Interview w/ Mikey Ruth of Kansas Bible Company

Proud to bring you another edition in my ongoing series of interviews with recent Artist Spotlight subjects! Today, we sit down for a chat with Mikey Ruth of Kansas Bible Company. The Midwest based act was featured as an Artist Spotlight a few weeks back, and they have quickly grown on me due to their insatiable style and cutting edge rhythms that can't possible be confined to one genre, and jumps all over the map to get an exquisite musical taste that will whet your appetite almost instantaneously. Mikey was able to clue us all in as to their beginnings, life out on the road, and what inspires them to get up out of bed and play music each and every day. Here is the transcript from that interview:

Give us your names and roles in the band?

James - Trumpet, Vocals

Isaac - Bass Trombone

Mikey - Guitar, Bass

Nathan - Guitar, Bass

Jeff - Guitar

Cazz - Guitar, Vocals, 

Raffael - Keys

Charlie - Trumpet

Luke - Aux. Percussion, Drums

Klink - Drums

Yagu - Alto Saxophone

Jake - Tenor Saxophone

I think that's everyone.

How/where did you guys meet and when did the band form?

We met at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana. This huge version of the band formed in the fall of 2010. Cazz came back from a weird summer in New Mexico and dreamed up an 11-piece band. We practiced every day and moved to Nashville a year later.

Describe the sound of the group to those who may not be familiar with you guys?

Psychedelic, eclectic rock n' roll with a 5-piece horn section. A little bit like Terry Kath-era Chicago, but not much.

When did you first get interested in music and how has it helped shape or enrich your life up until this point?

That's a difficult question to answer as there are so many of us. I will say though that we have all grown up around music whether it be from choirs, school bands, church, or playing in other bands. As of the last few years I don't know if any of us truly believe that music would occupy our lives this seriously. It's pretty incredible to be so consumed and surrounded by music and I think that we all feel that.

Take us behind the recording process of your latest album "Hotel Chicamauga" and what that whole experience was like?

The whole process of making Hotel Chicamauga was an intense, lurid, beautiful experience for all of us. We moved to Nashville together as an 11-piece band into one house that we named the Hotel Chicamauga. The house is huge and was in terrible shape when we found it. We wrote and developed the songs in the house communally, usually after we would all eat together. We then tracked the entire album in the hotel, which provided an interesting feel for us as musicians. The album represents an incredible year of all of our lives that was ripe with hope, struggle, and close community. Being in this band has those elements still, we've just figured out how to deal with them.

How has your onstage presence evolved the years and how has your interaction with fans developed as well?

After extensive touring and playing repeatedly in the same city, I think we've just managed to latch onto what works and what doesn't. A lot of times now, we'll have themed shows where we all where something similar (sweaters, dresses, suits). We've also gotten better at attempting to cater to a given audience. If we're playing to a crowd that we know will interpret dissonance and improvisation, we love to play a set that's heavier on the weird. Other times we'll play weddings and big outdoor things that middle-aged women love. We try to be a chameleon like that. It doesn't always work. The horn section comes up with some pretty sick dance moves too. 

What is your favorite song that you guys have recorded and how does it speak to you personally?

Personally, I would say my favorite is "Jesus the Horse Thief." It's sort of become one of our biggest and best songs to play live and I think that the recording holds up really well. The whole song was written around this triumphant major melody, has no real hook, and then goes into a weird Steve Reich section in 7/8. I think it's maybe the most representative of what we are as a band.

What are some of your musical influences that have helped shape the overall sound of the group?

That is a really complicated question as we all write together. One of our biggest strengths is that we have 12 different sets of influences coming to any given thing that we write. Most of us listen to pretty different stuff. There's never been a moment where all 12 of us (or even like four of us) were like yeah we want the band to sound like so and so. We want people to draw a blank when they compare us to things. The one artist we completely can all agree on is Gorillaz and maybe Frank Ocean now. Others that have influenced us would be Pixies, Frank Zappa, The Beatles, Brian Eno, The Blues Brothers, Bowie, Hank Williams. We also realized much later in the game that probably the closest thing to us is early Chicago. None of us were really into them at all, then we all started getting into Chicago Transit Authority. Now we embrace the comparison. That shit is awesome.

For fun, what do you like to do in your spare time when not out on the road or making music?

Well a lot of us work on other music stuff when we're not too busy with KBC stuff. Some dudes get real into intramural soccer. Some of us are real into old Pokemon games. I spend too much money buying records and old synthesizers. Some of the dudes work on a cool sustainable farm. We all love to travel. Some of us take trips abroad when we can squeeze it in and afford it. We all love to party too.

Lastly, what can we expect next from you guys, any new music that we can look forward to sometime soon?

Yeah, we have a lot coming up here. A really cool new website called Feedbands is releasing an exclusive vinyl this month that is a compilation of our two records and EP. We've compiled enough live audio to make a live album that we'll probably be releasing in the coming months. We're hoping to release a new EP by spring / summer and a full-length after that. We're taking a little breather from the road right now, but things will definitely keep happening.

Thanks once again to Mikey of Kansas Bible Company for being so generous with his time to do this interview! While it would've been impossible to interview all 12 members of the band, I'm glad I got some insight as to what makes these guys so amazing and among one of the musical treasures you should be listening to right now, they are definitely a worthwhile listening experience for sure. Don't forget to pick up their latest album "Hotel Chicamauga" right now via their Bandcamp page located right here for your listening pleasure.