The New Year is the ongoing project founded by brothers Matt and Bubba Kadane. The group was formed in 1999 out of the ashes of the brothers’ previous group Bedhead. Enlisting Chris Brokaw, Peter Schmidt and Mike Donofrio, the group released their debut on Touch and Go records in 2001. The album, entitled 'Newness Ends', showcased a louder sound than the brothers had previously utilised, but retained the intricately weaved melodies and enigmatic style for which Bedhead had been critically lauded. Last year they released their second record ('The End is Near', Touch & Go). Again enlisting the engineering skills of Steve Albini, this set of songs, was a complex work, that in some ways returned to the more sedate tones that the brothers had precisely utilised. I caught the group at The Water Rats in Kings Cross at the end of last year. Live the group manage to retain the fragile sense of melody that pervades their records despite having 4 guitars on stage. Rolling through songs off of their two albums, it is one of the few shows where an audience were shouting for just about every instrument to be turned up in the mix. Like their records the New Year do not seek to shock or instantly grab attention. However, given a chance the craftsmanship of the Kadane brothers’ songs and the carefully layered instrumentation shows that they are a band whose songs are enhanced with repeated listening. The following interview took place via email at the end of last year.

How was the recent European tour?

Bubba: Great, actually. The Tanned Tin Festival in Santander, Spain was very nice. Matt and I really enjoyed the week of shows that we did in France, Germany, and Belgium as well. Touring by train was surprisingly hassle-free and I would definitely do it again. Attendance exceeded our expectations and all of the shows were great to play, each in a unique way.

What differences do you notice when touring outside the US?

Bubba: Accommodations are included as part of the hospitality without fail. That's rarely the case in the US.

When you are on tour what do you miss most back home?

Bubba: Home

How difficult is it to remain active as a group with members spread over the country?

Bubba: We would probably play more shows if we all lived in the same city, but I think that they would be isolated to the general area where we all lived. We would still have seven people to take on the road, each who have a lot of responsibilities at home, so it would still have its difficulties.

What keeps you motivated to carry on being in a band?

Bubba: The same things that motivate anyone to continue to pursue any interest/career/hobby/etc. If it's something that you love doing, you'll keep doing
it.

Do you feel a sense of camaraderie with other bands operating out of Texas at the moment?

Bubba: Not really. I did in the early 90s, but not any more.

How has Texas and its music scene changed since Bedhead started in the early 90's?

Bubba: For me it is the difference between having been involved more in it then and not at all now, so I couldn't really give you anything but a very prejudiced answer. I'm sure that only the names have changed.

Do you get tired of talking about Bedhead in interviews? (I know that I am already guilty of this so if the answer is yes, feel free to disregard the questions with the words 'head' and 'bed' in them)

Bubba: I don't get tired of talking about Bedhead necessarily, but I get tired of talking about the same things from the past over and over again, especially when I feel like they been covered in quite a few other interviews.

How did the group come together, apart from Matt and Bubba being brothers and in Bedhead together?

Matt: We were all friends.

You have said that first New Year record would have been the fourth Bedhead album had the band continued, how did working on the material with a new band change your initial idea of how the songs would turn out?

Bubba: Saying that "'Newness Ends' would have been the fourth Bedhead record," which we often said in interviews, was really a way of saying that not much had changed, so your question essentially answers itself.

It is very much a true statement, especially since some of the songs on "Newness Ends" were played by Bedhead on the last tour in 1998 and Matt and I continued to construct songs outside of any band dynamic, but in retrospect I now see it as a unconsciously self-protective mechanism as well. We wanted people (Bedhead fans) to know that if they didn't like "Newness Ends" they wouldn't have liked the fourth Bedhead record.

Do you think that 'The End is Near' returned to a sound more reminiscent of Bedhead (this is the last time, promise) and if so was that a conscious decision?

Bubba: I don't think so on the whole, but you could certainly pick out moments here and there and say "that sounds like Bedhead," but it's the same two guys who have written and arranged every one of those songs. It's impossible for us to not sound like ourselves.

How did you feel about the Elliot Smith comparisons that the last record received in some reviews?

Bubba: You mean how did we feel about Pitchfork making an Elliott Smith comparison and having hacks from other zines plagiarize Pitchfork instead of thinking for themselves? I'll let Matt take that one...

Matt: I've never listened to Elliot Smith, so I couldn't assess whether or not the comparison was, by chance, accurate. But the guy's assumption that one song on the new record was actually a tribute to Smith did really piss me off. I would actually rather forget about in the hope that one misguided comment in a review doesn't take on a life of its own.

'Stranger to Kindness' is just about one of the saddest songs I heard all year, what's the story behind it?

Matt: Its source of inspiration was a conversation with a friend who was frustrated by her job and angry at the people she worked with.

How does the song writing process work within the group?

Bubba: Matt and I write the songs. As with Bedhead, all of the parts are worked out in advance and we give them to each band member to learn. There are kinks to work out when we get together to play them and everyone puts a little of themselves into the
performance, but everything is pretty well worked out in advance of the band even hearing the songs.

How does the sound remain so sparse at times with three guitar players? Do people have to sacrifice ego or does each member have very specific ideas of what their role is?

Bubba: We are lucky to have a fairly ego-less band, but there is a certain discipline that Matt and I have practiced since '91 in relation to restraint, as well as playing for the good of the whole, that continues to be a part of how we work.

Musically how do other pursuits by band members affect their work within The New Year?

Matt: If we didn't have other jobs then we would play more and probably make more records.

What are the major influences on The New Year's sound?

Bubba: I honestly have no idea.

How was the writing process altered when scoring music for Hell House?

Matt: For Hell House we used snippets of music instead of fully formed songs, so I guess the song writing process for the movie was much quicker.

What is the significance of the End for the last record considering the emphasis on the New for the first?

Matt: I can't think of anything else to say about this beyond the meaning we tried to invest in the records.

Below are four quotes about The New Year, what are your thoughts on them?

a. 'The Kadane Brothers make music for listeners who have the luxury of taking music seriously' (Boston Phoenix)

b. 'Though no one's going to mistake the New Year for the Donnas, someone involved here has connected with their inner Angus Young.' (Pitchfork review of 'Newness Ends')

c. ' The Kadane brothers' songs are not about superlative musicianship; indeed, their songs are rewarding precisely because there is nothing at all showy about them. ' (Dusted Magazine 'End is Near' review)

d. 'The New Year evidently have no real concern in radio play or hit records.' (robotfist.com)

Matt: a. is fine, but does taking music seriously have to be a luxury? b., like most things in Pitchfork, is ridiculous. The point of the comparison -- that we sound more like AC/DC than the Donna's -- does nothing remotely meaningful to describe Newness Ends. I should also point out what would be clear to any reviewer: we are a band with no female members. Whoever reviewed this record nevertheless uses the gender neutral pronoun "their" to refer to a singular, masculine subject. The lazy writing is reflective of the lazy thought behind the passage. c. is basically fine. I don't know where the author of d. finds the evidence that we don't want radio play or to sell records. We're not desperately trying to write hit songs. But we would be thrilled if we sold enough records to have the option to quit our jobs and play music full-time.

Finally, what are your plans for the future?

Bubba: We are planning to play more shows in 2005 and inch our way toward a new record sometime this century.

The New Year will be playing a few West Coast dates this month with Silkworm
www.brainwashed.com/thenewyear