Death By Piano
“Bender”
Countdown
Death By Piano, the new collaboration from Kalen Lister (Kalen & The Sky Thieves) and Greywolf (Escaper), is full of beautiful surprises (the cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” is amazing), but I wanted to focus on the first track, “Bender”. Lister’s voice is so amazing, mixed through filters to give her this dark, otherworldly sound, as if you have come into a dark forest (maybe Fangorn) where there is evil yet also light, you just need to find it. This is wonderful music. The piano riffs are so delicate while the background beat and synths swirl you around until you are totally lost in the sound.
“DBP is an incredibly collaborative project, not only between Greywolf and I,” Kalen states, “but also between us and other collaborators such as No Surrender (production) and Robert Lux (visuals). The collaboration isn’t always about creating things simultaneously in real time. There’s a lot of trust that allows for independence in the process, as well. Greywolf and I share logic sessions from the back end, creating different versions of our songs, at time not just being additive with new tracks but greatly manipulating ideas and iterating on an initial seed. At times this means that a single seed sprouts many songs or song parts, other times it simply means that completed track can end up in a very different place than when it started. We trust that we’ll come to a consensus in the end but give one another plenty of space to play, be, and get weird.”
This is weird, beautifully weird, dark wave music, smelling of old pines, oaks, and maples, and magic, yes magic. The Wyrd Sisters should be making an appearance. This is one of my favorite EP so far this year. Explore with Death By Piano.