Cold Beat – ” Year Without A Shadow”
Atmospheric synthy post-punk band Cold Beat released their 5th album, War Garden, on September 17, 2021. The new album deals with themes of separation and isolation, apt being that it was written and recorded via Zoom.
Hannah, Kyle, Sean, and Luciano took the time to answer some of our questions about their history, their new album, and their future.
Cold Beat Interview
Who is Cold Beat?
I’m Hannah Lew. I played drum machine, guitar, various synths and sang on this record. We kind of all played everything at moments
Kyle King: I play a bit of everything, primarily guitar and synthesizers, programming the occasional drum machine.
Sean Monaghan: Guitar and keys live. When recording, it’s wide open to whatever the song needs. I got to play pedal steel on this last record which was exciting.
Luciano Talpini Aita: I play lead synths a do back up vocals
How did Cold Beat begin?
Hannah: Actually Cold Beat started back in 2012 when I asked Sean if he’d play on some solo music I’d been working on. It wasn’t called Cold Beat then. Just some musings in another direction from what I had been doing prior. We were friends and had played in a Halloween cover band and I think appreciated each others’ songwriting, but hadn’t yet written music together. I was just sort of recording demos and not sure what I was doing. A few months later I started feeling like I wanted to actually make it a band. I had played some shows with Kyle and he had made a strong impression on me when we were chatting at the merch table. I just remember being like I really like that guy. On New Years Day I was hanging out with Lily from my old band and she was like you should cold call Kyle (who I barely knew), and we should see if he wants to jam on your songs. I think the 3 of us ended up playing that very afternoon. You could say the band was born that day, New Years 2013, but I feel like we became the band we are when Sean and Luciano joined the band several years later. Luciano is someone I had been quietly obsessed with for years. I would just see him and wonder what his deal was for a long time. He was a fellow dark shadow that I knew I wanted to know. We had played a show together once when his other project Cairo Pythian played with us and he was just holding it down so hard on the keys and backing tracks. I was just like I wanna jam with that dude. Somehow after a somewhat idle batch of months when Kyle & I had just been a duo we decided to ask Sean and Luciano to play with us. Instead of folding them in one at a time, we all played together for the first time all at once and it was pure magic.
Sean: I was actually a regular Cold Beat driver for some east coast tours in 2014-2015 I think. And It’s true I played on some early Cold Beat demos while visiting the bay area back in 2012 – and just like every other time I’ve visited since, Hannah was trying to convince me to move back. Maybe one day. I met Kyle in Asheville on tour in 2008, back when people used to think we were twins. Luciano I met at Cold Beat band practice. Now both Lu and I live in LA.
Why did you choose Cold Beat as a name?
Hannah: I named it for the song Cold Beat by The Sound. I think I had just been listening to them a lot at the time and we needed a band name. Haha maybe not the best story. But I do think we grew into the name.
Kyle: Our initial vision of the band was driven towards post-punk, less of the Factory Records dub-and-funk-influenced sort, so a “cold” beat just made sense. Plus, who doesn’t like a bit of borscht?
What are your favorite experiences being in the band?
Hannah: One time all the guys wore maxi pads on stage in solidarity with me when I had my period on tour. That was pretty special.
Sean: Seeing the total solar eclipse in Oregon and camping at the most bizarre bootleg family theme park.
Luciano: Skateboarding at night outside of a hospital after playing riot fest in Chicago.
Who influenced the sound of Cold Beat?
Hannah: Neil Young, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Silver Apples, New Order, Yaz, Air, Depeche Mode, Oppenheimer Analysis, Eurythmics. I don’t know if we sound like anyone. Maybe ‘In The Garden’ by the Eurythmics?
Kyle: Influence-wise, groups like Interior or Jansen/Barbieri who navigated the space between pop and ambient; Sonic Boom/Spectrum/Spacemen 3; YMO and related off-shoots/solo projects, including the Yen Records discography. I probably turn to “Future Days” by Can more than any other record to find inspiration.
Sean: What they said ⬆.
Luciano: The inspiration behind the synth lines I write often comes from video game soundtracks. Particularly NES 8 bit music. My favorite games soundtracks are Castlevania, Legend of Zelda, Bubble Bobble to name a few.
How was War Garden was written?
Hannah: Well we wrote this entire record via zoom/file sharing. One of us will start a project file in Logic or Ableton and send a demo to the band. Then everyone else will record tracks and send them to the main project. Then we’ll zoom and whoever’s in charge of that song will share their screen and we’ll all backseat drive and talk about the stems and move things around, add effects together. We all drove projects at one point or another. So there isn’t one person in that role, which is cool.
Kyle: Being abruptly forced to be stuck inside, I made a fairly solid commitment to make a handful of songs with hardware synths and drum machines, only using the computer to keep time and record. I have a tendency to get lost in the details when it comes to songwriting, so this approach made the creation of three songs that ended up on the album (“Tumescent Decoy,” “Arms Reach,” and “New World”) relatively streamlined. While maddening at times, the process of arranging together over Zoom was revelatory, seeing how we could collaborate so closely while being so far apart.
Sean: Some of the songs start as little hooks, and other ones come almost fully formed. Even if we all don’t play parts on them, we all sign off on the arrangement. An early version of “See You Again” was partially written on Facetime, and then got kind of abandoned. It kinda stuck around in my head for a while, and I was able to develop another lil dubby loop I was working on into what eventually became the final version of the song.
Luciano: We all have distinctive styles of music and influences when we write but we complement each other. I think regardless of which member brings in a demo we all have a strong idea of what the Cold Beat DNA is and that makes the writing process really effective and focused.
What are the lyrics about?
Hannah: Haha. A lot of things. This record mostly dealt with run of the mill pandemic issues: Death, Loneliness, Gardening, Future Delusions, Eco Horror, Grief, Melania Trump’s body double.
Sean: All of the lyrics are about beans.
What song would you consider a hit or your personal favorite?
Hannah: I’ve come to realize over the years that I never know what the hits are. I’m always surprised by which song people think the single should be. I have no idea!
Sean: Hasn’t happened yet. 🙂
Luciano: I think so far Double Sided Mirror. It feels really timeless and emotional.
How has Cold Beat evolved over time?
Hannah: Everyone contributes so much these days. I think we have evolved into a real band, not just my glorified solo project. One thing I value immensely is our groups’ ability and willingness to try new things and try things on in general. I think there’s a general security in ourselves as artists that allows us to experiment and maintain an openness when it comes to sounds and practices.
Kyle: I think when we started, we were coming from a very guitar-oriented, punk-ish place; everything was tightly wound. Record by record, we’ve relaxed, let new influences into the picture. While we still retain some of that wiry feeling, our music breathes significantly more. With Sean and Luciano in the mix, I think we’ve indulged both our poppiest inclinations and our most experimental ideas.
Sean: I haven’t been a functioning member of the band for as long, but we all kind of came from a DIY punk foundation. For whatever reason, I don’t go to punk shows multiple nights a week anymore, and I listen to lots of pop and country music. I think the most enduring influence on my songwriting brain, for better or worse, is ‘90s radio music and whatever indie or punk music I was listening to in high school in the 2000s, so that is ultimately what I bring to the band.
Luciano: Like Kyle said I think I definitely bring in more pop energy to the band. I always wanna turn all songs into a dance track. I always see pop music writing as perfect alchemy, a perfect spell and everything I write is an attempt to conjure that spell.
What inspires each of you to keep playing music?
Kyle: Music has always been of crucial importance to me. While my motivation to create ebbs and flows with the tides of severe depression, I find my way back to it, usually through challenging myself to learn something new. Foremost, playing music provides a connection to some of the most important people in my life. As much more of a collaborator than an artist in my own right, I rely heavily on the relationships with my bandmates.
Hannah: I’m sure I’d be dead by now without a music practice. Like Kyle, I deal with depression (as probably most people are who are paying attention in this sometimes sad world). Music has always been a crucial outlet for me. It’s often been a way to channel darkness. Sort of an attempt to make something beautiful and transcend pain. Our connection is vital. When you come up with an idea and someone sends back an idea based on what you sent it is a form of communication that really shows understanding in post linguistic way. I’m very grateful for this outlet.
Sean: There was a period of a few years where I felt really tapped out of ideas and out of touch with my soul, but I think this project got me back in touch with making music. Having supportive bandmates to dive deeper into uncomfortable places with and finding the art within can be magic at times. It makes life meaningful.
Luciano: I think what inspires me to keep writing is the way I feel when I’m performing. That moment when you close your eyes and stop thinking You become the song and nothing else matters but the music your playing.
How is the music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area?
Kyle: As the only band member currently living in San Francisco, I can honestly say I have no idea. Much of what’s been exciting in the Bay Area in the last several years has been coming out of Oakland. This isn’t to disparage any local bands, the problem is probably more to do with my being a hermit.
Hannah: I live in Richmond, California not too far from SF. There are a bunch of new bands that cropped up in the past few years that seem to have a cool thing going on. Paisley Shirt Records and Tony Jay and stuff. It’s not necessarily anything we’re part of but I’m glad it’s going on. It has been somewhat divorce from a music scene from our onset really. We’ve always been kind of doing our own thing. We are used to play in more post punk type bands and sort of friend rock situations but this project has always been more global and less local in a way.
Sean: SF has a cool scene that’s really into quiet music right now. I think spiritually and physically it might be the only way that underground music can survive in such a brutal and expensive city. It sounds very different to when bay area music was very loud in the 2000s and 2010s, but it still feels connected to that in a way. This is also just my outside perspective, because I don’t live there.
Luciano: San Francisco will always have a big music scene. Its such a beautiful city its hard not to be inspired garage rock, punk, experimental and also an amazing electronic – house – techno scene.
When you aren’t writing for Cold Beat, who are some of your favorite artists to listen to?
Hannah: Michael Rother, Amon Duul II, AC Mariahs, Neil Young, Mamman Sani always in heavy rotation. Really I’m a songs person not a genre person. I’m more likely to listen to grateful dead in the car than some cold wave. I am inspired by songs, not necessarily aesthetics if that makes sense.
What are your plans for the future?
Hannah: Planning to play some shows this fall and winter. We only got to play one show after Mother came out so we are still excited to play songs from that record plus War Garden. Other than that just looking forward to continuing our music practice and getting cozy this winter in the studio.
Sean: I’d like to make more dance music and more ballads, but we will see. -Sean
Luciano: Hopefully travel all over the world.
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