Brooklyn’s A Big Yes and a small no will release its second-LP, Mise En Abyme on April 20 via Royal Potato Family. Mise En Abyme is available for pre-order HERE.
After surviving a kidnapping in Columbia in 1997, seven muggings (one of which required facial reconstruction surgery) and a protracted WAR with heroin (“battle sounds too easy”, he says), all while studying composition at the prestigious University of Bristol in the U.K., A Big Yes principal Kevin Kendrick has thought a lot about existence.
“One of the beautiful things about playing music is the gentle reminder of your own mortality that comes with creating something out of nothing, and knowing that the moment you stop playing, it will cease to exist,” says Kendrick. “A record is so-called because it is, literally, a record of that moment; so it doesn’t cease to exist.” Meaning ‘Placed into Abyss’, Mise En Abyme (pronounced “Mees On A-Beem”) is existential in nature but self-assessing in its creation.
“When I first got back from Colombia, after being tied up in the jungle by a psycho named Jesus, everything was just roses. But honeymoons always end. The same thing happened after I finally beat heroin. I was in New York, clean, starting a band, and having the time of my life. You can hear that on the early Big Yes records. They’re so manic! This is the album where I learn that there’s actually so much to appreciate about being alive beyond just appreciating being alive.”
And all of that and more is on Mise En Abyme. “I’m Gonna Die One Time” is a haunting confessional about a heroin relapse and the hit he took spiritually as a result of it. “I just need someone to atone with / These thoughts here are a lot to be alone with / It’s a short ride, to a fast either/or…then I’ll die one time and I ain’t gonna die no more.”
“I made a lot of casual references to my addiction on Jesus That Looks Terrible On You (the band’s debut, praised by The Village Voice, Relix, AM NY and PopMatters) with a little wink and a nod, like it was no big deal. This song was the first time I admitted it WAS a big deal,” Kevin confesses. “After working so hard to get clean, slipping up was devastating to me emotionally.”
“Stranger Things”, a raucous tune roughed up perfectly by legendary drummer Joe Russo (who has played in the band since 2008), reminds us why Blurt said of A Big Yes and a small no, “like great pop music from Burt Bacharach or Brian Wilson, the virtuosity is hidden and designed to seem effortless.” But unlike the earlier songs where cleverness and tongue-in-cheek lyrics were used as a way of keeping the listener at arms length, here the lyrics are more personal. “A walk with Jesus that wasn’t by choice / and so much dope it was killing my voice / some cries for help don’t even make noise /when the basement floods and the attic fills with toys.”
And just as on the first two albums, references abound. The beautiful and dreamy title track, “Mise En Abyme”, makes reference to Jean-Paul Sartre (who coined the term “mise en abyme) and the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story “A Diamond as Big as The Ritz”.
It’s no surprise that someone with as varied a background as Kevin Kendrick would make records as multi-faceted as A Big Yes and a small no does, but Mise En Abyme is the newest and best example. “Amazing Grace” is a creepy, minor arrangement that really forces the listener to look at the traditional lyrics in a new light. Right after the raucous indie-pop-punk fun of “We Talk Too Much” (think early Jawbreaker) is “Photo Finish”, a bonafide big band tune complete with vibraphone (Kevin’s primary instrument), a barn-burning piano solo courtesy of bandmate Erik Deutsch, and a big horn section. It might sound like a Sinatra tune if not for lyrics like, “cleanliness is next to godliness…so wash, rinse, and REPENT!” Also of note, the album features drummer Joe Russo (who has played in the band since 2008), who uses his polyrhythmic magic throughout the album’s song cycle.
“The same way a record documents a musical moment, I feel an artist’s body of work is a record of his or her moment on Earth. I have always said I would rather have a few records I am very proud of then lots of records I’m not that attached to.” Kevin means what he says. After all, he put it on the record.
Glide is proud to premiere Mise En Abyme in its entirety below. An album four years in the making, Mise En Abyme encompasses songwriting exhibitionism at its finest, a diverse palette of music’s golden eras intertwined with top-shelf musicianship. Kevin Kendrick has earned his name as one of the country’s most under the radar/underrated singer-songwriters and Mise En Abyme might very well be his Odelay type breakthrough. Glide also had the chance to talk to Kendrick in detail about the album and his past and present…
Congratulations on the upcoming release of the new A BIG YES and a small now album Mise En Abyme. Creatively do you feel this is your most fruitful recording yet?
Oh my GOD yes. From the start, I always wanted this band to have a lot of different vibes (rimshot), because I knew the guys are so skilled at playing different styles and people have become more accustomed to genre-hopping thanks to the advent of “shuffle” in iTunes. Timmy (Alexander) of IMA ROBOT (Alex Ebert’s band before Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) was a friend of Brett Joseph, who we all played with in Fat Mama years ago. Timmy gave us IMA ROBOT’S first demo EP and it blew me away. I remember he said, “I mean, it’s pop music….but it’s DOPE”. That ethos is what I wanted to do with this band, and what I was really struck by was that it WAS pop music, it WAS dope, and every track had a totally different style. That really inspired us, and I think this newest album stretches the furthest yet.
What songs on Mise En Abyme do you feel are you boldest musical statements yet?
That’s a good question! I would say the four boldest songs on this album are “Amazing Grace”, “Photo Finish”, “Enough is Enough”, the title track “Mise En Abyme”. I love how the minor key arrangement of “Amazing Grace” casts the traditional lyrics in a totally different light; such a haunting one. Almost as if the original version is trying to sugar-coat death, and this version tells it to you straight! For”Photo Finish”, I wanted to do a big band, Rat Pack kind of thing, with Jonti on upright bass (I’m lucky to have a bass player who is an amazing upright player), Erik on grand piano, and a horn section doing a true “shout chorus”. But I wanted it to somehow still be modern lyrically and emotionally. I really love that tune! Now “Enough is Enough” is the opposite side of the musical spectrum, and really embraces my other great love, hip-hop. For that I wanted to create a 4 bar drum break that I could hear Nas or Biggie spit rhymes on, but then give it a longer phrase through the bass line and chords, and try to write lyrics that have the cadence and feel of good hip-hop or RnB, even if I was still singing; like The Weeknd or Major Lazer do, whom I both love. BUT without it sounding like we were just doing that thing where singer-songwriters cover hip-hop tunes. It’s VERY different from older Big Yes stuff. For “Mise En Abyme” I wanted to mix acoustic guitar with dropped C#-tuned (think Alice in Chains if you don’t know what that means) overdriven guitars. I love the sound of electric guitar when it’s tuned down, but you usually only hear it in grunge or metal. I think the mix of psychedelia, acoustic guitar with Donovan-esque verses, and then blasting dropped-tuned guitars under a falsetto chorus is hard to even name, genre-wise. And, I mean, that song doesn’t hit the first chorus for over three minutes! That’s pretty crazy in today’s “don’t bore us, get to the chorus” songwriting culture.
What was the collaborative process of the album amongst your bandmates and how long (or short) did the album take to write and record?
I generally write all the tunes by myself, and then demo like half of them. The ones I demo we see if they work doing them close to the demo, and if things don’t work the guys always (gently) help me tinker with it to make it better. For the ones I don’t demo, we arrange them on the spot. Joe and Erik are generally very outspoken about arrangement ideas, and both have great ears and great ideas for giving the tunes I write a lot more dimension and shape. I don’t give a lot of instructions about how I want things played and their interpretations alone go a long way towards defining the sound of a tune. Jon tends to not speak out as much about arrangement ideas, but we all know that when he does, it’s always gold. It was his idea to do the ambient guitar over the intro to “Don’t Pull It Out” and now I couldn’t live without it! The “E” pedal before the last chorus on “Kool and the Gang is Right” on the second album, Too Little, Too Late (2011) was his idea, and every time we get there I think, “Jon made such a good call here.”
The album took me quite a while to write. My process is very deliberative and revision heavy, especially when it comes to lyrics. There are SO many songs released every day. I feel that if you AREN’T working that hard trying to write fresh, thoughtful, and smart lyrics, you either must either think you are the greatest lyricist who ever lived, or for some reason don’t care if your lyrics are good or not. I’m always looking for a beautiful new turn of phrase or way to say something; a new angle for communicating a story or feeling the way a novelist or scriptwriter would. I secretly think a lot of songwriters aren’t trying hard enough when it comes to lyrics.
So I spent about three years writing those songs. We went in as a band and did like three days banging out the basics as fast as we could. Then I did the vibes, vocals, and acoustic guitar at my place over the course of a year, and Jon spent a good six months doing all the electric guitar stuff at home. He prefers to work alone, and for doing vocals and vibes I do as well. Reed Black and Vinegar Hill Sound and I mixed it in 12-13 days over a couple of months, and then mastering was another 2-3 months with all the revisions I did! I am a perfectionist, so all told it took me about four years to make the album.
I was impressed with how effortlessly you merged various soundscapes together (from Doo-Wops to guitar rock) that all seem to incorporate a nod to certain golden eras of music’s past. How do you manage to be so diverse yet so together on your compositional style?
I think my secret is, I’ll start writing some lyrics and THEN go, “oh, you know what? This sentiment and mood would be best expressed with “X” style or genre”. I let what I’m trying to convey emotionally and lyrically inspire what KIND of song it is. I think that makes it more authentic and seamless. Like when I wrote the lyrics, “A moment stolen, for a frame on the wall/ Two kids I barely recognize at all/ even in my court, it’s still your ball/ too close to calI”, I pictured sitting on a bed looking at pictures of someone you just broke up with whom you want to call, but you can’t because it’s too soon, and I could just hear a minor blues swing tune playing in the background. Then I realized that “Stolen Moments” is a great minor blues by Oliver Nelson so the first line would be a killer reference if the tune was ACTUALLY a minor blues! I think that kind of process is the secret to having a lot of range without it feeling forced. The “she-bop she-bop” part of “Mise En Abyme” made sense to me even though it’s not a doo-wop song because that part of The Flamingos “I Only Have Eyes For You” always gives me this particular feeling that’s wholly separate from the song, and it was the feeling I wanted at that moment in “Mise En Abyme”, so I just try to match up feelings more than genres.
Did you have a mentor or primary influence that helped establish you as a singer-songwriter?
Leonard Cohen for SURE and Jason Spaceman from Spiritualized. Leonard Cohen’s post-modern style and use of repetition and references is my handbook for lyricism. I mean, “it goes like this, the IVth the Vth, the minor fall, with the major lift”? Talking about the roman numeral function of the chords WHILE you’re playing them? I love it. So post-modern. In “Looking Over my Shoulder” on our first album I did that when I said, “I know you’ve heard this one before, lord I know you love the IV chord” while I was playing the IV chord, because the IV chord is the “Amen” cadence at the end of Hymns. Get it? Lord, I know you love the IV chord?!?! (wait for applause) Jason Spaceman from Spiritualized inspired me because he said that he has to sing a song 100 times before he can BEGIN to sing it in tune. That’s what made me finally decide I could sing my own stuff in my 20s after years of being a sideman.
As a creative person, you’ve gone through more hardships than most creatives that have lived a life of avoiding the easy road. What do you take from your experiences that you’ve been able to incorporate into your music? Would you have it no other way of the life you lived or would you do things over?
I don’t regret any of things I did to myself, but I regret some of the things I did to other people like my parents and friends when I was a junkie, and even some of the things I did just because I was selfish and depressed. But in terms of my life overall, I wouldn’t have it any other way. If I had it to do all over again, I’d do it all over again. I’m going to put that in a song! DIBS! I’m proud of my body of work. I’m not just in it for the money (wait for laughter), and maybe if I hadn’t gotten kidnapped in Colombia, almost gone to prison for a long time for a crime I didn’t commit, or not been a junkie and realized that ANYONE is capable of ANYTHING if they are desperate enough, I wouldn’t have written the songs I wrote or played with the people I have played with. I hold both very near, and very dear.
The album cover for Mise En Abyme is a striking illustration that looks familiar but might be entirely original. How did you come up with that for the cover, while the inside is reminiscent of the Rolling Stone’s Some Girls inside fold
Ha! You’re right! Well, the couple kissing was taken from a True Romance comic from 1953 that is now public domain. The back is taken from a different issue of the same comic. I have tried to verify who the actual artists were, but sadly the documentation for that stuff is almost non-existent. It’s sad how many immensely talented artists worked in comics and cartoons whose work is now public domain and their names aren’t even on it, so they don’t even get the recognition. I’m still researching on forums. I will find out eventually and make it known. I will even reach out to living family if I can find them. Greg Del Deo at Royal Potato Family did the layout and really turned what was originally just going to be a comic book cover into an awesome, unique set of album art. I wanted to shout him out. He was super patient with me shooting things down and trying new things and I’ve gotten a great response about the art, so I’m glad I can mention him. The album looks great.
A BIG YES and a small no, undoubtedly have one of the most interesting band names ever. You don’t have to reveal all your secrets but how did this band name come to fruition.
Well, it’s funny. During George W. Bush’s time in the White House, with the Patriot Act and everything going on, it felt like fascism was creeping into America. I LOVE the German expressionist painter, George Grosz. He was Jewish and fled Germany in the lead up to the war. His autobiography was called (translated) A Small Yes and a Big No. He said it was a description of how fascism takes root. There are problems that need fixing, people fix those but THEN create worse problems, so the public’s response is a small yes, but a big no. I felt during George W. Bush that after he actually GOT elected the second time, apparently OUR attitude was, unfortunately, A Big Yes and a small no, as the progressive thought had lost. During the Obama-era the band name lost some of its relevance, but lo and behold, it’s more relevant than ever! Now legitimate, retro, by-the-book, vintage, fascism is in the White House. I’ve started writing blatantly political stuff for the first time. It’s so hard to well without being too on the nose. I am learning! In a way, it’s like learning to write songs all over again. It’s a very different thing than writing about life and love.
Joe Russo’s stature has grown tenfold since you started the band, mainly due to his work with Grateful Dead related outfits Furthur and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. Do you feel you get a lot of curious fans of his coming onto a BIG YES and a small no?
“Curious fans” haha! No, but I WOULD say there are a lot of really awesome and passionate fans who discover us because of him! I’ve met some really cool and nice people (shout out to Pauly Gengo), who show up even in a blizzard, tape, post videos, and be psyched to be there. They are really great fans. I am always surprised by how nice and passionate fans on that scene are.
Erik Deutsch has a following of his own and an established resume, what does he bring to the band in terms of musical ideas?
Yeah, ALL these guys do! Erik is a beast. It was such a joy to cut him loose on “Photo Finish” on the grand piano. Listen to that solo! It’s a barn burner! Listen to those voicings when he’s comping! He’s so tasty! Listen to the Fender Rhodes through the Leslie on “I’m Gonna Die One Time”. Awesome! And those electric organ tones on “Don’t Pull it Out” and “Stranger Things”! I love it. And it can be hard to follow a rock guitar solo on a piano in a live situation, and Erik is one of the only guys I know who can do it. Listening to him, Jonathan, and Jonti playing extended baroque-style lines on the intro on “Composure” when we play live will be one of the things I think about while I’m dying, a la American Beauty. And I HAD a ’67 Firebird 400! Everybody in this band is so ripping. Jon played in (NYC downtown drum legend) Jim Black’s band for John Zorn’s Bagatelles performance, and ZORN was losing his shit over Jon’s playing! Those four guys, Jon, Erik, Jonti, and Joe, sound so amazing together because we’ve been playing together since we were like 21. Live, I love to just duck down, sip whiskey, and watch them rip.
A Big Yes and a small no Tour Dates
Apr 17 – Bridgeport, CT @ The Acoustic
Apr 18 – New York, NY @ Berlin
Apr 20 – Stanhope, NJ @ The Stanhope House
May 03 – Teaneck, NJ @ Debonair Music Hall
May 04 – New Hope, PA @ John and Peter’s
