i had worked all night - see about 3 hours - on a longish write up on travel by sea’s sophomore disc, days of my escape and after re-reading it a few times i began to realize it was just lots of nonsensical gushing. if you haven’t noticed by now, i come from the 75 or less school of musical critique. cause after about that amount of words i start to lose focus, and i am sure you do to.
if i were to ever finish an album, it would probably sound like days of my escape, but with a lot less restraint and a lot more shitty. kraft and kersten have created one of the warmest records i have heard, probably ever. its truly hard to that these two gents have only met once (read the interview for more info), and yet have a musical chemistry/vision that goes way beyond shlubbing gear to some shitty practice space 4 times a week for years. musical brethren, they may very well be. one of the great things about days of my escape, lies underneath. its not until you don a pair of headphones that you realize that it is awash in an blanket of white noise that only adds to its appeal. kraft has done a masterful job at weaving his sonic landscape around kersten’s breathy/salt of the earth delivery and lyrics. i cant recommend days of my escape enough.
truth was off days of my escape
split second time off days of my escape
i wont let you down off shadows rise
complete shakeup off shadows rise
here are some questions i threw at the men. btw, i wanted to thank either kyle or brian for cleaning up the punctuation and making everything look respectable for publication. apparently they didn’t like the fact that i dont use capital letters, ever and am inconsistent with said punctuation.
ME: If you could be so kind and give us a little history behind “Travel by Sea”: who you are, how you met, influences, pant size, etc?
KK: I’m Kyle (Kersten) and I write and sing the songs and play below-average guitar.
Brian (Kraft) is the mastermind behind the sound of Travel by Sea and plays a multitude of instruments (guitar, keys, drums, bass, and other crap).
BK: I also do the mixing and producing on the songs. Our partnership is kind of like– if you can imagine a cheerleading pair– Kyle’s the girl and I’m the guy. I get to throw Kyle up in the air and look under his dress. And he gets to scream all high pitched with his pom-poms. There’s a certain synchronicity between us like that.
KK: We started in 2005 after meeting through a band’s message board. Our first album, Shadows Rise, was recorded without ever meeting. In fact we only spoke on the phone one or two times. Our communication was all through IM and email. A lot less bickering that way. We send the tracks by FTP to each other since we live over 1000 miles apart. I’m in Tustin, CA and Brian is Denver, CO.
We just finished recording our second full length album, Days of My Escape, which is out on Autumn Tone Records. You can purchase the album at autumn tone.
It’s also on Itunes, E-music, Amazon….etc. Oh and at the moment I’m currently rocking a 34-35″ waist, depending on how many Sierra Nevadas I’ve had that day. Length is sadly a 32.
BK: Hmm… I think I’m doing 34/32 myself, but they seem to fall down a lot. And this belt I just bought ain’t helping. I stupidly got one that’s too big. I need to drive a spike through it and cinch that puppy up, before the neighbors start talking.
Some of our influences include: Will Johnson, Richard Buckner, Tim Bluhm, Jeff Tweedy, Elephant Micah, Jay Farrar, Jim James, M Ward…..
ME: Did you make any attempts to actually get together and record “Days of My Escape” or is that not really an option at this point?
KK: We did meet for the first time in June of 2007 (in SoCal) during the recording of “Days of My Escape” but we didn’t have any plans to record. We basically only had time to play a few shows in LA and then Brian had to head back home. Recording together really hasn’t even been brought up. I highly doubt that will change either. The distance is just too hard especially since we both have full time jobs.
ME: You got to work with Dan from The Broken West and Pink Nasty for “Days of My Escape”, which is very cool. How did that come about? Did you actually meet/work with them face to face or did they just send you their parts?
BK: We got hooked up with Sara Beck (Pink Nasty) and Dan Iead (The Broken West’s guitarist) through Justin Gage (aka Aquarium Drunkard). Their parts were all done separately too. I chatted with Sara on the phone a few times and by email to communicate her parts to her. She sent them by FTP too. She did a really awesome job.
KK: And I ended up picking up a cd of Dan’s pedal steel parts off his front porch. He gave me directions up to his house in the LA hills and explained the cd was sitting on top of a B3 hammond organ on his porch. Sure enough it was there. We both really appreciate them adding their talents to the album.
ME: I know you have a family, job, etc. which i can only assume makes touring a wee bit difficult, but do you foresee any kind of touring in travel by sea’s future?
KK: We’re working on putting together a few short tours for the summer. Most likely there will be one in LA, one in Denver, and maybe one up in the SF area.
ME: Would you rather make a decent living making music, or stay in your current gig and make three times as much?
KK: Tough question. Being that we seem to be so far from making a decent living with Travel by Sea, I can’t imagine music as my main job. The idea of it is definitely exciting. Just being able to make music is good enough for me. Especially when others enjoy it and can relate to the songs. So I guess I’ll take 3x a decent living for now.
BK: The idea of it does sound nice… except touring… long tours would be a drag, I think. The thing is– I love what I do for a living. Actually a portion of it is from playing music– with small kids. It’s a company my wife started.
It’s awesome to help enrich these kids’ lives with music. My main gig though is as a photographer and I totally love it.
great interview, cap’n
Great interview! I wonder how Kyle likes being referred to as a cheerleading girl? Album is superb. Keep up the great work.
thanks adrienne. i think kyle actually enjoys being referred to as such. it makes him feel pretty and wanted.