INTERVIEW: Kent
- Tim Mohr
Instead of fending off the darkness of the long winters in their native Sweden, Kent embrace it and usurp its power for use in their dramatically emotive songs. Kent produce a guitar-based sensation of longing, similar in feel to Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, or Geneva. Consumable quizzed the band about their music during the recent CMJ festival in New York.
Unlike many prominent Swedish bands such as the Cardigans or Wannadies, Kent play music that, due to certain perceptions of Sweden, seems more appropriate. Is the rest of the world stuck with a false image of Sweden--high rates of alcoholism and suicide, months of sub-zero temperatures and near-darkness--or is the blissed-out faction of Swedish pop music just compensating for genuinely depressing conditions?
"The other bands are lying. The people who say they're going to have a party--you know, 'throw you're hands in the air...'--they're the ones who are really depressed. The ones most likely to commit suicide. And we, who are always singing about killing ourselves ["Not really," they chuckle], the moody ones...we are the opposite."
So popular perceptions of Sweden are true?
"I don't really know if Swedes are that moody. I mean, I know everyone says that it's depressing, and that Sweden is *the* suicide country. But it isn't actually true...because the Finns commit suicide more often than we do."
And some people rather like darkness...
"But for eight months?"
Both the sound and the lyrical themes on Isola have such depth and genuine emotion. How did your style develop, how did you muster the confidence to sound so different from other successful bands?
"We've got our own way of playing songs. I think it's also that the Wannadies come from a power-pop background--they play distorted pop music--and the Cardigans come from jazz. Jazz and classical music...well, and heavy metal.
"We come from...the Cure. The depressing side of 80s music: Depeche Mode, Cure, Joy Division, the Smiths..."
Kent's recent European tour demonstrated that Isola has already garnered a loyal following: Kent sold-out four nights in a row in London, as well as most of their continental appearances.
But that's nothing compared to the reverence they inspire at home. Some Swedish indie-kids told Consumable that Kent are as important to the contemporary Swedish scene as the Smiths were to England in the 80s.
"That's impossible to say--but that's one of the best compliments we've ever gotten."
So you want to be that big elsewhere?
"We would just like to hear one of our songs on the radio while riding in a taxi here. It happened in London, and it was a great feeling."
