Dave had the chance to chat to Karab’s vocalist (Jack) and gutiarist (Joe) ahead of the release of their brand new video ‘House On The Sand’
Thanks for giving up your time to speak to us, how you doing today?
Joe: Great thanks. Cheers for taking the time to say hello.
Jack: Likewise, it’s been a good start to the year so far. Busy, but the good kind of busy.
You’re launching a brand new music video this friday for ‘House on the Sand’. Can you give a flavour of what it’s like?
Joe: The video explores the destruction and repurposing of icons and imagery. We feel that the time and effort that’s gone into the video really matches the work and diversity that went into the creation of the song in the first place. It’s most definitely high energy and hopefully quite an immersive experience.
Jack: Lyrically, the song kind of takes a look at the flawed nature of the human race, and concepts like hero worship, so we wanted the video to fuck with image perception and juxtapositions a little bit.
Did you get much creative input into it?
Jack: A lot – luckily we have a nice arsenal of people we can call in favours from, and they accommodate our bizarre and outlandish ideas without judgement. To our faces, anyway.
Joe: We had a direct involvement in the project from storyboarding, through shooting to post production. As Jack says, we’re lucky to have people helping the execution who are willing to try the things we have in mind. For example, the pixel images are actually a couple of inch e-reader screen, repurposed to play frame by frame videos, and filmed with a macro lens. To film 20 seconds of real-time footage took over 2 hours of filming due to the screen’s refresh rate. It was also great to torch a series of toys from Poundland.
You also worked with Matt Cunningham on the artwork, how did that come about?
Joe: Rob [guitarist] found Matt just scrolling Instagram, I think. We make an effort to find and commission an artist for each release, so we’re always on the lookout. We also like to keep the brief to a minimum. Giving the artist more freedom means we get a fresh interpretation the song through the artist’s eyes.
Have you got plans for more new music this year?
Jack: We’re fresh out of the studio actually, with Alex Loring on production duties again. He’s always able to come up with a sound or texture we’d never have thought of, and in the studio that can be just what’s needed.
Joe: We have two more songs planned for release later this year. They’re pretty different sonically, both to each other and to pretty much everything we’ve done before, which was a conscious decision.
Jack: I’m sure there are tropes that we use every time without noticing, but to us there’s a lot of new territory. Influences within the band are so broad, it takes some control not to be doing everything at once, but I think we’ve struck a good balance.
You’re also doing a launch show for ‘House On The Sand’? Any other shows planned?
Jack: Yep, we’re back in one of our favourite venues to celebrate House On The Sand making its way in the world. The Dev is one of my favourite corners of London.
Joe: We’re also booked for a Camden Rocks Presents show in March, which has got a pretty killer line-up. Well worth a trip to Holloway Road.
What can we expect from your live show?
Jack: I’d say it’s a no-frills all-about-the-music type performance, but maybe we just can’t afford pyro. But certainly we’re not ones for preaching or posturing between songs, so you can rely on us for a performance with good dynamics and momentum.
Joe: We would hope that our live show is as immersive as we try to be on record and in our artwork.
What albums are you most looking forward to listening in 2018?
Joe: In 2018 we will be hopeful for Tool, Heart Of A Coward albums. Also, it would be great if Norma Jean happen to play in the UK as they are big influences on us.
Jack: I reckon we may be about to get the pinnacle of Baroness’ career to far, I’m very excited for that. I’m pretty hopeful for something major from Ghost too, and the Black Peaks follow up – not to mention whatever Behemoth have up their sleeves. Maybe the biggest thing for me though, is the return of Jesse Zaraska to Misery Signals.
What do you outside of performing?
Joe: We’re all fairly creative outside of music, and that gets fed back into the band through merch and other artwork. Some of it just ends up on the instagram feed, but we’ve done numbered editions of lino cuts, and we go pretty hard when it comes to putting together posters for shows. I don’t think we could ever be a band just does a run of Gildan tees every so often.
What’s the long-term plan for ‘Karab?
Jack: It feels like the scene in the UK is in great health right now, so we just want to make sure we contribute what we can to continue that.
Joe: Karab is really starting to grow legs and walk. We want to get out to a broader audience and really go big with the scope and quality of more tracks and the visual delights that go with them.
Is there anything else you would like to say to our readers?
Joe: If you like what you hear, don’t be a stranger. Shout at us on socials, come along to a show and say hi.
Jack: And if you don’t like us, go and see someone you do. Keep venues open, and bands in business.
Thanks Jack and Joe.
Don’t forget readers to check out Mind Noise Network for the release and review of the new video for ‘House on the sand’.
Want to see Karab play with a load of other bands at the Camden Rocks All-Night’er? then check out the event here:
If you message the band and gets tickets off them you will get them for £5! Bargain! You can message them here: