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Columns Friday On My Mind Friday On My Mind: The Continuing Education of KaiserCartel
Columns Friday On My Mind Friday On My Mind: The Continuing Education of KaiserCartel | Friday On My Mind: The Continuing Education of KaiserCartel |
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| Written by Jim Walsh | |
| Friday, July 11, 2008 at 02:26 PM | |
 Courtney Kaiser has been a student and teacher of music for so long that even if she didn’t have a couple degrees and indie-rock street cred going for her, the confidence in her voice when the subject of unrequited artistic dreams comes up is enough to make any would-be singer sit up and listen. Or, croon. “There’s very few tone-deaf people in the world, scientifically speaking,” says Kaiser, one-half of the Brooklyn-based pop-art duo KaiserCartel , who perform tonight (9 p.m. at Macy’s Day Of Music) and Sunday (3 p.m, 7 p.m., and 10 p.m. at the Bryant Lake Bowl). “That’s how adults always describe it when they say they can’t sing. But if you ask, there’s always a story that happened at some point from early childhood or in school where they were in a choir or in some sort of performance, and the teacher was like, `You should sing a lot quieter.’ Or hush them. Or told them to lip-synch. “I think singing is a lot of a psychological thing. You have people who think they can’t sing high. But if you get them standing on a table and you pull on their arms, and they’re trying to resist you, and you get them to sing higher and higher as you’re trying to pull them off the table, people always sing way higher than they think they can.” “Torture,” deadpans Kaiser’s partner Benjamin Cartel, “can be a very effective tool when it comes to singing.” That sort of mutual understanding is part of what drew Kaiser and Cartel to each other when they met in 2004. Cartel is also a music teacher, and one of his gifts is an innate sensitivity towards many of the students he works with in New York. “One of the things that brings me to education and working on that was that I had a tough time in school,” says Cartel. “I was completely traumatized by the pace I was learning at, which I thought was different than other people. And it was, and I had to go to the learning specialist and stuff like this. “And I think a big motivator for me to want to teach people is because I had such a tough time, and I want to help people and make it easier for people. It really made me want to look at that part of my life and, in a way, go back there and go, `OK, let’s do this again. Now I’m an adult.’” It’s no secret that the most accomplished artists view their lives as works of art, and don’t differentiate between their 9-5 “real” lives and their artistic sides, the one which expresses that most primal part of a person. Kaiser and Cartel work as teachers, artists, musicians, and lovers, and it all comes through on their stunning new CD March Forth, which hit stores this week. The recordings are minimal, built around the duo’s lived-in harmonies and well-crafted songs.  KaiserCartel at Third Ear Studios - Photo by Tony Nelson But beyond the romantic aspect to their lollygagging love trip is a curiosity that springs from their minds and hearts—as both individuals and as a couple. It is the sort of rare wide-eyed wonder that inspires them to make music, tour, meet people, and have experiences. To be sure, these are not your garden-variety rock stars who come to a town and can’t be bothered with the local lore. Rather, they are inquisitive by nature and, as a result, passionate about most things that enter their airspace. “We met through a friend of a friend and we traded CDs and kept in touch and formed a friendship,” says Cartel. “We talked about going on the road together and promoting our own solo efforts. And something about Courtney that was really attractive to me was that I thought she was really cool and I wanted to keep hanging out with her. So we kept up making excuses to do that.” Kaiser: “When I lived in [Bloomington] Indiana, before I moved to New York, I helped [Cartel] set up a bunch of shows and I helped drive him around and introduced him to all the local musicians in Indianapolis and Bloomington. And he was so enamored with how supportive the music scene was in the Midwest, and how all these bands were friends, and nobody was ever really a headliner even though maybe one person had more of a following than another. It was just this real scene support that he had never really felt in New York before, so he was just amazed by this. “When I moved to New York, he was really excited about putting together shows like that – where the bands all came together and put money in for the fliers, and give out free CDs to the first 20 people, and really make it like a night feel as it was in Indiana.” It worked, but only to a degree. In the end, the two left their bands and forged their own community by playing and touring together as KaiserCartel. They can be found all over the web, but their truest representation is in the flesh, on the road, dropping into a community and melding their music with whatever organic moment presents itself. They are, in other words, tactile in a time of technology: You can reach out and touch KaiserCartel, and vice-versa. “We both grew up with that,” says Kaiser, who booked bands in Indiana for years. “We both had friends and were in bands who, starting at the age of 16, that’s what you did: You got in somebody’s car and drove to Wisconsin and played a show in Madison and then you drove home. That was the only way of getting the music out there.” Cartel: “We’d go see all-ages shows and see bands from California and all over and we’d think, `That’s cool; I want to do that.’” As such, in addition to their CD release shows this weekend, KaiserCartel will perform a kid’s show (3 p.m.) at the Bryant Lake Bowl on Sunday—because they know how music can heal, and how much it can mean to someone who’s just starting out on the journey of inner expression. “Much of our outlook on life is formed in those really early years,” says Cartel. “And when I see someone who reminds me of myself, who was distracted by everybody else around him and then when everybody left, that’s when he’d get down and do his drawing … I totally want to go over with that kid and get down with him or her and let them know, `Y’know, it’s gonna be OK. Take your time. Make that drawing be the way you want it to be.’” COMING UP: KaiserCartel at Bryant-Lake Bowl on Sunday, July 13. Shows at 3 pm (for kids), 7 pm, and 10 pm. $10/$5 for kids at the early show. |
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| Last Updated: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 09:28 AM |
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