Lane, a newly formed Boston supergroup that features Wes Kaplan (ex-craters), Sundog, and many other hard working Boston musicians bringing you their art for your pleasure. Come out to Brookline Teen Center to see this newly formed spectacle.
Boston Hassle: Tell us about Lane — How did the group come about? Where did you get the name?
Wes Kaplan: Lane is the outgrowth of my old bedroom project The Craters. I was really excited about this new material and felt that it should be disassociated with the older shit, which now feels like juvenilia. What’s in a name? You know it when you feel it.
BH: What makes you excited about working with all the other bandmates?
WK: I still can’t believe these dudes wanna play with me, extensive as their pedigrees are (Palehound, Guerilla Toss, Sundog and on and on). It’s extremely rare to find a band who’s down to just learn the parts and fully commit to the material. Keeps me honest too, like I gotta play well enough to be worthy of the time they’re putting into it.
BH: Are there any differences between this project and your last few?
WK: Some folks have said Lane feels like a fusion of Channels and Craters which is interesting, because the music is so personal and is very much an outgrowth of the kind of song writing I was doing as The Craters. It’s all my parts, so there’s no collaborative element like we had in The Channels. It could be the darkness and dissonance that evokes Channels for some people, but that’s funny to me because Lane is so tonal; if anything Lane is a statement about tonality.
In so far as it differs from The Craters, I feel that Lane takes a lot more risks compositionally; the forms are generally assymetrical and the modes are very ambiguous and unstable. Something else I didn’t really think about till after I finished writing the tunes, is that there’s definitely a disregard for motivic cohesion—most sections within songs are only related to each other by tempo, so there’s kind of an intuition (or alchemy) you have to get into to follow the song forms.
BH: What can folks expect from your upcoming performance at Brookline Teen Center?
WK: Our goal is to perform the songs as faithfully to the recorded versions as possible. It’s kind of like chamber music for two guitars bass and drums, not much room for interpretation, just a straight forward presentation of the tunes. We just wanna play tight man.
BH: What’s up next for Lane?
WK: An album is in the works. Very exciting. Excellent performances from Jesse Weissman on drums and Ian Kovac on bass. Lots of experimentation with guitar tones. Unclear how it’s going to be released. We are open to any potential offers from major labels or soft drink brands.
Feature Photo taken from The Craters band-camp.
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Chris Hues is a human & writer from Boston, Ma & music editor of bostonhassle.com. //// They can be reached at [email protected] or @crsjh_ via instagram & twitter.
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