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Interview with icebox: on their upcoming album and being stone(d) cold
Interview and article by Nick McNally. Posted Ryfa 20, 1004.
I met the four members of icebox the other day, behind the locally-famous club The Hideout. It was midday, springtime sun shining brightly, though we mostly lounged in the shade. The lawn chairs provided by the club's owner and the graffitied concrete set a gritty but casual tone for the interview and photo shoot. The band was passing around a joint, save for lead vocalist and occasional secondary guitarist Kova Iven, who didn't want to blur her focus even with several hours before the band would hit the stage that night. Drummer Aubrey Maplekey offered the joint to me, practicing proper stoner etiquette, though I also declined. She and guitarist Dev Dezaar remained composed but noticeably more loose-limbed and spacey as the joint burned on. Bassist Relin Apollor seemed to handle his hits the most smoothly, his already friendly and well-articulated demeanor remaining consistent throughout our time together.
I opened our conversation by telling the band we had been getting a lot of people writing in asking us to do a story on icebox. The group seemed mildly pleased to hear that, although Dev's reaction was tempered with a set of skeptically narrowed eyes.
NICK: So, real quick, can you catch us up on the band's history, for those who don't know?
DEV: Ah, big leagues now. Origin story, for all the new fans.
KOVA: We formed in 999, put out music in 1000, 1001, and 1003. We've had some great tours, a couple rough ones. New album... soon. And we're still on Scratched.
NICK: How did the band form?
DEV: Corporate espionage.
KOVA: No. [laughs] Me, her, and Aubrey met in high school. Aubrey knew Relin and invited him to try out.
AUBREY: 'Cause he's really good, man. He was in jazz band and played in these crazy prog rock bands and shit.
NICK: You played in prog rock bands before icebox? That's quite... the musical jump.
DEV: You can say a step down, it's okay.
RELIN: [laughs] Yeah, before icebox I was kinda rotating through a few different prog bands. The last one was basically PHROG, if PHROG weren't actually very good. Not a cover band, but I think we really wanted to be PHROG. But we, uh... we weren't. And then I joined icebox.
KOVA: We didn't really have a bassist set in stone yet. We had a couple people in mind, but Relin just had better chops. Even without playing much fast music before.
NICK: Be honest, did the three of you ever doubt that he'd be a good fit, in terms of attitude?
DEV: I did. I thought he was a fuckin' nerd. But I got over it when I realized he helped us write better music.
AUBREY: I didn't really care 'cause he's been my buddy for a long time. I was like, ah, it'll be fiiine.
KOVA: Yeah, no, ultimately we were concerned with the music and the shows. You don't have to wear spikes and dye your hair green to be in a punk band. It's not a uniform.
It became clearer, the more time I spent around the band, that both Kova and Dev are quite self-aware individuals, though this trait manifests differently in either of them. Kova sees the world through clear eyes and reacts with optimism and gruff but charming earnestness. Dev on the other hand notices the world's sharp edges before they cut and treats them with cynicism, often ahead of schedule. Though Kova denied being the quote unquote leader of the band, she and Dev seemed to be at the wheel, while the rhythm section keeps the tires spinning. Kova writes the majority of the lyrics, with Dev penning a song or two now and then. (Those one or two are some of my personal favorites: big rec to "Need No One" and "SMS.") A key part of the band's song-writing process is to put on a movie, mute the volume, and riff over the silent scenes until something clicks.
DEV: Ew. I don't like to call it the song-writing process.
AUBREY: What would you call it then?
DEV: Hmm. Violence.
AUBREY: Okay, bro.
DEV: For real though! I'd call it violence. I'm ripping something out of me and turning it into a song.
AUBREY: And she says she hates emo kids.
DEV: I do! Don't call me emo.
All of them seem to share a certain sense of humor, making jabs at each other with practiced ease. Kova, the least involved in the trading of emo-related insults, appears unfazed by it, even happy to let it continue in the background of the interview.
NICK: Kova, you featured on a song by The Oils, on Gravel. You've done some touring with them; how has it been, working with them?
KOVA: I wouldn't even call it working. We don't really work with The Oils, we're friends.
DEV: Partners in crime.
KOVA: That too. We came up in the same scene, around the same time. I think of The Oils as kind of another side of the coin from us. They're more scratchy, more monochromatic, but never boring, and we're a bit more colorful. Sun, moon, that kind of thing.
DEV: Did she say "another side of the coin?" Girl, there's only two sides.
KOVA: I'm getting a contact high. Shut up.
RELIN: Yeah, Darla's on one of our new songs too.
NICK: Guest vocals?
KOVA: That's right. It's called "Honey/Vinegar." It was originally an instrumental we would play at sound check and such that grew into something better. But it wasn't growing right at first.
AUBREY: We were hacking away at that thing for, like, months.
DEV: That's what she--
(Kova kicks her in the leg.)
AUBREY: It was originally two songs, right? And we tied 'em together. And we played it for Oils and Darla was like, add this and this to it. And we were like, dude, you should do that!
KOVA: We have a lot of fun with them. They're the real deal.
Icebox swept me up into a series of tangents and so, for a while, we discussed the group's hobbies and complaints. Outside of drumming, Aubrey skateboards (apparently she has more than once done tricks off the roof of The Hideout, and managed to stick the landing once or twice). Kova works at a grocery store that shall remain unnamed (it's a soul sucker though). Dev said "fuck work" at least twice and, unemployed, currently sleeps on Kova's couch. Relin is the only one enrolled in any sort of education, and is on track to graduate with a botany degree in the next few months.
NICK: I have to ask, is your choice of major related to a particular substance that's fueled much of our conversation today?
RELIN: What? No.
Eventually we got back to discussing the band's upcoming album, titled Sunburst. It's their fourth overall release on independent label Scratched Records, and their second full-length album. All four bandmates perked up at the subject, seeming excited to talk about their latest collection of songs and soon-to-follow tour. Despite the group's careless, never too serious affect, the way they talk about their music betrays a real sense of personal investment.
NICK: What's been your approach to this new record?
KOVA: All the things we've done before-- or, most things-- but bigger and better.
DEV: We're all just better at our instruments now. I've learned so much shit about amps and heads and pedals. Not that I'm a big pedal guy, but I've experimented a little.
RELIN: Dev's kind of become our tech nerd-- hey, in a good way. I think the new songs sound familiar but in a more evolved form.
DEV: We did some synth-keyboard shit on a couple songs. Started out as a joke but then we figured out how we can make it sound good.
KOVA: We try to get the crowd involved, in our shows. I mean, they mosh and dive and that's great, but with these new ones especially we want them to sing along and scream with us and have it mean something. It's still fun, it's still us, but... I don't know. My songs always came from a real place or real emotion I had, but I ended up finding things to say that felt a little more necessary. And we've been listening to a lot of Reckless Attack lately, so that's been a big inspiration too.
NICK: Is that your way of saying your lyrics are getting more political?
KOVA: Yes and no.
Here the vocalist pauses to think and Dev, breathing out smoke and sitting forward in her seat, picks up where she left off.
DEV: Our shit's always been political, just not in a vocab test, buzz words, straight up "fuck the government" way. Just like, ground-level stuff. Working sucks, money sucks, school doesn't teach you important shit, that kinda thing. And now, since we started a few years ago, everything is more... uptight. People are suspicious as fuck, you know?
KOVA: As in, they're paranoid of everything. "This means they're doing magic, that means they're doing drugs, if we let this happen we're all going to die..."
RELIN: As they say, it's an anixety culture.
AUBREY: I think a lot of it is an outlet. People act crazy, we feel crazy, we play crazy.
KOVA: And I tie a lot of it back into community and, sometimes, the Champions. We have a song, "Holy Weapon," that's about how music and the scene can be a tool to bring people together and ignite them. That's how you start making things happen.
NICK: Are you doing this out of a sense of community, then? For the scene?
KOVA: I'd say so.
DEV: We make music for us. Don't know if you were going there, but we're not really thinking about going to a major or anything. We're good. If people like our songs, awesome, if they don't, I don't see it as a loss. I mean, the scene is usually pretty solid, but people can let you down...
KOVA: Without the scene I think we'd be a little adrift. I want the things I create to bring people together. Even if that's only the two people that work at the bar. Even if it's just venting about someone being an asshole at a house show. That's the feeling I bring to the music.
AUBREY: It makes us happy when you come to our shows and scream and run around in circles.
DEV: Yeah, we don't half-ass it, so you don't get to either.
RELIN: Whole ass only, please.
Icebox originally formed for fun, but these four take their craft seriously. This may prove to be key, as many other bands of this time period don't last even the few years that icebox has managed. In the ratty world of punk rock-- perhaps especially in it-- passion is a band's lifeblood.
NICK: You all seem to have a fire in you when it comes to this band.
RELIN: I disagree.
NICK: You do?
AUBREY: Yeah, we're icebox. No fire, just stone cold.
KOVA: More like stoned cold, huh?
DEV: Well, there's your fuckin' headline. There's your title. You're welcome.
icebox's new album, Sunburst, releases Tansa 5, 1004.
Interview with icebox: on their upcoming album and being stone(d) cold
Interview and article by Nick McNally. Posted Ryfa 20, 1004.
CLICK HERE TO READ INTERVIEW
I met the four members of icebox the other day, behind the locally-famous club The Hideout. It was midday, springtime sun shining brightly, though we mostly lounged in the shade. The lawn chairs provided by the club's owner and the graffitied concrete set a gritty but casual tone for the interview and photo shoot. The band was passing around a joint, save for lead vocalist and occasional secondary guitarist Kova Iven, who didn't want to blur her focus even with several hours before the band would hit the stage that night. Drummer Aubrey Maplekey offered the joint to me, practicing proper stoner etiquette, though I also declined. She and guitarist Dev Dezaar remained composed but noticeably more loose-limbed and spacey as the joint burned on. Bassist Relin Apollor seemed to handle his hits the most smoothly, his already friendly and well-articulated demeanor remaining consistent throughout our time together.
I opened our conversation by telling the band we had been getting a lot of people writing in asking us to do a story on icebox. The group seemed mildly pleased to hear that, although Dev's reaction was tempered with a set of skeptically narrowed eyes.
NICK: So, real quick, can you catch us up on the band's history, for those who don't know?
DEV: Ah, big leagues now. Origin story, for all the new fans.
KOVA: We formed in 999, put out music in 1000, 1001, and 1003. We've had some great tours, a couple rough ones. New album... soon. And we're still on Scratched.
NICK: How did the band form?
DEV: Corporate espionage.
KOVA: No. [laughs] Me, her, and Aubrey met in high school. Aubrey knew Relin and invited him to try out.
AUBREY: 'Cause he's really good, man. He was in jazz band and played in these crazy prog rock bands and shit.
NICK: You played in prog rock bands before icebox? That's quite... the musical jump.
DEV: You can say a step down, it's okay.
RELIN: [laughs] Yeah, before icebox I was kinda rotating through a few different prog bands. The last one was basically PHROG, if PHROG weren't actually very good. Not a cover band, but I think we really wanted to be PHROG. But we, uh... we weren't. And then I joined icebox.
KOVA: We didn't really have a bassist set in stone yet. We had a couple people in mind, but Relin just had better chops. Even without playing much fast music before.
NICK: Be honest, did the three of you ever doubt that he'd be a good fit, in terms of attitude?
DEV: I did. I thought he was a fuckin' nerd. But I got over it when I realized he helped us write better music.
AUBREY: I didn't really care 'cause he's been my buddy for a long time. I was like, ah, it'll be fiiine.
KOVA: Yeah, no, ultimately we were concerned with the music and the shows. You don't have to wear spikes and dye your hair green to be in a punk band. It's not a uniform.
It became clearer, the more time I spent around the band, that both Kova and Dev are quite self-aware individuals, though this trait manifests differently in either of them. Kova sees the world through clear eyes and reacts with optimism and gruff but charming earnestness. Dev on the other hand notices the world's sharp edges before they cut and treats them with cynicism, often ahead of schedule. Though Kova denied being the quote unquote leader of the band, she and Dev seemed to be at the wheel, while the rhythm section keeps the tires spinning. Kova writes the majority of the lyrics, with Dev penning a song or two now and then. (Those one or two are some of my personal favorites: big rec to "Need No One" and "SMS.") A key part of the band's song-writing process is to put on a movie, mute the volume, and riff over the silent scenes until something clicks.
DEV: Ew. I don't like to call it the song-writing process.
AUBREY: What would you call it then?
DEV: Hmm. Violence.
AUBREY: Okay, bro.
DEV: For real though! I'd call it violence. I'm ripping something out of me and turning it into a song.
AUBREY: And she says she hates emo kids.
DEV: I do! Don't call me emo.
All of them seem to share a certain sense of humor, making jabs at each other with practiced ease. Kova, the least involved in the trading of emo-related insults, appears unfazed by it, even happy to let it continue in the background of the interview.
NICK: Kova, you featured on a song by The Oils, on Gravel. You've done some touring with them; how has it been, working with them?
KOVA: I wouldn't even call it working. We don't really work with The Oils, we're friends.
DEV: Partners in crime.
KOVA: That too. We came up in the same scene, around the same time. I think of The Oils as kind of another side of the coin from us. They're more scratchy, more monochromatic, but never boring, and we're a bit more colorful. Sun, moon, that kind of thing.
DEV: Did she say "another side of the coin?" Girl, there's only two sides.
KOVA: I'm getting a contact high. Shut up.
RELIN: Yeah, Darla's on one of our new songs too.
NICK: Guest vocals?
KOVA: That's right. It's called "Honey/Vinegar." It was originally an instrumental we would play at sound check and such that grew into something better. But it wasn't growing right at first.
AUBREY: We were hacking away at that thing for, like, months.
DEV: That's what she--
(Kova kicks her in the leg.)
AUBREY: It was originally two songs, right? And we tied 'em together. And we played it for Oils and Darla was like, add this and this to it. And we were like, dude, you should do that!
KOVA: We have a lot of fun with them. They're the real deal.
Icebox swept me up into a series of tangents and so, for a while, we discussed the group's hobbies and complaints. Outside of drumming, Aubrey skateboards (apparently she has more than once done tricks off the roof of The Hideout, and managed to stick the landing once or twice). Kova works at a grocery store that shall remain unnamed (it's a soul sucker though). Dev said "fuck work" at least twice and, unemployed, currently sleeps on Kova's couch. Relin is the only one enrolled in any sort of education, and is on track to graduate with a botany degree in the next few months.
NICK: I have to ask, is your choice of major related to a particular substance that's fueled much of our conversation today?
RELIN: What? No.
Eventually we got back to discussing the band's upcoming album, titled Sunburst. It's their fourth overall release on independent label Scratched Records, and their second full-length album. All four bandmates perked up at the subject, seeming excited to talk about their latest collection of songs and soon-to-follow tour. Despite the group's careless, never too serious affect, the way they talk about their music betrays a real sense of personal investment.
NICK: What's been your approach to this new record?
KOVA: All the things we've done before-- or, most things-- but bigger and better.
DEV: We're all just better at our instruments now. I've learned so much shit about amps and heads and pedals. Not that I'm a big pedal guy, but I've experimented a little.
RELIN: Dev's kind of become our tech nerd-- hey, in a good way. I think the new songs sound familiar but in a more evolved form.
DEV: We did some synth-keyboard shit on a couple songs. Started out as a joke but then we figured out how we can make it sound good.
KOVA: We try to get the crowd involved, in our shows. I mean, they mosh and dive and that's great, but with these new ones especially we want them to sing along and scream with us and have it mean something. It's still fun, it's still us, but... I don't know. My songs always came from a real place or real emotion I had, but I ended up finding things to say that felt a little more necessary. And we've been listening to a lot of Reckless Attack lately, so that's been a big inspiration too.
NICK: Is that your way of saying your lyrics are getting more political?
KOVA: Yes and no.
Here the vocalist pauses to think and Dev, breathing out smoke and sitting forward in her seat, picks up where she left off.
DEV: Our shit's always been political, just not in a vocab test, buzz words, straight up "fuck the government" way. Just like, ground-level stuff. Working sucks, money sucks, school doesn't teach you important shit, that kinda thing. And now, since we started a few years ago, everything is more... uptight. People are suspicious as fuck, you know?
KOVA: As in, they're paranoid of everything. "This means they're doing magic, that means they're doing drugs, if we let this happen we're all going to die..."
RELIN: As they say, it's an anixety culture.
AUBREY: I think a lot of it is an outlet. People act crazy, we feel crazy, we play crazy.
KOVA: And I tie a lot of it back into community and, sometimes, the Champions. We have a song, "Holy Weapon," that's about how music and the scene can be a tool to bring people together and ignite them. That's how you start making things happen.
NICK: Are you doing this out of a sense of community, then? For the scene?
KOVA: I'd say so.
DEV: We make music for us. Don't know if you were going there, but we're not really thinking about going to a major or anything. We're good. If people like our songs, awesome, if they don't, I don't see it as a loss. I mean, the scene is usually pretty solid, but people can let you down...
KOVA: Without the scene I think we'd be a little adrift. I want the things I create to bring people together. Even if that's only the two people that work at the bar. Even if it's just venting about someone being an asshole at a house show. That's the feeling I bring to the music.
AUBREY: It makes us happy when you come to our shows and scream and run around in circles.
DEV: Yeah, we don't half-ass it, so you don't get to either.
RELIN: Whole ass only, please.
Icebox originally formed for fun, but these four take their craft seriously. This may prove to be key, as many other bands of this time period don't last even the few years that icebox has managed. In the ratty world of punk rock-- perhaps especially in it-- passion is a band's lifeblood.
NICK: You all seem to have a fire in you when it comes to this band.
RELIN: I disagree.
NICK: You do?
AUBREY: Yeah, we're icebox. No fire, just stone cold.
KOVA: More like stoned cold, huh?
DEV: Well, there's your fuckin' headline. There's your title. You're welcome.
icebox's new album, Sunburst, releases Tansa 5, 1004.
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