ICHABOD: Interview & Full Streaming for “Dreamscapes from Dead Space”

Firstly I want to thanks ICHABOD for his time and availability to answer some questions and give the band our cheers for their awesome work. Keep rocking!

Pedro Ribeiro.  Guys, this is our first interview and we would like to know a little more of the glorious band history, the birth, first steps and first difficulties, can you enlighten us?

Dave - Sure…I started the band back in the late ‘90’s, with a handful of songs I had written for another band I was in that had broken up. I didn’t want the tunes to go to waste, so formed a new lineup to perform them. It was called “Headless,” until we found out that there were several other bands worldwide that already had that name. That was the first big difficulty we faced right away. 

PR. Why the name ICHABOD? We already know the history from the Samuel books, but how does it fits in the band formation?

Dave - I suggested Ichabod, since the inspiration for the original name was Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” If we couldn’t name the band after the horseman, then why not opt to name it after the protagonist?! I’m a literary geek and a secondary school English teacher here in the states, so it made sense that I’d choose a name related to great American literature. I did like the biblical meaning of the name too though, and we named the first song on Let the Bad Times Roll after the translation: Inglorious.

PR. Now moving fast-forward to ICHABOD´s latest work “Dreamscapes from Dead Space”. The album is a brilliant junction of different themes and well played crazy loud music; tell us about the musical and personal inspirations that influenced “DDS” construction.

Dave - We just want to keep evolving…we never, from the first album, wanted to stagnate or be one trick ponies. Inspiration for us tends to vary from the intellectual to the spiritual, from conspiracy theory to the paranormal, and from the philosophical to everyday life…Politics, art, religion, literature, poetry, current events…it’s all fair game. We strive to deliver musical consciousness-expansion.

John - It had been a long time since I had come into a project where the guys were crafting the music around a particular idea, like "hey I wanna write a song about a Easter European folk tale about a hag who appears in the dead of night and strangles you in your sleep" [Baba Yaga] and then focus on the task of creating riffs and arrangements that tell that story without words. It doesn't hurt that each of us have a certain interest, a favorite author or film that we not only draw inspirations from but we want to share with the others and hope that our own enjoyment of it extends to them. We're all constantly trading DVD's, music, books, and ideas back and forth when we're all together, it can get pretty intense when we're sitting around after a rehearsal on a Sunday morning.

HIllarie E. Jason

PR. Normally many bands give the name of a song to the album or the name of the album to a song because that song or album name represents the whole work. This is not the case. I noticed that the words dream and space are used in some songs. How does the name “Dreamscapes from Dead Space” is related to the album musical journey?

Dave - Dead Space could have so many relevant meanings…it’s wordplay. I’ll let John get more specific.

John - When I'm writing lyrics it comes in spurts where everything just sort of writes itself, literally I blink and it's there on the page. The line "Dreamscapes from Dead Space" came out when I was writing the lyrics for 108 and I circled it this time instead of crossing it out or trying to work it into some crafty phrasing/delivery. I knew it showed up on the paper as something that didn't necessarily have to be a specific song title or just another line in a song. I look at it as a metaphor for the way the cohesive collections of words I put over these songs have materialize themselves from out of the cluttered mess of thoughts that take up residence in my head. 

PR. When I first heard and read the lyrics I was overwhelmed by the intensity, complexity, energy and beauty of the vast knowledge presented. Is the message of the song “Looking Glass” the reality alienation? Do you think people are victims of space and time?

Dave - It’s about a top secret U.S. Government project in which a device was built with the intent of bending space/time, in order to be able to “see” the future.

John - The Montauk Project was trying to use energy, frequency, and vibration to manipulate the body's magnetic fields into a level of disruption that it would induce psychotic episodes in human beings, the ulitmate long distance weapon that would leave the least amount of collateral damage. Imagine wiping out an army on the ground without damaging the landscape of your enemy. This type stuff was talked about in the bible when the Ark of the Covenant would give off a terrible sound and people would just fall dead where they stood. Well I think we are all victims of it in a way already. Radio ads, TV ads, the downer it is when you try to watch a video online and you're forced to sit thru some stupid ad that sucks a little bit of the excitement of what you're going to watch out before it even starts. It all brings our minds and bodies to a different place than we had planned going in and if you don't think they figured that out and are trying to do it deliberately then you aren't paying attention. I did put my tongue in my cheek at the end when I used the instructions that pop up on your Ipod when it's done syncing but I thought that "eject before you disconnect, it's ok to disconnect" was a great metaphor for what I was trying to say with the rest of the song and it sounded pretty badass if I do say so myself over that riff at the end of the song. Sometimes the best thing we can do is shut off all the technology and go outside for a bit.

PR. To be able to achieve an epiphany is breaking the common knowledge and reaching a higher state of mind. “…limiting the potential of positive energy is denying immortality and understanding.” Is a phrase of “epiphany” lyrics! What´s this positive energy and how does it give us immortality and understanding?

John - song is the harbinger of the singularity. It's 2012 and people still live in the stone age, or worse pre-internet. We are children of a technological age that is expanding at a rate our earthling minds didn't anticipate and cannot fully comprehend without putting it into a good and evil dicotomy. To quote futurist Jason Silva "It's an amazing time to be alive." At the same time this is all happening we have cross-sections of people who think that this is territory we are not meant to have knowledge of, let alone utilize to move humanity forward. In the voices, written words, and images inside radio waves and signals broadcasting out into space our species and our accomplishments can live into infinity. The greatest thoughts from the greatest minds can transmit from person to person in a matter of nanoseconds, allowing us to connect with one another in ways previously impossible, helping us in gaining an understanding of what role in this tragic comedy we play. Another quote from the song I think is a powerful one. "We are all shooting in the same direction, we are all a part of the same inescapable flow". We are all the same under a microscope, it might be true someday that we're all the same under a QR reader or whatever it is that comes next. 

PR. Is “Hollow God” a shout against beliefs? The truth is what we see and know and god is only Humans creation? Who or what is this Hollow god that rejects the puppets power?

Dave - It is mainly based on an undertaking of American Reverend John Murray Spear and his congregation; they built a “God machine” which they hoped to pray to life. But as with all good stories, this can be a metaphor for so much more, and I think John nailed that.

John - The story is that Rev. Murray and his followers invested their time and savings into building a gigantic metal skeleton and that they thought they could "pray" to life and then their creation would become their "God". The lines "it's your own creation but you can't get over it" and "the blood of your labor taints the fruit on the tree" are speaking directly to this and what it ultimately turned out to be; a failure, a waste of time and resources. I think man created religion to cope with trying to understand a physical world they could not control and had a limited understanding of, including why it is happening at all. I think putting the word, the label "God" on what we consider to be our creator has changed what the role of "God" was supposed to be into something that is worthy of fighting and killing over. I try and not get into debates or arguments with people over their religious beliefs as long as I'm not being preached to by them about it. I felt the subject of creating false, or Hollow God[s] was also fitting of the tone in which people approach politics in the modern age. You can't put these suits up on a pedestal like a statue of Jesus and not expect them to let that go to their well-funded heads. You see these guys preaching what their definition of patriotism is like it's been handed down by the creator himself, it's almost the identical type of brainwashing that you'd imagine goes down in the Sunday services of the Westboro Baptist Church or something. God as we've constructed him in todays society does reject the collective power of the people who follow and believe because it's bought and paid for at the highest levels of corruptions so it doesn't need the love and kind nature of humanity to move it forward, it has ad dollars and military might to enforce it's gospel. I reject all of it. 

PR. 108 is a sacred number of the Hinduism culture and it´s the number of times one should intone the mantra but it also has other meanings. Is “108” a ritualistic song or poem that you want to be intoned?

Dave - It is a ritualistic song of sorts…we had no real lyrical or thematic direction for the song at first. We were working on the tempo one day, and Phil checked the BPM with his metronome app…it registered at 108! Total synchronicity…we knew the sacred implications of that number throughout many of the world’s religions…

John. This was the last song on the album that I wrote the complete lyrics for and I wrote them in the studio standing in front of the mic. It's about an intense psychedelic experience shared between two people, two spirits. One a guide the other is the passenger or the tourist. It sounds like a love song and it is in a way, but not in the romantic sense. It about the love of spirit and exploring ourselves internally. 

PR. Changing our subject to live performances. What is like an ICHABOD´s concert? Do the band transcend to a “ritualistic” music monster?

Dave - We sure try to! We incorporate as much sensory stimulation as possible in our ceremonies.

John - I hope we try to as well. I know I don't feel like it is me up there when I watch videos of us playing live. I still don't believe my voice sounds like it does when I hear it on a recording. If playing live is a ritual then I'm definitely "testifying" when I'm up there. When I look around at the rest of the guys I get the feeling they're on the same level as I am during our performances. It's great to see and feel that type energy from all directions.

PR. How was ICHABOD´s presence in Thursday, November 1st in Ralph´s Diner Worcester, MA? 

Dave - It was a great show…Second Grave and Castle are on the rise, and Witch Mountain are phenomenal. 

John - Yeah we had a great time, all the bands were amazing. I geeked out a little over Witch Mountain, damn their singer, Uta Plotkin, has the voice and the face of an angel...see there goes my geek coming out again, haha! I loved all the bands that played with us that night and I would definitely share a stage with any of them anytime.

PR. When we first talk about doing this interview you talked about new tunes this week and new material next year! Want to share some news?

Dave - We’re finishing up a concept album about a river in our area of the planet called “Merrimack.” Jay and John are going in to do overdubs in December. We’ve also got at least an EP’s worth of new material we’re working on too…

John - Merrimack is on the complete opposite side of the spectrum from DDS and the new songs are an even further departure from either of the two. It's still gonna sound like Ichabod though, maybe just higher upgraded version.

PR. Again I have to thank you I enjoyed very much doing this interview and I hope to see you some day in Porto, Portugal. Any last words to your fans and readers?

Dave -  We sincerely appreciate any support that anyone gives us…thank you so much for this opportunity. We’d like nothing more than to come to Portugal to play…

John. Thanks to everyone, even the haters. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Dreamscapes From Dead Space Track Listing:

1. Huckleberry

2. Looking Glass

3. Baba Yaga

4. Epiphany

5. Hollow God

6. All Your Love

7. 108

8. Return of the Hag

The digital download of Dreamscapes From Dead Space is on sale now, the album to see a proper CD release via Rootsucker Records/Black Lotus Entertainment on October 30th, 2012. Official info on even more new ICHABODmaterial pending release, and new gigs being booked now and through the New Year, will be announced over the months ahead.

Dreamscapes From Dead Space is streaming now via the ICHABOD Bandcamp page.

More about Ichabod, news & review

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ICHABOD`s Dreamscapes From Dead Space “Psychedelic Sludge Bomb”

Through garages covered in dust and cobwebs till nocturnal clubs eager to get starving crowds, hungry for noise, hungry to hear loud rock to meet their basic needs of acquiring culture or simply shake their heads with a great sound for the sake of enjoying the simplest pleasures in life HeavyHardMetalmania.net gives you the Boston-based rock band ICHABOD with their new psychedelic sludge bomb forthcoming release “Dreamscapes From Dead Space”.

Created in 1998 the band name ICHABOD was born from a text in the bible from the books of Samuel. ICHABOD was the name of a child that born on the day that the Ark was taken into philistine captivity. His mother went into labor due to the shock of hearing that her husband had died and the Ark had been captured and she died shortly after giving birth and named her son. The name ICHABOD refers to the inglorious birth of the child that was born on a bloody day, with no father, no mother and no God, because even the glory has departed from that place.

Where is the glory in ICHABOD? Definitively in its powerful raging music with more than a decade that made the inglorious glorious. After more than ten years with Ken MacKay (vocals), Greg Delaria (bass), Dave Iverson (guitar) and Phil MacKay (drums) in the psychedelic/sludge/doom/ metal scene and hoping to continue their musical journey and personal ascents they focused their efforts to build a new sound and so they entered a path of experiment with new tunings, sounds, symbolism, and structures in the songwriting. With changes not always come good things in the first place and due to the new directions and visions of the band Ken MacKay followed a different path and the other members remained, the common in many bands that we are used to see.

Fortunately they didn´t want to stop the music killing machine they constructed and with a new singer John Fadden and with Jason Adam giving more consistency assuming the role of rhythm guitarist they finally assumed the new change and became even stronger than before with a lot deeper music and style.

“Dreamscapes From Dead Space” is till the date their most complete, ravishing, innovator work with an extensive spectrum of different styles and sounds. This is not the common hard rock/ sludge music, this is a progressive work very experimental with metal, sludge, psychedelic, rock , doom, jazzy elements all mixed in a exotic/ritual type of atmosphere creating a space of dreamscapes with a heavy but melodic musical orchestra. Their music is a conglomeration of phrases slowly progressing into a unique form of abstract music but precise with distortion lines and clean lines, with heavy metal riffs changing to a more hard rock riff type of playing, with a hardcore sound and slow tempo doom style creating that warming and nasty sludge and always with that old school psych vibe from the 70´s/80´s present that reaches your hears and melts your brain and takes to the mental trip of colorful swirl and ugly monsters from the dead space and that’s what I feel when I trip into this Dreamscape sound.

ICHABOD´s fifth full-length release “Dreamscapes from Dead Space” is refreshing and extending with lots to offer, almost fifty minutes of pleasure and headbanging, this is a massive psychedelic sludge bomb ready to explode October 30th through Rootsucker Records, don’t miss this blast!

By Pedro Ribeiro: With love for beer... sorry, music from an early age, he studied piano and singing from 7 to 14 years,  then, devoted himself to the study of the guitar for 5 years. visit our reviews page.

Dreamscapes From Dead Space Track Listing:

1. Huckleberry

2. Looking Glass

3. Baba Yaga

4. Epiphany

5. Hollow God

6. All Your Love

7. 108

8. Return of the Hag

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ICHABOD: Boston Psyche/Sludge Act Drop Most Expansive Album To Date Entire Record Streaming Now

Following more than a decade of perpetually mutating and expanding their unique style of rock/metal, Boston-based ICHABOD release their most progressive album to date with Dreamscapes From Dead Space this month.

Conceived and founded in 1998, ICHABOD quickly formed an immediately diehard audience with several awesome demos before the turn of the century. Sporadic but steady live shows have constantly helped the band retain a solid fanbase, and since 2000 they’ve summoned forth four massive and ever-expanding studio full-lengths, culminating with the diversified 2012, released by Rootsucker Records in 2008.

Amidst praise of 2012 from internationally-based media outlets, vocalist Ken MacKay decided to part ways with ICHABOD. Remaining members Greg Delaria (bass), Dave Iverson (guitar), and Phil MacKay (drums) inducted longtime friend John Fadden as new throat to help them finalize their newest material, what was then penned as the band’s swansong. Fadden’s style brought on newfound inspiration for the entire unit, and the band recruited friend Jay Adam on second guitar. Instead of disbanding, ICHABOD forged an entirely new path of musical exploration.

ICHABOD’s fifth full-length, Dreamscapes From Dead Space, visits new territory for the band’s already expansive sound, melding elements of their sludge/doom metal roots with a more prog/psyche ‘70s vibe, adding a lot more rock to how they already triumphantly roll. Featuring nearly fifty minutes worth of otherworldly, free-flow, heavy-ass rock, recorded, co-produced and mixed by Glenn Smith at Amps vs. Ohms Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with final mastering done by Nick and Rob at New Alliance East Mastering. The artwork bears original paintings by Mike Kent and layout but Aaron D. C. Edge.

Dreamscapes From Dead Space showcases the broad range of a proficient musical force in a renaissance era.

The digital download of Dreamscapes From Dead Space is on sale now, the album to see a proper CD release via Rootsucker Records/Black Lotus Entertainment on October 30th, 2012. Official info on even more new ICHABODmaterial pending release, and new gigs being booked now and through the New Year, will be announced over the months ahead.

Dreamscapes From Dead Space is streaming now via the ICHABOD Bandcamp page.

ICHABOD Live:

11/01/2012 Ralphs Rock Diner - Worcester, MA w/ Witch Mountain, Castle, Second Grave

Dreamscapes From Dead Space Track Listing:

1. Huckleberry

2. Looking Glass

3. Baba Yaga

4. Epiphany

5. Hollow God

6. All Your Love

7. 108

8. Return of the Hag

http://ichabod2012.bandcamp.com

http://www.facebook.com/ichabod108

http://www.rootsuckerrecords.com 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rootsucker-Records/156373694496330

ICHABOD, 2012

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

http://www.myspace.com/ichabod

http://www.rootsuckerrecords.com

http://www.myspace.com/blacklocust

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...

http://www.myspace.com/ichabod

by Chris Barnes
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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