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ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE
GERMANY, JANUARY 2007
English translation:
AFTER EIGHT YEARS THE BRANDOS RELEASE A NEW STUDIO ALBUM.
“No, I probably see myself as more of a craftsman than an artist” says Dave Kincaid, singer and guitarist of the New York roots-rock band The Brandos. “It is my job to make music for people, and although I love my job, often as not it gets pretty stressful”.
Especially with a completely new beginning like this one. The Brandos haven’t had a studio album since the end of the 90’s, they had - wore down by fights with record companies - practically given up. But now Kincaid has reunited with bass player Ernie Mendillo and hired new musicians to record “Over the Border,” and that has meant two years of hard work. “ With a rock band like The Brandos everything is very physical,” says Kincaid. “Your voice, your ability as an instrumentalist, every muscle needs to be trained to be fit - just like getting ready for a boxing match.” He and Mendillo spent a few months just rehearsing before they dared to record anything at all.
And like most diligent craftsmen, Kincaid is an traditionalist: “Since the beginning we’ve admired bands like The Beatles, The Who or Credence Clearwater Revival, and to this day we aspire to reach their level of performance.” With “Over The Border” The Brandos allow themselves to go a little bit in the folk direction - Kincaid is of irish descent and as a youth lived for a year in Mexico City as an exchange student. Emotional center pieces of the album are “The Triangle Fire” and “The New York Volunteer” in which Kincaid uses, as he so often does, events in US history projected into his own story lines. “Those songs are part of how I work out my own feelings on what happened on September 11,” he says. And he acts as if he wouldn’t know that the result of it is actually art. –Rein.
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