ICHABOD's End-Time Broadcast: 2012
Boston-based ICHABOD is one of those "secret bands" that has been engulfing fans both live and on record for three previous full-lengths over the past decade; expanding musically on each release, and tapping into new territory - both on the road and on tape. The hard working, hard rocking, and more importantly hard to ignore quartet in the underground rock/stoner/cerebral musical scene - who are already heroes in widespread stoner rock, doom, rock, communities internationally, and definitely with any lost soul who has experienced an ICHABOD performance in the live setting.
Based on the predicted apocalypse in the year 2012, ICHABOD have visualized and captured their most potent material to date in their upcoming fourth full-length 2012,set for release November 24th via Rootsucker Records. Unlike the projected approach of the apocalypse as portrayed in the new Cusack flick, this 2012 is cerebrally-oriented; maybe the comparable "zen" or "cerebral soundtrack"of what the everyday human might feel as the world collapses slowly around him presently, while building up to the proposed apocalypse in 2012, as predicted by the Mayan calendar.
Within the confines of one 5-inch slab of plastic, ICHABOD's new CD 2012 is a testament to the limitless boundaries of music; segueing spiritual oms and trancelike realms of spacious exploration, with hyper-occult spazz-outs, with straight-up doom-ridden rock and roll, absolutely seamlessly. Fans of Alice In Chains, High On Fire, Acid Bath, Om - and even fucking Zappa - can unite to celebrate the ending of humankind under an umbrella of virtual happiness, if ICHABOD is playing in the background.
"...Ichabod’s latest is a work of dark psych and unloaded madness that simmers with unbridled intensity... It is a sound balance of intriguing progression and metallic heaviness sure to surprise many an unsuspecting head across the land." -TheObelisk.net
"...Ichabod shows they're not to be taken for granted with 2012, a solid 'A' of an album." - StonerRock.com
"...it is a hands-down, no-brainer that 2012 is the band’s most accomplished, realized collection of material thus far... support one of the hardest working, blue collar outfits our time has seen." - HellrideMusic.com
Live actions and more news on the band will be announced shortly.
Promo copies of 2012 as well as interviews with ICHABOD are available now via Earsplit.
ICHABOD / in Boston
The year of our lord Two-Thousand and Eight will be a year of great cosmic significance to be sure...Of note, sonic-soothsayers Ichabod, who are currently celebrating their 10th year together as a band, will be releasing their 4th full-length album. It is a prophetic opus of 6 tracks (five brand new originals and a cover of Pink Floyd's Nile Song) entitled 2012. The name refers to the end of the 12th and final b'ak'tun cycle of time according to the Mesoamerican long-count calendar used by the ancient Maya. What exactly this end-date means is unclear, other than that it will be end of this creation-world and the beginning of a new one, for better or for worse. The songs rendered on 2012 are prognostications to be prepared mentally, physically and spiritually, a collection of tales of jadoo, the unexplained and inexplicable phenomena, paranormal activity and new world order. Joining Ichabod in harbingering the end times are flutist Bonnie Rovics, vocalist Jen Bliss, and vocalist/Mayan culture scholar/artist Jason Berube who created the 2012 collage featured in the cover art for the CD. Engineer Devin Charette (Raise the Red Lantern, Blacktail, Hackman, Lord Mantis, Sea of Bones, et al.) masterminded the project at Mad Oak studio in Boston and did additional mixing at Kurt Ballou's (of Converge) God City studio in psychic-vortex and occult epicenter Salem MA. Rounding out the project was mastering by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance.
Rootsucker Records will once again be the release agent, ensuring that everyone within listening distance will hear the apocalyptic message. Helping to ensure the anticipation of the new release by Rootsucker was the band's well received interpretation of Jackass in the Will of God for the last year's Emetic Records Eyehategod tribute CD For the Sick. Label owner Dave Tornstrom also once again lent to the recording process with his unique abilities to craft samples and to insert random keyboard madness.
With 2012 expect Ichabod to reach new heights with their unique blend of musical styles. The follow up to critically acclaimed Reaching Empyrean can best be described as an even more thorough stirring of various styles of heavy music in Ichabod's psychedelic cauldron, often infusing hints of ethnic, ambient & down-tempo music into their tincture. Singer Ken Mackay, guitarist Dave Iverson, bassist Greg Dellaria & drummer Phil Mackay have managed to appeal to ever wider audiences with their entheogenic blend.
As 2008 progresses slowly one day at a time toward 2012, also be on the lookout for upcoming Ichabod project Merrimack, their next ambitious undertaking. It will be a concept album hearkening back to the heyday of classic rock, a single song made up of various movements totaling 40+ minutes of mostly improvisational pieces, a musical representation of the river for which it is named. The band are currently in Amps vs. Ohms studio working with engineer/producer Glen Smith, laying down basic tracks for Merrimack and several additional songs for a future split (band TBA) EP. Ichabod anticipates the next several years being extremely busy, both with the release of 2012 & in working to conclude all recording projects and to perform live as frequently as possible prior to the coming armageddon...
by Chris Barnes
June 29, 2003
June 29, 2003
Ichabod, out of any band I've heard this year, defies a category. One minute it's a swirling tempest of aggression, the next a dark ambient acoustic interlude. All in the same friggin' song. And vocalist Ken Mckay is a juggernaut of vocal cord histrionics.... how the hell do you make the transition from screaming your lungs out to softly crooning without choking on scar tissue?? One thing for sure, Ichabodare the most destructive force to hit Boston since the Big Dig. Hellride interviews guitarist Dave Iverson.
Hellride Music: The inevitable (and totally predictable) first question is... who is Ichabod and how'd you guys get together? And the name...
Dave Iverson: The current lineup in Ichabod is Phil Mackay on drums, Ken Mackay on vocals, Greg Delaria on bass, and myself, Dave Iverson on guitar. Ken and I had known each other for years, just from going to shows and so forth. He also used to work many years ago with good pal o' mine Jonah Jenkins (of Only Living Witness/Milligram notoriety) at a CD store I used to frequent. At the time we were both in other bands, but years later ('98ish) we ran into each other at a Neurosis/Nile/Converge show here in the Boston area and we were both bandless. I had been working on getting a band together for months, and at the time, that project was called "Headless". The lineup was so transient with that band I won't even bother recapping. I asked Ken if he wanted in, and the rest is history, as they say. At that point, Ron Dion was playing drums and Ken Joyner was bassist. We jammed on the songs I had written for a few months and then went into Steve Austin's studio and recorded our demo, Living Through the End. It got some amazing write-ups, most notably from Metal Maniacs magazine, and things were off and running. Shortly after that recording came out however, Ron left the band and Ken's younger brother Phil stepped in to replace him. It couldn't have been a better scenario, because at the time Phil was our biggest fan! That's the lineup that recorded Let the Bad Times Roll last year. Studio tension and digressing opinions about "direction" caused Ken Joyner to leave the band, albeit amicably. We're still friends and avoided silly postpartum feuding. Greg Delaria stepped in almost immediately, as his band had just broken up. He's been a fixture of the Boston metal scene for years and he's easily one of the best bassists I've ever had the pleasure of playing with.
"Headless" as a name didn't stick, and we needed a name before we releasedLiving... After laboring for weeks with literally pages worth of ideas, we decided to stick with the Headless concept but alter it slightly. The nameIchabod means "no glory" or "the glory has departed" and is almost always a trigger to people's recalling of the tale "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving. Ichabod Crane is the foil of the Headless Horseman, so we thought people would associate Ichabod with "Headless". We also liked being able to use that early American/witchcraft-trial type, dark imagery for graphics and have people associate that with the whole mood we were trying to establish.
Hellride Music: All you Ichabod guys have a pretty varied musical history with you previously playing in Worldseed and Bitter, and other Ichabod-ians playing Psychosis, Big John Studd, Blood for Blood, etc. What do you think it is about Ichabod that will make everyone stick around? Or will they?
Dave: I actually think the diversity is what makes us tick. We all in some way felt limited by past projects, and nothing could be further from the truth withIchabod. If someone has an idea, no matter how "far out" it may be, we try it. If it sticks, great! If not, how were we damaged by trying? Challenging ourselves conceptually is an ongoing process for Ichabod. Our two releases thus far are entirely different, and the next one will probably follow suit. We are constantly evolving, yet there's a common thread that runs through all of our stuff that would keep us from alienating people album-to-album. We're just trying to create "art" as opposed to commodity.
Hellride Music: "Art vs Commodity". I like that line of thinking. Ichabodhas a varied-yet-cohesive sound. The whole package is crushingly heavy, but you combine the oppressive riffs and blood curdling vox with some lighter, almost ambient moments. Like some weird Eyehategod/Neurosis amalgam. How would you describe the Ichabodsound?
Dave: Well, we're all still suckers for the "big riff"...part of being in a band for me has always been being on that quest for the perfect riff. However, I think too many bands diverge from writing actual songs because they get TOO caught up on this quest. We try just to paint a picture, so to speak, or set a mood with each song, incorporating hooks and melodies along the way so there's no danger of it becoming just a collection of riffs sewn together. And we like to hypnotize or trance people out along the way, to set 'em up for the takedown. It's like boxing; duck, bob, weave, jab, weave, bob, feign, uppercut...KNOCKOUT! That's where our shoegazer/ambient breakdowns come in. Lull 'em into feeling safe, then clobber 'em! All of our favorite bands are big into such dynamics, regardless of the genre of music. My personal favorite guitar player in the last 10 years is Nick McCabe, formerly of the Verve, because he was able to create such swells and then retreat to an almost minimalist ambiance. I try to do that within the context of heavy music. Ken really helps create a mood swing with his vocals too...he can shift on a dime from actual singing(!) to screaming bloody murder. Round that out with Phil and Greg's almost Who-esque rhythm section, and it's a manic mix! Thanks for the Eyehategod/Neurosis comparison by the way...two more of our faves!!!
Hellride Music: A little more on the sound.... how did it come together? I mean, what kind of chemistry occurs between members to combine so many elements? How do you guys write?
Dave: We write using several different techniques. Sometimes we just go to our rehearsal space with a couple 'o six packs of our favorite brew and just improv for hours and tape the jam. Then we go back and cull the good parts for future use in a song. We also sometimes come up with ideas on our own time and bring them to practice already written and just show 'em to the other dudes. And of course, these techniques intersect and compliment one another. The chemistry is great like that. Everyone in the current lineup is TOTALLY open minded and experimental, so there's no control freak in the band who writes all the parts and dictates how they should be played. We are a hive when it comes to writing. As far as how it came together, it just happened. Put four not-just-metal, but MUSIC freaks together, and you can never predict the outcome!
Hellride Music: I think it's safe to say that your debut "Let the Bad Times Roll", is blowing some minds. I don't think I've read a bad review yet. How do you feel about the album and do you think the reviews are dead on? Along the same lines, how important are reviews in validating how you guys feel about the record?
Dave: You've not read a bad review yet?! Try www.undevoured.com; she says our CD sucks so bad she didn't even want to waste her time writing a review! We didn't feel so bad about that though when we read the gushing reviews she seems to give to any 4th-rate metalcore, Hatebreed-wannabe bands that send in their CD. There's no accounting for taste, or lack thereof.... Anyway, all the other reviews thus far have indeed blown our minds. We're pretty damn humble guys though, so the reviews are making us somewhat self conscious, like now we have to live up to them. Getting such positive feedback doesn't fully validate how we feel about the record, as we'll always be our own biggest critics. But it does help to know people feel we're on the right track. And at the same time we're terribly critical of ourselves, we're also paradoxically our own biggest fans. We only work on material we love, trying to always write our own favorite song. What do WE want to most hear in a band, you know? So on on that count there's a feeling of validation as well. Even the songs we wrote years ago are still evolving and getting better all the time, so there's the idea that an album is only a snapshot of a certain stage of development, and we have to remind ourselves to be content with that and just accept the fact that if we waited 'til the songs were perfected in our own eyes, we'd probably never do a recording!
Hellride Music: Steve Austin of Today is the Day fame, produced the new record. From my standpoint, that guy can do no wrong, Let the Bad Times Roll being a great example. How was it working with Austin? Was it a collaborative thing or did you guys just tell him what you were looking for and he took it from there? Would you work with him again?
Dave: Steve is an invaluable, priceless addition to a band during the recording sessions. He keeps tempers in check, adds ideas for segues and samples, provides an objective point of view and knows his equipment inside and out. He really captures a mood. Rather than get hyper-discerning with each individual instrument's sound, he steps back and listens to how the WHOLE will sound. The sum is greater than the parts, something musicians forget in the studio when they're concerned with getting the "perfect sound" for their instrument. Steve is a genius in forward thinking like that. He knows what the destination is and doesn't get hung up on the journey like so many other engineer/producers do. He acts as the shaman as well, getting the best out of everyone creatively. Sometimes he does this the way shamans would historically do it, with consciousness enhancing substances like Knob Creek and what Steve calls "burning the hog"!!!...He leads you on a vision quest directly to the heart of your music. We'd definitely love to work with him again, although we may try someone else for our next recording, just to get a different perspective, as all of our recordings thus far have been with Steve.
Hellride Music: Let's talk a bit about vocalist Ken McKay. To say the man is versatile is an understatement.... soft croons turn into throat-searing tempests. Did he alter his delivery from his previous band to fit the Ichabod vibe or is that just the way the guy rolls? Vocally, he seems like an intense dude.... so or not so?
Dave: Ken is like a musical schizophrenic! He's got different personas within a song. I think that gives him the ability to act out, to get in touch with different emotions and express them as they occur. Demons inhabiting him perhaps? Channeling? I have no way to explain it. In Big John Studd he almost predominantly screamed, as they were straight up aggro-core. But he wanted to expand on that and be able to mix it up. Now he has this crazy effects system that enables him to channel even more demons than before! Some of 'em sing melodiously, some scream as if in torture, some have Bolt Thrower grunts/gurgles, and some whisper dark secrets. And I think there are some weird space demons in the mix now as well! He is ultimately using his voice as an additional instrument rather than being some kind of upfront, leader-of-the-pack type storyteller/attention getter. He is very quiet and kinda shy at times, but a great and laid back guy. And scarily enough, he's the closest to being straightedge as anyone in the band could be! I guess he personifies the old cliché"..it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for".
Hellride Music: Tell us a bit on what Ichabod is about lyrically?
Dave: Again, Ken is a man of mystery. He writes his lyrics so they can be interpreted objectively by the listener/reader. He has his own subjective meanings for the lyrics, but prefers not to spell 'em out in black and white for people. Beauty here is in the eye of the beholder. And it's all in there; hope, despair, anxiety, and frustration. His lyrics seem to further the analogy of there being different personas within the music, as the impetus for each song's lyrics is totally different. Sometimes Ken will even jump out on-stage with some kind of mask or disguise on and surprise us all. He's random like that. And when he does do that, he becomes the disguise. It's a different dude on stage with us...we'll be like "where'd Kenny go?" The lyrics are just an extension of that. I write a lot myself, but with this band I leave all the lyrics to Ken for this reason. He's singing enough "other people's" lyrics from within and doesn't need to add mine or anyone else's to the mix!
Hellride Music: For those of us who've never made a wrong turn into Lowell, MA., can you give us a Ichabodian description of the town? Are all you guys from there? What impact, if any, does it have on theIchabod approach to making music?
Dave: With the exception of new bassist Greg, we're all from the Lowell area, and a few of us are back in the area now. I'm afraid our band biography may have given the city a bad rap, in the name of drama. It's actually really, really nice now. They've cleaned it up a lot from when I originally moved away. It used to have a wicked reputation, as evidenced in the HBO special "Lowell, MA; High on Crack Street". There were hookers and drugs everywhere, abandoned warehouses and mills, rundown properties, lots of violence, etc. Then in the mid to late '90's there was a huge infusion of money into the town, and it really cleaned up nicely. Now there are some great restaurants and bars, all the old mill buildings were remodeled into artist lofts, and there's a happening music scene here. It's only 30-40 minutes north of Boston, so a lot of the great Boston bands make Lowell one of their regular stops, and Lowell has a fantastic music scene of it's own. A lot of great artists and writers as well, and don't forget, one of my favorite authors ever, Jack Kerouac, is from Lowell. Ed McMahon ("Heeeeeeeeeerre's Johnny") and Betty Davis are originally from Lowell as well. Edgar Allen Poe wrote "The Raven" at one of our better watering holes, the Worthen Tavern.
Lowell influenced the Ichabod sound by being the place we grew up...those feelings of darkness and despair, the underbelly of the human race, left an indelible mark on our upbringings. There was always hope though, now manifested in the current version of Lowell. That ray of sunshine amidst the rain is always evident in our music's dynamics I believe.
Hellride Music: Give us the scoop on Black Locust Entertainment/Root Sucker Records? How'd you guys hook up with Dave?
Dave: Dave's an old friend of mine from when I used to work music retail. He was one of my most loyal customers, always ready to buy good music regardless of genre. He's all over the map musically, and being a musician himself he appreciates passion and integrity in songwriting/soundcrafting with absolutely NO prejudice related to style. He saw that passion and absolute disregard for the commodification of music in Ichabod and had just finished going to law school to become an entertainment attorney. He figured the best way he could work with bands was to start a "springboard" label, and offered to put our new record out.
Hellride Music: What are the plans for the future in terms of Ichabod?
Dave: We're hoping to tour behind Let the Bad Times Roll and a new EP we hope to record this fall. It'll be the first recording with Greg in the band, and let me tell you, if you like the stuff we've done thus far, wait 'til you hear us with him!!! There's hopefully going to be a new song on a Traktor7 compilation later this summer to tide people over. In the meantime, we'll take whatever shows are offered if it's logistically possible to get to 'em. And we wouldn't mind if a label came along and picked us up either, as Root Sucker is more of a means to that end than an end itself. I think Dave hopes we'll get signed to a label that's renowned worldwide.
Hellride Music: Many thanks for the interview. Anything else we should know?
Dave: Not really, we just hope people continue to check out our recordings, shows, and website. And we'd like to thank you and all the other folks in the press who've helped us out with reviews and interviews and so forth. We sincerely appreciate every mention someone makes of Ichabod. Thanks again!
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