Lobsterfest 2014: Banned Books
By Xavier Veccia, Managing Editor
Banned Books is an experimental indie rock outfit out of Philadelphia. The duo, consisting of Zane Kanevsky and Matt Dermond, has put out some pretty popular releases and have made quite a name for themselves while touring. ACRN sat down with Kanevsky to discuss the origins of the band, their influences and their history with deerhoof.
How did you guys start playing together?
Zane Kanevsky: Well, Matt and I played together in bands when we were younger, and we were also in high school marching band together. And we played with different drummers and different musicians in probably two or three other bands before Banned Books started, and then Banned Books went through a couple of different drummers and we basically became a two piece for now. And now I play drums and Matt [Dermond] plays guitars, but in the past we played just about every other combination of drums, guitar and keyboard.
How does Banned Books differ from your earlier bands with Matt?
Well, we’ve always had a pretty similar, like, songwriting relationship, but I guess...I guess it is different sort of now. You know, in our first band together I wrote all the songs that I would just make them entirely by myself. Now I listen to him play guitar and I’ll, like, listen to him play and put together three or four lyrics and create vocals and drums for it and then we have a song.
What are your biggest influences as a band?
Touring [laughs], being in a band [laughs]. No, no, no, no. Influences musically or...I mean I guess living in a city definitely. In the beginning of Banned Books it was living in a city. And that definitely was more of an immediacy and things travel faster, and I guess that’s a big difference between our old music and our other bands. The changes are a lot faster and things are more visceral, especially in a live sense. Live performance are purposefully more intense and tense in general.
What bands do you listen to?
I listen to a lot of Bowie. I listen to a lot of Neil Young. I listen to a lot of the Velvet Underground. I listen to a lot of Lungfish and other Dischord bands like Fugazi. All the noise music, newer stuff like--well I really like the new Oneohtrix Point Never. I like all his stuff. I listen to that stuff a lot. Brian Eno. I don’t know, that kind of stuff. All kinds of stuff.
How often do you tour?
Like, three times a year for anywhere from two weeks to two months.
What do you enjoy the most about it?
Meeting new people, having spontaneous fun in places we’ve been to before and places we haven’t before with people we may or may not have hung out with before. And just, meeting other awesome bands and hanging out.
What would you say a typical show is like for you guys?
In Philly, when we’re on tour or... I mean, I guess for us in general, a typical great show would be playing with a band that we really respect and enjoy their music and, you know. It’s funny we’ve been on a streak of playing just shows with bands we really like, and that’s why it’s a lot of fun. Shows are just going to be so awesome because we’re playing with bands that we’re friends with and we really enjoy. You know, that’s always what makes a great show I think and typically that’s what we try and do.
What was the best show you ever played?
I think the best show I ever played was, we played at Big Snow Buffalo Lodge in Brooklyn and we played with Guerilla Toss, Celestial Shore and Cloud Becomes Your Hand. That was a really fun show and it’s really, I would say, it’s really between that and when we played with deerhoof live at World Cafe Live in Philly and Greg [Saunier of deerhoof] came up on stage and, we were playing with Cameron [Vance] on drums and Greg played drums with us on the the song “Malio.”
So you guys have a history with deerhoof then?
Well, we played a show with them in 2011 or ‘12 I think. I think 2011. And then I’ve played...since then we’ve played a few shows, two or three shows, with Les Bonhommes, Greg’s other band where he actually sings and plays guitar. And, yeah, Greg is great. He’s just a super funny guy.
So are you excited to play Lobsterfest with them and Celestial Shore and the other bands you know?
Yeah, (New England) Patriots are also really, really, really cool dudes, which is awesome. But yeah, I think it'll be a lot of fun. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s the first day of our upcoming tour that we’re doing. We’re actually driving out to Ohio and just going up to Canada and going down the East Coast.
Any other plans for the future besides that tour?
Yeah, we have a new album in the works. It’ll be our first proper full-length ever. We’ve been a band for five years and we’ve never [had a full-length.] It’s kind of exciting to sort of finalize our lineup right now. We’re now a two-piece for the first time. We’re also, it’s kind of like we’re a new band but we have the same name, sort of. We play some old songs live but it feels really new and it’s whole because it’s definitely not the same, but it wouldn’t be different playing to anyone that saw us four or five years ago.
How has whittling down to just you and Matt helped you find your sound?
Well, Matt and I have been playing together for like 11 years and no one else I know and--I’m under the opinion that anyone either of us know--has been playing music for that long. So when its just the two of us, we can write a song in just about the length of time the song is. [laughs] The full recording, we can almost just make up songs and then listen to them and then figure out which ones we like. So it doesn't really.. I mean we always release things later so it always ends up, it definitely ends up taking u--even after we record a song--we always change it because a song is always changing even after it's recorded.
To get it to the level of being able to play it live or being able to play it on a recording, it doesn't take us really long to learn a song anymore. I mean, with both of our drummers there were definitely times when it was very streamlined, but with the two of us it’s even more so. And it’s fun because we get to play other instruments on the recording, you know. It’s like not just drums and guitars we’re recording. The new stuff is going to have pretty full instrumentation. I mean, not all the time, but, you know, two or three guitar tracks and layered percussion and vocals and harmonies and stuff. It’s not going to be like bare bones.
