No Kind of Rider sits somewhere between heaven and earth with an open arm invitation to all who want to meet them there. Complex interwoven guitar lines, bass that ventures into clever, and synth lines that shift from ambient to angry find their purchase in the footholds meticulously carved out by a rhythm section that blurs the lines between man and machine. Individually and as a group, their blue-collar musical sensibilities spring from the desire to sweat over their instruments and create something they haven’t heard before. We recently had the chance to chat with Jon (metronome & clicks) about his favorite gig, the importance of a great live video, and where you can see No Kind of Rider next.
What do you hope listeners will get from your music?
Hopefully, they will be moved by it in an emotional way as well as physical. Some of our songs effectiveness expresses itself through mood, others are meant to rumble in your gut. Above all else, we hope the listeners will get something from them in their own subjective way, if that means jumping, than great. If it means crying, also great. Dancing is fun as well.
What's the best gig you ever played?
That's a tough question to answer. As you move along and slowly progress as a band in various ways, there are moments along the path that are, at that moment, the best yet. Or perhaps, they're encouraging moments that might not have anything to do with actually playing a show. There may be deeply impassioned conversations sitting in a car with a band mate after a movie some night which may, at that moment, feel more inspiring and substantial than a physical high one might gain while performing. But to actually answer your question, we typically really enjoy shows where we haven't had technical problems, we feel we've performed well and there's good crowd interaction. At the end of the day, we do this in order to connect with people and if that connection is not made, than what the hell is the point?
What's your prediction for the next advancement in how find/listen to/share music?
It seems things have been steadily progressing in the digital world for the past decade or so in regards to music and those new progressions seem to sometimes come out of left field in surprising ways. I don't necessarily have any predictions because my knowledge is quite limited when it comes to the technological side of things, but I can say I'd love to see a deeper concentration on the live show. I would like to be able to see more live videos of bands in a collection somewhere online. I always enjoy watching live music, so if I cannot be at a show in person, I still find it enjoyable to watch good quality video recordings with good audio online. That seems exciting to me. Sometimes I want to get a sense of what a new band is like in their live setting, but can't make it to a show for any number of reasons, so I'll look up a video online and only be able to find some mediocre cell phone video with horrible audio. I'm mainly speaking of the up and comers here. There seems to be a slightly better selection online with the more well known bands.
What's your favorite way/tool/site for you to interact with your fans in the digital age? Do you recommend anything to other artists?
Bandcamp is good because you can get your music out there easily. Facebook is fun for random photos, which others can post on your page as well. Myspace used to be substantial starting a while back around 2004-2005 and continuing there for a few years. It seems different to me now though. I think many of us are sort of confused about that websites role now a days. Most bands I know have one, but when we talk about it, our eyes glaze over and we don't really understand why we still do. It seems nostalgic in a way, but I digress . . .
What's your next big gig coming up? When/Where?
Right now we are focusing on writing through the New Year. We intend to be in Austin in March for SXSW, but our calendar is clear for the moment aside from finishing a music video for "Away Colors." Here is a video of a NEW song we wrote called "Savage Coast." This was shot live last week at Mississippi Studios in Portland OR.
Check out more on No Kind of Rider here.
