Review Fix chats with Booze & Glory lead guitarist Kahan, who discusses his origin in music and the band’s new single, “My Heart is Burning.â€
Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?
Kahan: I think I was eight-years-old when I went to my first live show of my brother’s band. They played some rock covers. I was excited and proud of seeing my brother interacting with the crowd. The next day me and my friend formed a band and the same day we wrote 1st song and later played 1st show for the local kids, even that I hold a borrowed bass guitar for the first in my life and didn’t know how to play it at all. Luckily the guitar wasn’t even plugged in!
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Kahan: Usually it starts with the observation along before I hit the strings. All the feelings or a topic that is in my head gimme a reason to convert it into music. I grab my guitar and play some random stuff if I find a good melody I try to develop some more from it.
Review Fix: What inspires you?
Kahan: Everything around. My friends, family, all the people I’ve met, especially people we meet on the road, the bands I grew up with, the bands we tour with, the bands I didn’t know before and saw them live for the first time somewhere on the road. It’s hard to find one source of inspiration. All these things can give you a lot of good vibes, good energy and the topics to think about. And lastly, it’s the punk scene where you can find mainly respectful people who care about each other and are engaged in many different actions, to let the world know we should look further than the tip of our own noses.
Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?
Kahan: I would like to leave it to the listeners. While being on the road with the band I’ve met a lot of people who told me how booze&glory music lifted them up at some point in their lives, how they were able to see and to change some bad habits and how it helped them to believe in themselves. It’s catchy, it’s melodic, it’s uplifting and it’s true. If you’re into punk rock, just check us out!
Review Fix: `How are your live shows different from your studio work?
Kahan: For me, it’s completely two different things but obviously still connected together. In the studio, we usually work when we practice before the upcoming tour or write new songs. When we play live, we connect with the crowd, and often it’s just a great party. But in the studio, we focus more on details and have to concentrate more on the work. Live shows – It’s our time and we had to do everything we can to entertain the crowd. We know why we’re there, we know what crowd expects from a punk band on a stage- as we all have been many times in the crowd, and we all know that we must play a show like there’s no tommorow. It’s happening here and now.
Review Fix: What was it like to record in SoundLab?
Kahan: Of course it was really stressful at the beginning, as it was my first time recording with Booze&Glory and I felt like I’m on some sort of mission haha! But we have done preproduction before going to Sweden, so we were well prepared for the recording session. If it comes to Mathias, he’s a really cool guy, super experienced, he produced many albums before with Millencolin, Franky Lee or other bands that he is not a part of. So it was a quick, nice and easy ride. We discussed a few things about our songs and Mathias gave us some tips, we laughed a lot, and in the end, came up with the album that we felt is complete. For me, the most challenging part was to play a title song ending solo, cause it was not supposed to be there in the first place, and it was fully improvised. I took it from the first time and we were all happy with it.
Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?
Kahan: “My Heart is Burning” about struggles, it’s about promises and disappointment. About people who make decisions and people who suffer through these decisions. Me and Mark grew up in a workers’ city that was built around coal mines and factories. In fact, all the scenes that you see in the video were shot near the places where we grew up. As you can see today, these buildings are abandoned or being demolished. This is happening everywhere in the world, factories are being closed as they are considered unprofitable and the price is paid by ordinary people, by the workers who often associated their lives with these places. These people’s lives are shattered and politicians whose decisions influence this conjuncture still have the same empty promises to offer, which are nothing more than lies. This is a scream of workers demanding respect and attention as well as real solutions.
Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2019?
Kahan: We’re planning to play a big tour with 30 shows around Europe in 31 days with our friends from Analogs and Giuda. It’s gonna be a killer run, but as the new album came out 18th of October, it’s a great time to play it live.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Kahan: Since I’ve joined the band I am almost constantly on the road with the guys. If this was what we were doing before releasing the album for the last few years, it’s obvious that after the “Hurricane” release, we’re gonna play even more shows. And this is the plan for the next couple of years. Just be on the road as much as we can.
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