10 Quick Ones with KEVIN AMANN of BURN RIVER BURN – August 2018

According to a recent press release: “Pavement Entertainment partners with hard rock band Burn River Burn for the release of their Neüstonia album, available for purchasing and streaming. The album appeals to fans of classic hard rock to grunge. The band aims to produce a sound they define as “next level heavy rock,” meaning “crushing riffs, soaring vocals, steam train like grooves, dynamic and distinctive songs.”  We get drummer Kevin to discuss new music, influences, and much more in our 10 Quick Ones…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through?  Are there any hidden nuggets the band put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

A really cool thing that you might only get if you listen very closely, is that we shift tempos within songs.  We did not use click tracks on Neüstonia.  We instead choose to incorporate slight tempo and groove shifts within the songs to give a push and pull effect at times.  When we arrange a song, we talk about the tempos of each part, instead of the tempo of the whole song.  If a part feels like it should be slower – we slow it down a hair.  If you listen closely to songs like “Thanks for the Ride”, you will hear some parts get slightly slower, then pick back up.  We dig that.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

From as far back as I can remember, music was all I really cared about.  I started drumming in grade school and started playing guitar and being in bands in middle school.  In high school I discovered song writing and recording – and I’ve never felt a passion and obsession greater than that.  My first Tascam 4 track was probably the greatest thing I’ve ever owned (wish I still had it!). The idea of being a life-long rock musician didn’t take any real commitment or sacrifice until I truly decided that it was going to remain my identity as an adult.  I made a conscience decision to dedicate my life to rock n roll, making it a career and climbing the brutal rock ladder.  All other (more lucrative) endeavours would simply take back seat.

3. Who would be your main five musical influences?

Personally: Rush, King Diamond, Bad Religion, Metallica and Alice in Chains.

Collectively as a band: Sabbath, Soundgarden, Van Halen, Queens of the Stone Age, & Tool

4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be?

I am really digging Tobias Forge lately.  His song-crafting is astounding.  He merges the old and new to form really memorable rock anthems.  His diverse influences are so similar to mine – its sorta uncanny – and its why Ghost is my favorite new band to come to my attention in the past few years.   I love black metal, prog and pop music and in Ghost you can most definitely hear our mutual influences, i.e Mercyful Fate, Genesis and ABBA!

5. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before?

Our Bio sums it up pretty well: Churning, burning and rolling like a sludgy incendiary river.  Bending and twisting.  Calm but raging.  Soothing yet fierce.  Moving Rock.  It is next-level heavy rock music with crushing riffs, soaring vocals, steam engine groove and dynamic, distinctive songs. On the first day, there was Sabbath.  On the second, Soundgarden.  Now – there is BURN RIVER BURN.

6. What’s the best thing about being a musician?

Happiness.  Making music, being in a band, being on the road – it’s just so fun and fulfilling.   When you entertain folks – or even better – move them emotionally with your music – it’s a feeling that cannot be topped and gives me purpose.

7. When the band are all hanging out together, who cooks; who gets the drinks in; and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

Honestly, we spend almost all of our time together rehearsing and writing at our studio or in the van and playing shows.  When we do hang outside of that, its typically hanging at the bar with mutual friends for birthday parties and something.  Not much cooking, but plenty of drinking. Chuck and Mike both grab the acoustic on occasion when were on the road – to jam or hash out ideas.  More often – they tote around a little portable amp and rip it with full distortion!

8. If you weren’t a musician, what would be your dream job?

Would have to be something else creative – painter or writer I suppose – but both would be a far distant 2nd place to playing rock n roll.

9. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over”?

Man, that’s a tough one.  I guess I would have picked up the pace a bit so that I was a little younger when I got signed and started touring.   I would say I should have skipped college and got right on with the dream after high school, but college was so much fun and met some of my best friends and wife to be there!   Post college in San Francisco, I also experimented with a lot of different kinds of bands and music like jazz, funk and electronic music for many years.  So that was sort of another “hiatus” from the path.  Again – I had so much fun and learned so much that brought me where I am at musically today – so I can’t say any of it was a misstep or that I regret it – It just delayed it all.

10. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

Rush’s Moving Pictures remains my “stranded on a desert island” record.   I bought it when I heard “Tom Sawyer” when I was just 7 or 8 years old.   The song “Witch Hunt” gave me nightmares because I was so young.   “Red Barchetta” brought me to tears on a road trip one time and “The Camera Eye” just might be my favorite Rush song.  Every song on that album is genius.  Almost 40 years later – it still holds up and still blows my mind. I don’t know much about the recording session, I’m not really into researching that kind of thing – but I know they recorded it at Le Studio in Quebec in the winter time.   The mood that must have surrounded those sessions…my God.  I would have loved to felt that energy and that feeling that they must have had that they were creating an absolute masterpiece.

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Category: Interviews