I thought I’d do something a little different this week for the Song of the Week, and focus not just on Kithkin’s Sorcerer, but specifically a reoccurring segment on our Depthsounder podcast called This Was This One Song, where musicians come on and tell me the story behind a specific song. In this particular episode I spoke with Kithkin about their song Sorcerer.
This Thursday 9/3 Kithkin as we know it will play its final show, what exactly that means is still somewhat unknown, while I have some guesses I think its best to understand that the Kithkin that includes Kelton Sears, Ian McCutcheon, Alex Barr, and Bob Martin will no longer be playing music together. If there are any tickets still left and you’re a Kithkin fan or maybe you’re just a fan of great music, you’ll want to be at Chop Suey.
When Kithkin’s debut full-length Rituals, Trances & Ecstasies For Humans in Face of the Collapse was released I was infatuated with the album’s thundering drums, stabbing guitar, and the general primal aggression of songs like Altered Beast, Fallen Giants, or Asunder. Sorcerer was just missing that fast paced punk tree punk attitude that originally hooked me, but as my initial listens faded and I began to delve deeper into the album I came to feel an intense emotional aura emendating from the album, and in time it became the real highlight of Rituals… this beautiful gem holding up the album at the very end.
Following my interview with Kithkin back in December I asked them to choose a song for This Was This One Song, and was delighted when they chose Sorcerer. It was no surprise to learn just how emotionally charged the song was, the core emanating from a recent divorce and the death of a family member. Though they were sharing a house at the time Kelton Sears and Ian McCutcheon wrote the song largely by texting or Facebook messaging each other lyrics, letting that technological wall allow them to be more honest to one another while working on what might be the album’s most personal material.
Sorcerer has one of the best builds of any song on the album, with multiple phases all leading up to the moment where the song unravels until the listener is left only with the sound of the rain. Kelton expressed his hope to have the rain be a locked groove on the album where it would just go on indefinitely, for fun at the end of the segment I put the rain into a loop and ran it for another six minutes.
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Kithkin perform three times, this Thursday will be the fourth and that just wasn’t nearly enough, each time I’ve seen them live the experience has been totally fresh and unique. My heart feels extra heavy known that these four amazing individuals won’t be making music as Kithkin. The band always seemed so reliant on all of its members to generate their unique sound and attitude, each member seemed vital to the way everything was built. It seems fitting that Kithkin so often spoke of the end times and even described Rituals… this way “It is intended for questing, thrashing, and confronting the end of things.” I don’t think I ever expected that I would need Rituals… to help me confront the end of Kithkin. I was often fond of saying that Kithkin was not only important the Northwest music scene but that they were important in the history of Northwest music, I really wish it had all lasted longer.
You can find Sorcerer on Kithkin’s debut full-length Rituals, Trancer & Ecstasies for Humans in Face of the Collapse. This Was this One Song is a reoccurring segment on our Depthsounder podcast, you can hear the segment on Soundcloud or in our latest episode. You can hear the original full interview with Kithkin here. And I can’ insist enough that you get tickets for the Chop Suey show right now, whether you’ve seen the band 100 times or never, it’ll be well worth it.
The post SOTW: KITHKIN ~ SORCERER appeared first on secretly important.