Of gods and monsters
SINGAPORE — Consisting of Daniel Sassoon (guitars), Jorden Cheng (drums), Amanda Ling (keyboards), Nelson Tan (bass) and Sujin Thomas (guitars), the progressive instrumental rock outfit In Each Hand A Cutlass (IEHAC), has secured a reputation for blending diverse genres to create epic sprawling, yearning songs with their well-received debut — A Universe Made Of Strings — and memorable live performances.
SINGAPORE — Consisting of Daniel Sassoon (guitars), Jorden Cheng (drums), Amanda Ling (keyboards), Nelson Tan (bass) and Sujin Thomas (guitars), the progressive instrumental rock outfit In Each Hand A Cutlass (IEHAC), has secured a reputation for blending diverse genres to create epic sprawling, yearning songs with their well-received debut — A Universe Made Of Strings — and memorable live performances.
True to their reputation, IEHAC have — with the aid of legendary Los Angeles producer Brad Wood (Smashing Pumpkins, Veruca Salt, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Bangles are amongst his impressive list of clients) put together The Kraken — a sophomore effort that builds on the debut’s strengths but with greater musical coherence.
“We had more time to think through and work out the details of this album compared to the AUMOS,” Ling reflected. “Considering it took two years to complete Kraken part 2, we had time in between to craft the songs around it to create a coherent theme and storyline.”
And there’s the complexity of the material — the 18-minute title track itself consists of four distinct parts, careening from metal to jazz to psychedelic rock in its enthralling passage — which may not be surprising given the band’s creative process.
“It’s usually a collective effort. Often Dan, Amanda or Sujin would start off with some riff and the rest just feed off it,” Tan explained. “There isn’t really any hard and fast rule on who writes what, it comes naturally. It does take a lot of band practice to come up with something though.”
Cheng added: “As a drummer, it’s definitely harder to hear melodies or chords given the nature of the instrument. I usually picture myself in a movie scene. Battles to tear jerking moments channelling all emotions and orchestrating them on the kit. Sometimes it takes several hours just working on a section.”
There’s no doubt producer Wood was a catalyst for IEHAC to bring the music to a different level.
“He’s a good guy to work with, and sports a great work ethic. Just the right balance between letting us run riot (and) reining us in when necessary, so things didn’t get too out of hand,” Sassoon affirmed. “We wanted someone to push us hard, to help galvanise all the various pieces we had in a cohesive way, which he did with aplomb. He also captured some really good sounds — the record is sonically amazing, and it’s a huge level up from anything we’ve ever worked on.”
The mythical references on the album — Kraken, Heracleion, Ouroboros and Satori — seemed to have inspired the otherworldly epic quality of the music.
“I don’t think the mythical references were a conscious decision to be inspirations for the songs,” Thomas clarified. “I guess the title track The Kraken set everyone’s minds thinking about other similar references we could draw inspirations from and they mostly came when we least expected them — from something we read in a book or (gleaned from) TV documentaries.”
At the last album launch, the venue was decked out with a pirate theme. The Kraken will be unleashed at the Esplanade Recital Studio on April 24, so can fans expect something similar?
“There won’t be any props this time round,” Ling said, adding that the experience will be “solely driven by the intensity of the live music and synchronised visual works by Brandon Tay (Syndicate)”.
Sassoon added, somewhat jokingly: “After the last one, I vowed to myself I’d never try to haul a giant whisky barrel to my own gig ever again!”
Tickets for The Kraken launch are available at all SISTIC outlets and at http://www.sistic.com.sg/events/cutlass0415.
Pre-orders for The Kraken have started at https://ineachhandacutlass.bandcamp.com/ and iTunes.