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The New Year

The New Year Artist Profile

Web Site: www.touchandgorecords.com
Location: New York and Texas
Members:
Matt Kadane: guitar, vocals
Bubba Kadane: guitar, vocals
Peter Schmidt: guitar
Mike Donofrio: bass
Chris Brokaw: drums
About:
Over the last seventeen years, in the 1990s with Bedhead and for the last decade with The New Year, Matt and Bubba Kadane have done all they could to avoid feeling rushed in making a record. Records need time to be coherent, and coherence -- even thin thematic coherence -- is what makes records worth more than a mere collection of songs.

The most recent payoff of this approach is The New Year's newest self-titled release, the culmination of four years of song-writing and a year of recording. Lyrically, these ten songs address the interlocked themes of lost time, frustrated desire, and the need for others. Although musically these may be the band's most varied songs -- for a band that made innovative use of three guitars, almost half the songs here are built around the piano -- it is the careful sequence of these songs that brings the story the lyrics tell together. Even the lack of a record title seems deliberate in suggesting that this is the culmination of everything this band has tried to achieve.

Please Note: OnlineRock talked with Matt Kadane and have posted some of the questions below. Enjoy!

Equipment:
Much has been made on the role of the piano in this release.  Can you elaborate on how that influenced the songs, the other instrumentation and if that will be included in your live shows?

- Several of these songs originated on piano, and we liked the way the piano sounded in our early recordings so we kept it in there.  For the live shows we've tried to translate the piano parts to guitar, mainly because we've been unhappy with the way most electronic pianos sound live.

Recordings:
Can you tell us a bit about your recording process?  Are the songs written in the studio?

- Bubba and I demo the songs at home and essentially try to reproduce our demos in the studio.

Official Releases:

The New Year (2008)
The End Is Near (2004)
Newness Ends (2001)

Free MP3 or Video: The Company I Can Get
Influences:
There are obvious dynamics in place when having siblings in a band and, from what I've read, you also live in different parts of the country.  Can you describe the challenges and/or the benefits of these factors in working together as a band?

Bubba and I have been playing music together since we were kids in the 1970s, so we've developed something like musical telepathy with each other.  This is a big part of why I think we've been able to work long-distance for so long.


Each and every month OnlineRock profiles a new band or musician. If selected, the featured band or musician’s profile includes your picture on our front page, a band page that lists your website, your contact info, a biography, discography and your contact information as well as being archived on the OnlineRock website. You will also be featured in our monthly newsletter sent to our members. Click here to submit.


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