Have you ever known the pleasure of a good tip? You know that warm glow that you get when you realise that someone steered you right? It might be a hot tip on a “sure thing” at 20 to 1, or big money for good service; it could even be just good advice from a friend. Well, I got a tip from a regular reader of Band Of The Week asking me if we take requests — we do if someone likes the band enough to cover it — and he suggested I check out an L.A./Montana-based band called Korben. And so I did.
What I heard I loved, and upon getting to know this fabulous duo I’m totally blown away. Intelligent, witty, and perversely talented, these Billings, Montana natives aren’t typical midwesterners, musically or personally. Chad and Erin started singing and playing together at their local church, drawing criticism for changing the church songs, just a little bit, to make them more interesting. After high school Chad found the lack of a rock music scene in Billings a bit… let's say limiting, and so began to tour out of state, eventually touring with a hip-hop group from Dallas. Chad made plenty of contacts but in the end returned to Billings to continue his education. Then Chad and Erin hooked up again while attending the same small college and decided to record an EP. When he sent that EP to his contact in L.A., it was so well-received that Chad and Erin decided to collect what few possessions they owned and move, lock, stock and barrel to Los Angeles to chase the music dream.
Once in L.A. they signed with indie label 3D People Records and now Korben have released their debut full length LP Steady Fools. Korben’s sound is what you would expect if the Cranberries had married the Foo Fighters and had children. Chad’s guitar-heavy rock riffs coupled with Erin’s smooth, Sarah Mclachlanesque, folk-chick-singing-rock vocals — with a hint of an Irish lilt — combine to create a uniquely familiar sound that is both energising and comfortable. Korben’s angst-ridden, angry, frequently ironically poignant lyrics are a big contributor to that “something special” that Korben have in overflowing abundance.
Recently I was lucky enough to sit down for a chat, over a bowl of cookie dough, with Chad and Erin. They talked about the early days, ghost-hunting, and Chad’s dream to own a pet sheep named Thunder. And I invited them to move into my basement when they decide to come to Scotland and make a go of it here. I think they would make the perfect band-that-lives-in-my-basement, and I think I have enough room for Thunder.
Tell me how Korben became Korben. And where did you get the name Korben? What does it mean?
Chad: Korben, the meaning is only known by me and Erin. It’s kind of this thing… it has a meaning that is important to us.
Erin: We never told anyone else.
Chad: We never told anyone and then what happened was, as people wanted to know more about it, we came to the conclusion that if we actually told them the answer it… It’s really kind of lame.
Erin: (laughing) It’s not worth saying.
Chad: It wasn’t worth saying so we’re going to keep it a secret until the day that we feel like we are comfortable to say it.
Erin: There’s nothing even really that extravagant about it, that’s the thing.
Chad: It’s a very… it has to do with a semi… well not a traumatic experience that we both went through with a lot of people. It was something to do with that.
How traumatic are we talking here?
Erin: We’re talking… How would you describe it? (laughing)
Chad: More like… we were kicked out of our town. People that we trusted stabbed us in the back.
Erin: It is stuff that we went through together, and the name came out of that.
So how did you start playing together?
Chad: The first time we started playing together was… oh man, how old were we?
Erin: Probably 15 and 17 maybe.
Chad: Our parents took us to this little church in our town.
Erin: That’s where we met actually.
Chad: That’s where we met, and we were the only ones that — there were only a handful of people – did music. So we ended up playing together in the church. And we got made fun of by adults because we took their songs and rearranged them a little bit.
Why did they make fun of you for that?
Erin: People weren’t comfortable with the idea of changing the songs a little bit, trying to make them more modern or just mess with the tempo or something.
What kinds of songs were these?
Erin: Mostly hymns. (laughs) We just kinda tried to make it more lively or give it some more kick, you know. That’s where we began.
Chad: There were a couple times where they just kind of, threw us out, of the church.
Erin: Yeah a couple times. Sundays we had music and aside from that, I think that, for me at least, that was my main musical outlet at the time. I think for Chad too. We both wanted to do music down the road but we just had nowhere to go.
So then you got kicked out of your town?
Chad: Yep.
Is this a tarred and feathered kind of a happening?
Chad: It was more of a… people weren’t necessarily attacking us but they were all doing it with each other behind our backs. Talking about us.
A whispering campaign!
Erin: Yes! (laughs)
Chad: A lot of scandal. And at this point we had finally figured out that we needed to sing somewhere else, besides this little church. We wanted to take it in a completely creative direction. So when we moved to Los Angeles that is when we officially started playing as Korben.
Erin: And we should mention that the church and the situation that we felt stabbed in the back by was NOT the original church were we met and started playing. It was actually another church. Which is kind of a side note.
Chad: Some of the songs on the CD are taken from that time.
What songs are we talking about?
Chad: “It’s Over” that’s a good one, which is kind of like, where you get to the point where you are so sick of everyone bothering you about something. Just about issues in general. And it’s says whatever you label me as or what you say behind my back I really don’t care anymore I’m over it.
Erin: Possibly “Always My Fault” is too, don’t you think Chad?
Chad: Yeah, that too. When someone hurts you and then your immediate reaction is to retaliate and hurt them. When in all actuality, we’re all capable of being stupid. We can all do something dumb like that. In some of the songs it’s kind of like an angry lash but at the same time, recognising that you’re also capable of doing it yourself.
But you’re over it now?
Both: Yeah.
Chad: There’s not enough time to sit around and let it fester on.
You told me that your fans are very important to you. Tell me about that.
Erin: Very important. Professionally I think that relationship… I think what do you have if you don’t have that, you know?
Chad: We live in a time now where, it seems like you have five mega pop and rock acts out there, and then you have all these other bands that are just you know trying to make it. They just want people to hear them and what they are making. And we’re not doing it for fame and glory, where not into that. So we are doing it for people to listen to. So we like to keep our relationship with our fans close because that’s who we are making the music for.
You just want to buy them all a Coke. You just reminded me of that song.
(Both laugh)
Erin: That’s right!
Chad: Maybe we should cover that on our next album! (laughing)
But that’s the idea right?
Chad: Yeah. In the past, after a show we have been known to go out with our fans and hang out with them. I don’t where the separation came from, where after a concert the fan was lucky to get you to briefly sign his shirt.
Erin: Obviously if there are 50 million people we aren’t all going to fit in a bar but…
Chad: We’ll make an effort. There are a lot of bands that don’t. There are a lot out there that do, but a lot of them just want you to buy the album. That’s all they care about.
So what do you ultimately want for Korben if not fame and glory?
Chad: My goal is to be heard by the largest audience without us compromising anything. I would like to avoid major labels unless they are going to come to use with an actual, you-keep-your-freedom kind of a contract. (laughs)
Erin: Which is pretty doubtful.
Chad: Basically we just want to be able to play and be heard by as many people as possible. And to show people that you don’t have to select from just five artists out there, there are a lot of people who can be creative.
You can listen to a few tracks from Korben’s debut LP Steady Fools at their MySpace page. You can purchase Steady Fools from CDBaby, Korben’s own music store and, of course, from iTunes. For more information about Korben, or just to get to know them, you can visit their website and drop them an email, they would love to hear from you.
Below is the new video for Korben’s single “Super Selfish”:
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