heartfelt music, which is what I’m interested in. Everything I do is genuine & sincere, I dont stop until Ive acheived what I hear in my head & if thats just 2 chords going over & over, then so be it – or if its a crazy, dissonant extravaganza with a million different tempo’s & time signs, then so be it aswell, my only mission is to create what I hear in my head honestly & accurately. So, in short, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of Guitar solo’s to come but you wont find me just going ‘widdly widdly wee’ just for the sake of it!

Q : Where did the ill advised penchant for skinny jeans and chelsea boots in current men’s fashion originate?

A : About 5 decades ago I think! We dont need to create anything new anymore, we just recycle things from our grandads generation & call it ‘being ironic’ or ‘quirky’ or something.

Q : God & Jesus are mentioned a lot in your songs, are you a believer?

A : Awesome question, I’m glad you asked! Firstly, I am not a ‘believer’ in anything, I try & base my decisions about things on ‘informed probabilty’. I think that blind faith & all religions are evil & I am certainly NOT a follower of any of them. ‘God’ is mentioned in my songs as metaphor for an all seeing, all powerful & all controlling entity – which depending on the song could be big business or culture or whatever.

Q : Most embarrassing moment on stage?

A : Ha ha probably when I went to jump on the drum riser at this massive festival gig & missed, going face first into the drum kit instead! I didnt feel any pain but I did feel like a twat. We finished the rest of the gig & when I came off stage, there was a full medic team waiting to stitch me up – apparantly my face was covered in blood for nearly all of the gig & I hadn’t had a clue the entire time! The adrenaline must have killed the pain ‘cos my head was fucking banging the next day, but it also meant that I was pumping out more blood than normal so I must have looked like a right crazy bastard ha ha.

Q : Best gig so far?

A : Probably that one ha ha