Although
Alexei Moon Casselle and Stephen Lewis (a.k.a. MC Crescent Moon and DJ
Anatomy) are in their late 20s, the guys behind hip-hop duo
Kill The Vulturesare 13-year veterans of the local music scene. Along the way, they've
evolved an eclectic, avant-garde blend of jazz-noir and kitchen-sink
hip-hop. KTV's third full-length album,
Ecce Beast, is like the hip-hop version of Hitchcock's
Rear Window: Though more impressionistic than a plot-driven thriller,
Beastfollows a man being driven mad by the world he lives in, who commits
desperate deeds—including the murder depicted on the album cover. As on
previous KTV efforts, frontman Casselle (who also plays in folk duo
Roma di Luna)
uses a fractured lyrical approach to explore some dark psychological
territory. In a way, it may well be the story of Kill The Vultures
themselves.
Decider caught up with Casselle and Lewis to talk evolution, subjectivity, and the nature of the
Beast ahead of their CD-release show on
Friday, April 10 at Triple Rock Social Club.
Decider: The sound on Ecce Beast
differs from your past records, leaving some of the darker, more broken
jazz for longer-form orchestral or cinematic sound. How did that come
about?Stephen Lewis: I don’t know.
I’ve always been listening to the same stuff. Part of it is that I
have a better stereo in my car now, and I wanted to get a larger sound
out my subwoofers. Other than that, I just had the feeling of adding
strings into the mix.
Alexei Moon Casselle: I think we liked the idea of making a whole album with the same sets of sounds re-arranged and falling into different places.
SL: Yeah, so I created some songs that were a little more down-tempo, a little more slowed down, and centered.
D: Alexei, your delivery has also changed. Was that in response to the beats Stephen was making?AMC:I’m always trying to stay very much in tune with what Stephen is doing
with the beats. The album overall has a more narrative feel to it—it
takes its time. Instead of being a free-for-all, there is a more
scientific feel to it. It’s meditative and much more calm, [although]
there’s peaks and valleys, moments where there is freaking out or
whatever. I am very much evolving as a vocalist so it’s a part of that
narrative to try and have a more direct delivery. … The whole thing
came together over a wide range of time. It wasn’t like we sat down for
one session and it was all there; there was a very slow evolution. It’s
funny because the album feels very cohesive to me—like one fluid
movement. But when I sit down and listen to the tracks individually,
it’s not like there was one specific thing in mind when I wrote it.
It’s much more of a product of where we were at.
SL: Yeah,
I think there are [also] elements of simmering rage that go through it.
[Laughs.] I think all the [Kill The Vultures] albums are psychological
progressions of whatever mindstate we have at the time. I mean, the
feeling of wanting to start kicking everything in the room and breaking
everything is pretty much how we felt when we were making the first
one, and the second one was more like self-cursing or whatever; the new
one is more slow and distant meditations.
AMC: A lot of the [lyrical] dialogue comes from someone who is just watching—watching from a window what’s going on.
D: The album title plays off the Latin phrase "ecce homo."SL: The word “ecce” means “behold” in Latin, so it’s
Behold The Beast.
A lot of the album is about the perception of [the protagonist]. It's
about the difference between what he’s perceived as, what he sees
himself as, and who he is. So, you see him up front [on the album
cover], and you’re like, “Oh, of course.” But then you look over the
city and you get this larger picture.
D: Does the city take away some of his humanity?SL:I think that gets into the more unconscious levels [of the
songwriting]. What I hear with that murder [described in Alexei's
lyrics] is that it feels like the city is swallowing you up. The city
is the beast that [the title] is referring to but the perception is
that it’s this person, you know what I mean? But I feel like a lot of
that was unconscious to the point where it’s open to interpretation.
AMC: I
think that kind of is the overall statement. You have this landscape
for people to look at, and it’s not necessarily like a crystal, but
something for people to observe and take what they will. We are talking
about the social aspect—from the economy to current events. All that
stuff works its way into it but it’s not necessarily a literal fact.
And that’s the most constant element of our music: We don’t try and
refine it too much. We try and keep it in that psychological mindset.
D: You don’t give them as much easy accessibility that people can recognize but you do invite them into your world.SL: Yeah, if they want to enjoy it. [Laughs]
D: You've been part of the Twin Cities music scene for a while now—your first band, Oddjobs, started, what, 13 years ago?SL: We’ve been making music together since we were 15. So yeah, 12, 13 years ago.
D: That makes you old hands.AMC: [Laughs.] Which is really weird at 28.
D: How does it feel to be an old pro at 28? When he opened for Dosh at First Avenue last summer, P.O.S.
declared onstage that “I learned how to rap from Crescent Moon.” That’s
quite a compliment coming from a guy breaking out right now.AMC: It’s awesome. It’s weird to think about, but I look back to when I first started getting in to hip-hop, I was going to see
Atmosphere and
Phull Surkle and all these local bands.
SL: At coffee shops. Coffee shops were the only place you could see this stuff.
AMC:So, it’s very humbling to see how it all gets passed down. I totally
remember being a high school kid going to these shows and being able to
approach these people who didn’t have to rush off to a tour bus. That
was very inspiring in and of itself. I don’t really have much to say
about my role; that was always my goal. I wanted to help inspire
people, which is why I have been involved with the Hope Community
Program over on Franklin and Portland with
I Self Devine, who was doing a hip-hop class, and Brandon [Allday] from
Big Quarters,
who set up a studio. And that’s the shit right there, to be able to
mentor other people. Stef [Alexander of P.O.S.] certainly doesn’t have
to credit me for introducing him to rap, but that’s nice.