Kinch Kinski and the kindness of strangers
Kinch Kinski and the Strangers are getting ready for their passion and talent to the Old Bar on Tuesday night (21 February). Unpaved spoke to Kinch Kinski to find out what’s in store.
Kinch Kinski and the Strangers: Willow Stahlut (violin), Sam Johnstone (drums), Linden Lester (bass) and Kinch Kinski.
What turned you on to country-folk sounds?
Well, I definitely wasn’t raised with it. I was raised on classical music, a bit of jazz, classic rock and Catholic hymns. I think it was hunting down the origins of the music I loved as a teenager that did it.
I was very into Marilyn Manson – of all people! – as an angry 12 year-old, which led me to get into The Doors, and then seeking out all the points of inspiration for that remarkable band set me time-travelling into the sounds of old country and blues. Taditional country-music spirituals, and delta blues stuff like Last Kind Words Blues and Black Mattie, were a revelation to me. They made me realise that blues and country, despite what represents them in the charts today, had roots that were eerie and powerful, that could get under your skin and change you. From there I went back to the future, discovering people like Nick Drake, Townes van Zandt, Nick Cave, Sufjan Stevens, and Justin Townes Earle, and realising that the legacy of that music is quite strong and that it suited what I wanted to express musically. Now I’m a junkie for it, and happy that there is so much great music happening along those lines down in Melbourne.
What’s an album you couldn’t live without?
Jesus H. Christ that is a hard one. Im gonna go with The Doors’ Strange Days, just because I found it at an impressionable age and it really marked a dividing line in my life. There are dozens more though!
If not in Melbourne in 2012, what other time and place would you like to live in?
These questions are hard, because everyone’s time and place is lodged in their soul. It’s hard to imagine ‘me’ anywhere else because of that. Maybe Austin, TX in the 70s . . . or Italy in the renaissance. Although I think in that latter situation I’d most likely be a miserable peasant, so maybe not.
What can people expect at the Tuesday February 21st Old Bar show?
Well, it’ll be a slightly subdued affair, as we need to use brushes on the drums. Tuesdays are the lepers of all weekdays. But there’ll be epic country ballads, rock’n'roll, some nasty, haunted blues, and at least one jazz-punk existentialist anthem. Oh, and a Joni Mitchell cover, for the ladies and the sensitive gents. Basically it’ll be good times and beer all ’round.
