Melodious monarchs
Kings of Convenience start a quiet riot

Tom Lynch

The throne can be a lonely place.

Norway's two-piece acoustic duo Kings of Convenience defined quiet in 2001 with its debut release, "Quiet is the New Loud," which garnered modest praise and a loyal fan base in the States for its honest, subtle storytelling and Erlend Oye and Eirik Glambek Boe's vocal harmony and intersecting guitar work. But it was "Versus," the band's follow-up record featuring twelve remixes from "Quiet," that caught on heavily with listeners, never changing the songs at their core, only adding atmospheric depth and rhythms.

"Riot on an Empty Street" finds the band in between, embracing the sorrowful harmonies once more but unafraid of the added texture of "Versus." The record, which is the band's highest achievement thus far, builds on the foundation started with the debut. Vocal melodies never stand on top of the songs, as if Oye and Boe's voices are lead instruments weaving in and out of already layered music. And in a time when the louder you are the better you're heard and in a world without Elliott Smith, that's not easy to do.

"I guess our idea of making stripped-down acoustic songs is that we wanted to focus on the songs, not so much on the production of music," says Boe, on the phone from Norway. "When new technology was invented, people started to focus on all the stuff you can do with music, and they lost focus. We wanted to go back on the original focus." According to Boe, the two musicians adapt their minimalist approach from other artistic forums. "It's like Lars von Trier and the Dogme approach," he says. "There's a parallel to Scandinavian film directors rebelling against the Hollywood dogma of putting emphasis on technological production. We're stripping away from that, going back to the naked study."

The band, which can't avoid comparisons to Simon and Garfunkel's pop sensibility, toys with the school of the singer-songwriter, inventing new ideas and taking the music in new directions. "I think we're just learning from what we do best, which is writing songs," says Boe, who handles the majority of the lead vocal duties.

It's a tough sell. Two brokenhearted chaps from overseas with non-radio sensitivity and unplugged guitars doesn't scream acceptance. "I didn't know what to expect [when the first record was released]," says Boe. "I didn't know if people would like it, dislike it, or just ignore us. It was all just new to me. They didn't expect a band of our kind to become a pop band, and some people were surprised by the success. We were basically just naïve, two young boys."

It's safe to say that few expected a dance version of "Quiet is the New Loud," taking the acoustic ballads to a whole new arena of sound, or even the more uplifting, electric guitar works in the newest record. "The way we write songs, we tend to write different [types]. Some songs are folk-inspired, some upbeat indie-pop songs," Boe says. "My idea was to try to put all those songs into one. Take each song and see which direction it wants to go." So was the songwriting shift anticipated? "It just kind of happened. We have an intuitive way of behaving."

Oye and Boe took time off in between records to get lost in other projects, Oye in more music and Boe in his academic studies in psychology. One might suggest his studies play a significant role in his songwriting. "I'm not sure," he says. "I guess there would have to be some kind of influence there that I can't really trace. I've been studying for six years, and it does affect the way I think. I find that being in a university makes me creative, maybe because the academic world is completely uncreative. Maybe being in an uncreative world triggers this creativity."

The band is currently in the middle of a two-month tour of America, one that they hope goes more smoothly than their last time through. At that time, Boe suffered from stress-induced stomach problems that led to incessant nausea, but he's sure that on this tour, "it will be much more enjoyable." A two-month tour with the one person you just wrote an entire record with could be tiring, since there's the one mind you have to bounce ideas off for seven to eight weeks, even though when the band is on break, the two keep their distance. "It's very intense," Boe says of his relationship with Oye. "But that's why it works, because we come together and work closely together. Being apart sometimes too is a good way of being able to mentally work closely together. If we were neighbors, it would become problematic."

Kings of Convenience play the Double Door on February 22.

(2005-02-15)