E – Complications and interview with Thalia Zedek: “the songs certainly can take on other meanings”

Silver Rocket / Lokal Rekorc

E, the collaborative project between Thalia Zedek, Gavin McCarthy and Jason Sanford, is perhaps the purest form of musical collaboration, with each member bringing equal input to their intriguing and fiery — but at times slightly sinister — brand of melodic, post hardcore guitar music.

All three have done their time in the indie rock scene, with Thalia in Come and Live Skull, Gavin in Karate and Jason in his ongoing noise sculpture affair Neptune. The fact that Gavin and Thalia also play together in her current band and that E has been playing together since 2013 goes some way to explaining the musical symbiosis that takes place here, the easy way in which they thread between one another, making a perfect frame for whoever is singing.

Complications is a joy to listen to, with each track very much retaining its own character. The opener, “Caught”, with its thundering drums and wild guitars, sets out their stall purposefully, their shared heritage coming through in the earth-moving power and vibrant tempo. Thalia’s vocals are just in control as she urges “Don’t go quietly without a fight”, a hint of yearning there as sweet harmonics shine behind the rough-house riffing. It is a great opener and the energy continues, and in places it reminds me of the kind of brash power of No Means No. There is a reminder of that band in the vocals on “Acid Mantle”, but there is a kind of post-Television guitar interplay as well, with just a nod to jazz in its structure.

Gavin’s “Contagion Model” is where things take a curious turn, with more than a little prescience considering the current pandemic situation. The basslines in the tracks come from an invention of Jason’s that apparently reacts to foot stomps and triggers a few notes in response, and over the deadpan viral vocals, Thalia spreads a gorgeous feral howl amidst the cracked guitar solos. For me, the highlight is Thalia’s “Sunrise”, with its beautiful cymbal-led rhythm and incisive guitar interplay which reminds me of everything I loved about nineties and noughties american guitar music, Thalia’s voice full of emotion, some of the chord selections just melting your heart.

https://youtu.be/icSCFDOozbU

Elsewhere, Jason’s stripped-down “Miasma” could come straight from the operating room, such is its quiet efficiency, and the vocal share on “Dead Drop” between Gavin and Thalia’s is great, just because they are both unique vocalists looking for a way to interact. The guitar break that appears here comes on like a loose band-saw, and the searing feedback that accompanies Gavin on the rather moving ”Like A Leaf” made my hair stand on end. It is also the variations that three songwriters bring that make this such a delightful album to play. A number of times I have just set it going again, looking out for something I may have missed or wish to revel in once more, like the abstract sculpture of guitar parts on closer “Apiaries Near Me”, or the various medical references that abound; and I have to say that listening to the lyrics on the circular repetition of “Gelding” without knowing the title was interesting.

Complications is an album that bears repeated listening; the musical interactions and range of textures employed are just lovely. They are a Boston band through and through with no obvious precedents, although you can hear elements of their history. It fills you with the same sort of joy that Six Finger Satellite used to, but with less irony and more emotion. I really recommend it.

As well as reviewing the album, Mr Olivetti asked Thalia Zedek a few questions about E and the generation of the record.

Is there a main songwriter in the group or do you take it in turns?

All three of us (myself, Jason Sanford and Gavin McCarthy) write the songs together, and all three of us trade off lead vocals. Whoever is doing the lead vocals wrote the lyrics themselves, and on the songs with more than one vocalist (“Dead Drop”, “Apiaries Near Me”, “Contagion Model”) each singer wrote the lyrics they sing.

E seems to release albums quite regularly. Is this a side project for you all or is it the main focus?

We consider E much more than a side project, though all three of us also do other music.

I am in an experimental group called tK, which has released a bunch of music over the past year, as well as my continuing my solo work with Thalia Zedek Band, Jason is still keeping Neptune going and doing solo work, mainly for dance and performance art, and Gavin plays with me in Thalia Zedek Band as well as Brian Carpenter And The Confession and many other groups.

Lastly, I have to ask whether Complications was written before the pandemic, because the track about the virus seems remarkably prescient – also, there is quite a medical element to the album. Is this an interest?

The album was written well before the pandemic and recorded in late November 2019. It is eerie how timely it seems now, though none of us had any idea this would happen at the time we were writing it. We were thinking of how the words “virus” and “viral” have so many different meanings in these times, outside of the medical realm and how “contagious” does as well. Tweets go viral for example and conspiracy theories can be contagious. But now, in these pandemic days, the songs certainly can take on other meanings that we never could have imagined at the time.

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• E’s website
• E on Bandcamp
• E’s Facebook page