A Word with Kale: New York's Jamtronica Power Trio
A well-kept secret of the New Paltz live scene, Kale are rising stars in this New York college town's vibrant music culture. They've only been around for a few years, but none of that time has been wasted. With three singles and a staggering amount of shows under their belts – over 100 in the past two years alone – Kale is well on their way to nationwide recognition.
Kale is a unique take on a genre that is overloaded with acts that are all doing the same thing. They sit somewhere between MGMT and the Strokes, the fun air of a college party and the somber taste of indie garage rock rolled into a package that puts whoever is playing at your local club to shame. It's the kind of music you let lurch out of the stereo as you cruise down the interstate going thirty over on a hot summer night with no regard for what's ahead and a fleeting nostalgia for what's already a dot in the rearview. If you happen to be in the Hudson Valley area, take the time to catch Kale at their next show; if you're hunkered down elsewhere, tide yourself over with one of their singles or a live show taping; they'll be with you shortly.
I got the opportunity to speak with the group's key player, Brendan Bartow, about what it is that Kale has done to go from new band to live show powerhouse in less time than it took Tom Petty to put out his second record.
UPTIGHT: How did Kale come together?
BRENDAN: We were all in different bands in the New Paltz, NY area – New Paltz has a very vibrant music scene being a small college town. Historically, New Paltz has always been a bit of a party town, and the college used to host incredible concerts back in the ‘70s [and] ‘80s, like Jerry Garcia, the Who, etc. Being close to Woodstock, it’s always had a bit of an underlying “counter-culture” vibe. When college is in session, the town population goes from 8,000 to 14,000 or something, so basically, you have thousands of college kids in a small hippie town. With this, there are a couple of bars [and] venues with live music in town, so it gives the local music scene places to play often and live music lovers somewhere to see shows every weekend.
This is where we came in. We had all been in different bands playing out pretty often, playing the same spots and pretty similar music. We met and became friends before playing music together – we had a lot in common, with similar music taste being one of them. I think it organically just went from us hanging out to us jamming together and sitting in at each other’s shows to us eventually booking some local shows as one unit. We originally had a few other members in the band who had moved away; it’s been us three for just over two years now.
UPTIGHT: Who are some of your influences as musicians?
BRENDAN: We all got pretty into The Dead and Phish as teenagers, but past that, we differ. Jack’s really into Steely Dan, Khruangbin, Father John Misty. He also just put me on to STRFKR, which we both really like. Sam is super into electronic music, house, and all that. He’s big into Rüfüs Du Sol and Anyma. I’ve been really into synthy, indie rock lately, like M83, MGMT, Jimkata, The 1975, stuff like that. I think having different musical tastes really helps when it comes to writing our parts. Rather than going into something with the same view, we’re very open-minded and can find influence in many different areas.
UPTIGHT: You guys blend your respective sounds beautifully. Is that a difficult process? What is writing a song like for you guys?
BRENDAN: I think that part comes pretty organically. I’ll usually start off [with] a song idea, mostly with the instrumental part, and build out a groove from there. It may be counterintuitive, but I love getting the rhythmic parts going first and then finding a pocket from there. I start the vocal parts after the beat is done most of the time, and then I can rearrange any parts I need to based on the vocals. Usually, within this time, I’ll also introduce it to the guys, and we’ll listen to the idea a few times, then run through it. At that point, they’ll write their own parts, grooves, runs, etc. And then we can rearrange it again if we hear anything else. Then, of course, we need to jam on it for a while and have some fun!
UPTIGHT: You've played over 100 shows in the last two years. What was that like?
BRENDAN: It’s been fun. You know, we’re young and playing music on the road with our best friends. It’s hard not to love. It can get a little dicey sometimes with work,[since] we all have full-time jobs, so we’ve mostly been weekend warriors as we continue to build up our sound and base. I think we’ve played in over ten states in the past two years, so it’s been really cool getting to see all of these new cities, towns, beaches, and experience it all with each other.
UPTIGHT: Do you intend to keep up with that momentum?
BRENDAN: That’s definitely the goal! Especially more recently, it’s been super rewarding. When we started the band a couple of years ago, we’d get a lot of people out to shows in New Paltz, but very few, if any, in different areas. We’ve always had the idea of being mostly centered around our live shows, so we just kept playing out. Eventually, show by show, we started to have a few people hear us in new towns, who would bring their friends when we came back a couple of months later.
It’s definitely a grind, but we’re starting to carve out areas where we can be hundreds of miles from where we live and have a solid base of people come out to our shows. It’s super cool to see and feels very rewarding with the amount of work we put into everything. We’ve also met some incredible, cool people and made really good friends with people solely through music. It’s really cool. I think our goal is to continue to grow in this fashion, getting better every show and getting our music heard by new people each night.
UPTIGHT: What kind of stuff do you guys play live other than your originals?
BRENDAN: We play some covers live; most of them are reimagined to fit our sound, but some are pretty similar to the original. Like “Shakedown Street” [by] The Grateful Dead, for example, we can take that into an electronic dance groove for 20 plus minutes with different parts and build-ups and shredding over it. We’ve been exploring more of the ‘80s sound too – we play a pretty mean “West End Girls” [by Pet Shop Boys] that we usually take pretty deep. And then we also have a few covers that are a little more accurate to the original, kind of the shorter party songs like “Kids” by MGMT, “Midnight City” by M83. I feel like everyone loves these songs, but I’ve never seen anyone cover them before, and I think they fit our vibe well. We still jam out on them, of course; they just usually stay under the 6 [or] 7 minute mark.
UPTIGHT: Have you played much outside of the Northeast? Is that something you're aiming to do?
BRENDAN: Not yet – but hoping to soon! We’ve been mostly focused on building up our music in our surrounding area first, then venturing out from there. I think the Northeast has a really good jam band/live music circuit and crowd, so it’s been nice to have started in this area. I think the next steps will be a short trip down the East Coast. There are a lot of good markets a few hours south of us, and I’d love to get down to the South eventually for a run. Hopefully, we can get out west at some point as well!
UPTIGHT: You've got three singles under your belt now; what's next? Maybe an EP or a full-length album?
BRENDAN: We’ve been writing and recording a bit recently – some of our best music yet. Our tentative plan as of now is to release a few more singles this summer, with a full EP near the end of it. I’ve been writing a lot with a similar essence – not a concept project, but something meant to be listened to in its entirety.
UPTIGHT: Can you tell me anything about this prospective EP?
BRENDAN: It’s pretty much the culmination of stuff I’ve been writing for around a year now – it’s all new material. It’s definitely a different vibe than our first three singles. It’s more sonic and more of a story. It’s meant to be listened to in its entirety. We’re just getting back our first few mixes now, so it’s still in its infancy, but I’m super excited to put this out. Some of the songs we’ve played at shows, but some will be brand new to listeners, so we're super excited for everyone to hear them. The first single for it will be coming out in May [or] June, so stay tuned!