|
On a cool evening in February 1997, a group of sophomores calling themselves Hara Kiri had the daunting task of warming up the stage for Kalispell party-band legend Utter in an acoustic perfor
mance. But Hara Kiri did more than warm up the stage — they delivered a gutsy performance. Hara Kiri’s haunting guitar and pulsating bass-lines intertwined with a jazz flavor, entered new territory for an audience who expected to hear another rock and roll band. The show was fueled by legendary drum solos and flawless versions of nearly all of the songs in their repertoire. Hara Kiri clearly owned the stage that night, as well as the attention of their peers, classmates and fellow bands.
That performance began a new era for Hara Kiri.
A live tape from that Feb.15 performance quickly made its way into 1998 graduate Toby Simensen’s hands. Simensen, Hara Kiri’s soundman, had his own radio show Sunday nights on B-98. Simensen was so impressed with “Bald Man At The Junction,” that he played the song not once, but twice, during his two-hour time slot.
The Early Days
By now Hara Kiri is a well-oiled machine, craftsmen of writing their own material and breaking musical ground with it, but as is the case in any craft, their success didn’t come without practice. Currently in their senior year, Nate Bech, Jason Curtis, Thor Erickson, and Jason Sherman are in their fifth year of making music together. Curtis, Sherman and Brandon Judge began playing music together dating back to their days at Hedges Elementary School. In eighth grade, they formed the band Theatre of the Absurd, playing music considerably different than the Hara Kiri sound. Hara Kiri was formed in early 1996 when Curtis and Sherman hooked up with Erickson, a violin player/pianist and guitar player/songwriter Nate Bech.
Hara Kiri’s first public performance was in the spring of 1996, when the band played at the Flathead Rocks concert at Cavanaugh’s. They would play later that year at the RockFest concert in the high school gym.
“We’ve definitely improved since then,” recalls Sherman. “We are practicing a lot more and the band listens to each other more, instead of playing in our own worlds.”
A year in Italy, A year apart
Around the time of the 1997 unplugged con-
cert, tough future decisions were being made that would affect the band. Curtis had decided to apply to the foreign exchange program AFS, under which he would spend his junior year abroad.
“After I got accepted I immediately confronted the band,” said Curtis. “Of course they weren’t happy — at that time things were taking off with the band and with connections in Seattle. Things were in full swing.”
Curtis’ last show with Hara Kiri was supposed to be in late August 1997 at Rosario’s in Lakeside. Hara Kiri’s music was masterful, featuring several new tracks, all of the old favorites and a cover of Dave Matthews Band’s version of the Bob Dylan song, “All Along The Watchtower,” to polish off the two-hour performance. But the success was bittersweet; Curtis left for Italy just two weeks after the show. The three remaining members decided to proceed without Curtis. The drummer vacancy was filled in September of ’97 by senior Russ Mottram. With Mottram, the band continued to work on new material in preparation for a November RockFest show.
“We did a lot more improv. when Russ was drumming,” said Erickson. “Russ did well, he picked up on our style and songs really fast.”
Despite a poor crowd attendance at RockFest, Hara Kiri’s performance was solid. Two tracks from that show “Blood on the Windshield” and “Memorial Song,” would eventually make it to the band’s CD. But a key element was missing from Hara Kiri’s line-up, and Mottram’s future with the band was short lived — Mottram quit the band in February 1998. It would be six months before Hara Kiri would play as a group again.
CD Now
But there would be a bright spot in Hara Kiri’s
tranquil months. Hara Kiri’s soundman Toby Simensen worked closely with Bech, Erickson, and Sherman, along with Kalispell sound engineer Ron Reeves, to put together tracksfor Hara Kiri’s first CD.
“We had 10 DAT (Digital Audio Tape) tapes that we sat down with, listening for the best ones,” said Bech.
A majority of the material on the disc was taken from live performances, dating back to the acoustic show and running through the band’s last public appearance on Nov. 15, 1997, at RockFest.
“We had to do layers on a few songs and overdub my vocals for a few songs,” said Bech. “We’d play a song without vocals and then go back into the studio and Ron would put the vocals in.”
“It was a tedious process of listening to several two-hour tapes and marking off the exact times for songs,” said Erickson. “In the end there was a lot of really sloppy handwriting on napkins.”
When the process was complete, the band decided on a 13-track album, including one secret song of Bech singing along with an acoustic guitar, and another featuring Bech playing along with the sounds of a penny whistle, called “Almond’s Celtic Song.” That particular track was recorded in one take. The whistler was a young Celtic man named Almond Riele, who had hitchhiked and traveled the world playing his flute since the age of 14. On that day his travels brought Almond into Hara Kiri’s backyard, literally.
“We asked him if he wanted to play on our CD and he said “you’re not going to do a CD,” recalls Erickson. “But he came with us anyways, he wanted to sleep under Toby’s (Simensen’s) trampoline. He ended up sleeping in the back yard — he didn’t want to sleep inside.”
New Material
The fall has been busy for Hara Kiri. The band currently meets three times a week for two or more hours at a time. Their practice room’s atmosphere is spacy, lit only by candlelight. The sound is full and clean as they experiment with new material. In recent practices their focus has been on developing their jams into songs.
“I like just playing stuff on my guitar until it gets organized,” said Bech. “Then I bring it in and we work on it.”
They are currently working on several new yet-to-be-named originals in addition to “Circle,” a cover of Big Head Todd and The Monsters. Hara Kiri’s process of learning a new song is no small task.
“We pick songs apart like a puzzle and we have to get each piece to fit together,” said Erickson. “If you pick out each piece and work on it separately, eventually it all comes together.”
Sometimes the process of learning a song takes up to a month, Erickson said. It is not unusual for the band to work on a certain part of a song for an hour or more before they’ve perfected its sound. The biggest challenge faced by the band then is making their musical styles work together.
“They are always yelling at me to mellow out on the drums, but it is really hard. I was a drummer before I was a band member,” said Curtis. “But they (the other band members) have shaped my style a lot over the years.”
Despite their sometimes contrasting musical styles, Curtis says the end results are well-crafted songs that everyone can be happy with.
“We cut it (a song) apart, dissect it and then we build it back together.” said Curtis. “We always find a happy medium, we argue for a long time and then we find it.”
It’s the varying styles and musical tastes that make up Hara Kiri’s unique sound. If you ask them, they’ll describe their sound as “progressive rock,” but to an average listener, it is difficult to group their sound in a category. Certain songs such as “Standard Floyd” reflect Pink Floyd, which heavily influenced the band, while others take on a different harder rock sound. The difference between the jazzy-sounding “Narcotic American Nights” and the guitar driven “Blood on the Windshield” are as dramatic as the differences between Phish and Poison (both of which are influences of the band).
The Road Ahead
The fall of 1998 has been good to Hara Kiri.
First and foremost, Curtis is back behind the drum set. The band is actively writing new material and polishing the old. They are in the late stages of planning a Dec. 11 performance in the FHS auditorium and carry a positive outlook for the 1998-99 school year. They are excited to play live again and looking forward to exposing their CD to the student body.
“It’s a high being up on stage.” said Erickson. “That’s my favorite part about being in this band. It’s good to let your peers know that you do something, especially the people who don’t think you do anything.”
And for Hara Kiri, playing live is the payoff for the relentless time and creative energy that goes into creating music together.
Said Erickson: “I think it is really impressive when we play tight. We know where we are going and what’s next. In a show you don’t stop and ask for directions. At band practice you ask for directions so you have a map to follow when you are on stage.” |
