An Interview with albinobeach

In case you did not know, albinobeach is an instrumental trio based in Johannesburg, South Africa. They are one of the acts who will be performing at Krank’d Up Festival (which is being held at Sundowners in Alberton on the 30th of September 2017). The members of the band are Kalin Pashaliev (bassist), Garrick Van Der Tuin (drummer) and Ian Finch (guitarist).

I recently had a chat to Kalin from albinobeach. This is what they had to say:

I must have listened to “Okavango Delta” a thousand times over the last few years. I remember downloading the track off Myspace, and then putting it in my car, and on my phone, and MP3 player. What was your inspiration for the track?

That’s great to hear, thank you. It’s one of our favourites, too, although we’ve never played the song live. It was very much a studio effort that began with an underlying guitar that was looped. We then gradually added more and more instruments, a bass lead, synths and so on. At that time we were really into Eastern music. That’s where the lead guitar’s inspiration came from, and we even added reggae stabs from the keys here and there. Because the canvas was so simple in its tempo and repetitive form that it was really conducive to adding layers from opposing genres.

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What tech do you guys use to get that epic, rounded, ethereal sound?

We employ various effects pedals for the guitar and bass, and our drummer queues pre-recorded sounds for some of our songs where absolutely necessary. But most of the sound you describe comes from the note choice, tempo and dynamics. We use the delays and reverbs mostly because we don’t have a singer to fill all the gaps, so there’s a lot of space to plug with just three instruments.

I guess the rounded sound also comes from everyone knowing which frequency range belongs to them – so we try not to step on each other’s toes by having the guitars equalised too low, for example, because that would make the bass guitar redundant. We actually use quite a classic set-up without trying to reinvent the wheel too much.

What time will you guys be o for the Krank’d Up Fest, and is there anything that fans should look forward to?

We’re playing at 5 PM. The main thing they should look out for is brand new songs that we will have performed live only once prior to Krank’d Up. Our set is quite short so there won’t be time to get into visuals this time around. But we’re busy choosing the punchiest set at our disposal and hoping to bring something a little different for the audience that will be there.

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What made you guys reform after so many years? Was it the epic groupies?

Haha. If by groupies you mean our pimpled gamer friends, then yes. We never actually stopped. We made an album a couple of years ago with all our friends (the not so pimpled ones, but insane just the same) called ‘Cacophonic’ in which we explored pretty much every genre that would spring to mind.

We were also exploring a lot of improvisation – it just made us better musicians who could think on their feet. We soon realised that the three original members had always worked the best at whatever everyone else thought albinobeach was good at, which is, I guess, being a power trio that delivers its compositions with confidence.

What is an albinobeach?

It’s the next US Airforce continental destroyer aircraft.

If you get burnt on an albinobeach do you age backwards?

No such Benjamin Button luck / curse, but your fingernails grow in a matter of minutes to resemble Florence Griffith Joyner’s.

I’d like to thank Kailin and albinobeach for this interview and I wish them all of the best with their set at Krank’d Up at the end of the month. If you’re not familiar with their music, crank up their track, “Okavango Delta” below:

If you don’t have tickets for Krank’d Up yet, get them HERE.

Watch this space for regular updates in the Music and Interviews categories on Running Wolf’s Rant.

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Matt Haddon

Business, leadership and career consultant, coach and columnist.