KEN mode have detailed their eighth studio LP. The Winnipeg outfit will share new album NULL on September 23 via Artoffact Records.
NULL follows KEN mode's 2018 album Loved, and marks the group's first with fellow Winnipegger Kathryn Kerr (Tansy, Viva Non) as a full-time member of the band. Kerr had previously played saxophone on Loved, and picks up the horn once more on new song "A Love Letter," which you can hear below.
Of the song, vocalist-guitarist Jesse Matthewson shares, "Sometimes lists of all the things you never said end up getting said in the form of a love letter," noting that NULL is "a documentation of trying to not fall apart, the most desperate way you know how."
NULL also said to be the first piece of a two-album arc that, Matthewson explains, was written "with the intention of being two separate works that could be coupled together to make one full album with a cohesive flow and feeling, with every song holding a specific place and feeling within the overarching theme."
"I felt so unmotivated at so many points over the last two years, that if I was going to try to create, it had to be as painfully honest as possible, otherwise it just didn't feel real to me," Matthewson added. "We tried to experiment more with our sound than we ever have before, as we felt like there was really no reason to do anything at all unless we were trying to push this into something new."
NULL was recorded and produced by Andrew Schneider, and is now available for pre-order.
NULL:
1. A Love Letter
2. Throw Your Phone in the River
3. The Tie
4. But They Respect My Tactics
5. Not My Fault
6. Lost Grip
7. The Desperate Search for an Enemy
8. Unresponsive
NULL follows KEN mode's 2018 album Loved, and marks the group's first with fellow Winnipegger Kathryn Kerr (Tansy, Viva Non) as a full-time member of the band. Kerr had previously played saxophone on Loved, and picks up the horn once more on new song "A Love Letter," which you can hear below.
Of the song, vocalist-guitarist Jesse Matthewson shares, "Sometimes lists of all the things you never said end up getting said in the form of a love letter," noting that NULL is "a documentation of trying to not fall apart, the most desperate way you know how."
NULL also said to be the first piece of a two-album arc that, Matthewson explains, was written "with the intention of being two separate works that could be coupled together to make one full album with a cohesive flow and feeling, with every song holding a specific place and feeling within the overarching theme."
"I felt so unmotivated at so many points over the last two years, that if I was going to try to create, it had to be as painfully honest as possible, otherwise it just didn't feel real to me," Matthewson added. "We tried to experiment more with our sound than we ever have before, as we felt like there was really no reason to do anything at all unless we were trying to push this into something new."
NULL was recorded and produced by Andrew Schneider, and is now available for pre-order.
NULL:
1. A Love Letter
2. Throw Your Phone in the River
3. The Tie
4. But They Respect My Tactics
5. Not My Fault
6. Lost Grip
7. The Desperate Search for an Enemy
8. Unresponsive
