New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The music of New York-based trio The Qualia speaks to the heart as much as to the head. Reflecting the passionate and analytical personalities of Lars Casteen, Chvad SBand Rossen Nedelchev, the group�s music combines the wry humor and dance-floor sensibility of
Talking Heads with the lyrical depth and jangle of
Wilco to create their own brand of modern new wave.
Providing the focus of the group is the writing of Casteen, a musician with an uncontrollable drive to craft songs. Holed up in his Brooklyn home studio, he puts together rough demos, which the band then fleshes out. It is as if Casteen presents the other two with a 2D shape, and then together they add texture and color until an ever-morphing, semi-robotic being has been spawned.
Inspiration for the new album Cotillion Knives came from Casteen�s upbringing in the southern town of Charlottesville, VA. As he explains, �It�s about the guilt of being accepted, the rage at being excluded, and the way that everybody is winning and losing all the time whenever boundaries are drawn between the people who eat dinner at the country club and those who wash the dishes.�
The album�s title recalls the formal dances held to teach pre-teens about social etiquette during middle school. Though Casteen didn�t ever go to a cotillion himself, the experience of seeing others take part in this bizarre social function left a lasting impression on him that he still associates with small-town Virginia. This memory led him to delve deeper into the world where he grew up, a world he always felt at odds with.
Those who have followed The Qualia since their 2007 debut Nevada�s Greatest! will immediately notice their musical evolution. Whereas earlier releases were defined by sequenced sounds and drum machines, Cotillion Knives� vibrancy and liveliness came to fruition in the recording studio. Nedelchev�s expressive percussion and Chvad�s experimental edge (thanks to "HECTOR," his behemoth self-aware modular synth system) push The Qualia into new territory.
It is rare to find a group who can balance the full sensory experience with a message of righteous defiance, while never forgetting the importance of the song. The Qualia is a band for fans of music that is at once intelligent and impassioned; they are the machine brought to life.
