Some bands are born overnight. Others take years to fully arrive. The King Canutes belongs to the second category. Formed between Brooklyn and the UK in the early 2000s, the duo of Keir Woods (vocals, electric and acoustic guitars) and Richard Alwyn (vocals, backing vocals, electric and acoustic guitars) built their partnership slowly, across cities, continents and life changes. Their debut album, “Eastern Seaboard, Perfect Summer” feels like the result of time well spent – a gem of heartfelt, soulful indie pop/rock. We spoke with them about the journey, the distance, the tunes and the stories behind the songs.
by Dimitris Zacharopoulos
When, where and how was The King Canutes formed?
Richard Alwyn: There was an open mike at an upstairs bar on Montague St. in Brooklyn Heights. We were both new to New York and out to find our tribes. A new friend of mine had said, “You should check out this British guy, he’s really good.” We all played as a trio for a while—Lara Ewen was the third—but then when it became just Keir and me, we took on the moniker of The King Canutes.
Keir Woods: Not long after that I went to see Richard play a solo show somewhere in Brooklyn now long gone, and he played a version of “Eastern Seaboard”. I remember saying to Ali, my wife, “I have got to form a band with this bloke!”.
Your debut album has been fifteen years in gestation. What finally pushed it from idea to reality?
RA: Keir definitely was the driver behind the “we’ve got to do it now or we never will” theory that ultimately goaded the whole thing into existence from a bunch of songs to a cohesive album.
KW: In about 2008 we made an EP with the late Jim Bentley, which was pretty good and is still out there on Spotify, but we were fast improving had better songs, big ideas and a sense for how much better a full album would be. So, we talked, and we kept on talking about it through international moves, marriages, children and so on. There comes a point where it’s now or never, and if you don’t do it, you’re deluding yourself that you will. So, we started.
How would you describe the music style of “Eastern Seaboard, Perfect Summer” to someone discovering you for the first time?
RA: The dual vocal styles and points of view draw comparisons to classic indie pop of the 1980s and ‘90s [Scottish, Australian, Middle western US and Northern England]. The lyrics take on the cities where they were written, New York, Paris, London. The hip gang of musical collaborators bring their own work to the project, giving it echoes of Guided by Voices, Rickie Lee Jones and David Bowie.
The title itself is evocative — what does “Eastern Seaboard, Perfect Summer” mean to each of you personally?
RA: For the song “Eastern Seaboard”, the region conjures up a mystery and unattainability to the narrator “stuck here in Heartland” and pining for an imaginary “actress who finally stops pretending”. The pairing of this aspirational longing with a wistful nostalgia highlights the bipolarity of The King Canutes aesthetic.
KW: While “Perfect Summer” is a honeyed reflection on something great that came, and went, too soon. As an album title it nods to the emotions of both songs, at the same time as grounding The King Canutes in our New York Eastern Seaboard roots, and the Perfect Summer of the creativity that blossomed from our musical relationship. With the duality and irony that this particular Perfect Summer took nearly 20 years to produce its fruit!
Your songwriting partnership spans continents, cities and years. How has this long-distance collaboration shaped the music?
RA: I think it probably involved a few more international telephone calls than most albums.
KW: – I think we’ve had a long time to reflect on what our songs would look like when we finally committed them to wax. And in that you get fully realized versions, rounded out, with depth and complexity. Things have also had the chance to evolve and morph as we’ve grown and changed, or as others have influenced us. “Room 21” and “Cars and Girls”, for example, are very different songs from their earlier iterations.
You’ve both lived between Brooklyn and London. How do those two environments filter into your sound or your writing?
RA: I’ve actually never lived in London but some of these songs were written when I lived in Raleigh, NC and you can feel the Southern long nights with glances and misses as it all goes to seed.
Where do your lyrics refer to?
KW: So “Red Hook Sunset” is about Red Hook in NYC, a somewhat dilapidated, left behind post industrial part of Brooklyn that looks out directly onto the bay and Statue of Liberty, while “The Man from Hawaii”, well, it’s about a man, from Hawaii. And NYC is often present in our allusions. But I think there’s a universality for me. Things are ostensibly about places, but they’re really about states of being, of feelings. Even something as specific as “The Man from Hawaii”, which is based around events that happened to a specific person are not only, or even really, about that time and place but rather of some things that reside in all of us at certain times.
RA: So, while “Eastern Seaboard” references the titular region, the Middlewest and the Northern schools, “Room 21” is actually the strongest place song to me. It’s set in The DeGausse Hotel in San Francisco where the narrator is going to meet Alison, a character from another song called “The Bellhop”. He drives from Arizona to meet her in a rented bed where he’ll wonder what it would be like if their relationship were more committed.
How did you decide which older ideas to revive and which to leave behind when building this album?
KW: Several of the songs were obvious choices, and in a way were a stimulus for making the record, in that we felt we had to get a recorded version of them. I think we each have favourites (normally of each other’s music) that we really like. With others it was much more challenging. Once we’d decided to make a full album, for the last couple of songs we were completely torn between about 20, so between me, Richard, Ray, Dave Derby and Doug McEachern we made a series of demos and whittled it down, then had a final rehearsal where we played our way to consensus on what felt best. The last one in was “Come Undone”, which was a complete outsider until, in rehearsal it just fell into place. It’s turned out to be one of the nicest tracks on the record!
Ray Ketchem produced, mixed and mastered the record. What did Ray bring to the project that felt essential?
KW: Omigod, where to start. First of all, pushing us to commit to developing something much more ambitious and higher quality than we initially set out to. Then, the technical ability to take our ideas, imaginatively improve them, and translate them into concrete, beautifully realized tracks. Lastly, he really encouraged us to keep going when things were stalling. It took us nearly fifteen years to start making this record and another three to complete it. We’d still be out there going round in circles somewhere without Ray!
RA: Definitely true about the circles, Ray is a great shepherd, especially with vocals. So many times, he knew when to push us for an extra take but likewise would keep us from going on when he knew we had it.
You worked with an incredible cast of indie musicians. How did these collaborations come together?
Yes, we’ve really been very fortunate with this. I think it was Pat Metheny who’s reputed to have said you should always aim to be the worst musician in your own band, and with this cast I’ve achieved just that! A lot of this comes from the network of musical friends, we, and particularly Richard, have built over many years of playing. It was quite something to be able to call on people we’ve played with over the years and ask them to appear on the record, and a really nice validation of our music that they all said “Yes”! A particular call out here to Dave Derby, who is a tireless collaborator and one of the most inclusive musicians you can imagine. His friendship, musical partnership, and enthusiasm for our songs really helped to get this record off the ground!
With multiple drummers and such varied instrumentation, how did you keep the arrangements balanced rather than overcrowded?
KW: See Ketchem, Ray above! On top of that I think Richard and I really had some clear ideas around the details of structure, arrangements, and parts. To some extent I think that comes from having had a song for a long while. You’ve got plenty of time to really think how it’s supposed to sound, and imagine all the parts and instrumentation you normally never get to add.
RA: There’s also the luxury of being in the studio rather than focusing on a live performance. You can bring out all the parts you want to have but also can be ruthless in cutting things back without having to ask someone to just be quiet in one section or another.
What keeps the creative chemistry alive after all these years?
KW: I think absence or infrequency to a certain extent. We don’t get the chance to get together too often so it generally feels fresh and exciting. When we do, our styles mesh together so well that there’s real synergy, much more than the sum of the parts. I always kind of forget this until the moment we start playing again, then it’s a tremendous burst of energy! That’s something pretty rare and precious, so I’m keen to keep the flame alive!
RA: I think we also both grow as musicians, arrangers and writers in-between the times when we’re together in person. So that makes it new again and tweaks and improves things from iteration to iteration.
You recently released a cover of Prefab Sprout’s “Cars and Girls”. What does that song mean to you?
KW: Quite a bit. So many of Prefab Sprout’s songs are fantastic, really lyrically deep. We originally started playing it because it’s so in touch with the duality of The King Canutes aesthetic, the poignant lyrics wrapped in the upbeat music, and the admonition to the positive rock star thinker, that life doesn’t really work out that way. When we first started playing it, we were an acoustic duo and “liberating” the song from the (at the time very unfashionable) Thomas Dolby pop production it was trapped in. It became one of our signature songs. Now, all that ‘80s production is back in, Prefab Sprout and their peers are back in vogue, and even our version’s evolved to a multilayered baroque extravaganza. We’re really pleased with the studio version, and feels it adds something to the original, and we love the image on the cover’s nod to Prefab Sprout’s own work. Perhaps for the kids on the cover things work out differently….
RA: I was late to the Prefab Sprout although I had been suggested them in my college days when they were still active. But when Keir brought this one in, I dove deep and now they’re definitely a favorite. It was great fun to bring this one to life and again, in a way that differs so much from a live performance. Secret teaser: There is a longer, bonus track version still in the making.
What was the most challenging song to finish on the album — and why?
KW: “Eastern Seaboard” I think. It was the one that didn’t sound how it was supposed to after all the additional parts were added in. Somehow, we lost the momentum and the sense of drive and angst that are crucial to the song and strongly present in the live performance. We had to really start thinking about how to build this back, while keeping the emotional range that additional instruments bring. Ray ultimately did a great job on this, and what we’ve got really does justice to one of my favourite songs.
RA: For me it was “Red Hook Sunset”. It seemed that multiple times when it was my turn to add the guitars, I was far from the headspace required to do so. But Keir and Ray kept me at it and I think I eventually got it there.
How does the studio version of The King Canutes differ from your live personality?
KW: It depends which The King Canutes you get! We were originally conceived as a collective, based around me and Richard, plus whoever else was available/willing. Which meant generally it was me and Richard! Over time things have expanded and our recent launch show featured many of the musicians who made the album sound so rich and full. But that idea of the coalition of the willing persists, and you might well encounter a stripped down version of the group.
When you listen back to the finished album, what moment hits you hardest emotionally?
KW: There’s a section, in “Red Hook Sunset”, where Mac Gollehon’s trumpet solo realizes perfectly and we emerge into the phase that marks the outro to the song. And in that minute or so, everything about the album that’s special to me is there. It sounds so beautiful and spacious, there’s so much going on, some of which was really hard to extract, and it’s distilled into something that sounds effortless. And I think, “Wow – I actually wrote this, and that’s me in there playing on it!”. It makes me really happy and proud. It’s a song that means a lot to me and the way we Richard and I worked on it together with Ray turned it into everything I hoped it could be.
RA: There are two moments of silence on the record, one right before the trumpet solo section of “Red Hook Sunset” but the one in “Room 21” after the line, “If I was the one you just let hang around”, that gets me. It’s the idea that there’s something more out there for these characters and it’s as close as just letting it happen but for whatever reason they leave it far, far away.
Does the album feel like a chapter closing or the beginning of your next phase?
KW: A bit of both I think. It took us so long to get to the point of doing this, and then so long to actually create it that there does feel like an element of closure that we finally got this over the line. Then again, it’s a catalyst for all sorts of collaborations and projects that wouldn’t be possible without it. The interests we’ve had following the record opens up The King Canutes to a whole new audience. Look out for us in a city near you!
RA: I agree, it’s spurred us on to do things we wouldn’t have without the record, like playing in Chicago and potentially other cities and with an ever-widening group of folks.
What did you learn about each other creatively during this long recording process?
KW: That Richard has a singular vision for his music, the wherewithal to realize it, and the ability to elevate every one of my songs to a completely different level. Plus, he can really sing, which I’m not sure even he knew!
RA: That not only is Keir a great singer/songwriter but he’s also a great sideman. His guitar lines on “The Mixture as Before” are great.
Now that the album is out in the world, what do you hope listeners carry with them after the final notes of ‘Come Undone’?
KW: The tunes. I hope they wake up the following day with one of Richard’s hooks or my chorus lines stuck in their heads and wondering what it is!
RA: The stories. We’re both very narrative singer/songwriters and create nuanced little tales that I hope are entertaining and give some camaraderie to folks experiencing similar situations.
Send your message to the readers!
KW: You’re reading one of the most thoughtful music sites out there. Enjoy it and appreciate the great work Myth of Rock is doing! If you like our album tell your friends, and get in touch, we’d be happy to hear from you!
RA: Definitely hit us up, we’re curious to hear what you think about the record. And of course, the message that all art tries to send: You’re not alone.
