Sensual, powerful, exotic, and alluring, Collide is a duo made up of Statik (noise) and kaRIN (vocals). Based in Los Angeles, California, Collide creates an aural sculpture that manages to defy categorization. It is at once deep and smooth as glass, with undulating waves of sound that seduce the senses. The essence of Collide is the coming together of two opposing entities to form a symbiotic whole. Noiseplus Music is thrilled to present Some Kind of Strange, the fourth album by Collide.
Collide is about letting the sound orchestration unfold and develop into its own identity. This is probably why the band often hears that their music doesn't sound like anything else. Says vocalist kaRIN, "We are not your traditional type of musicians. We don’t really play music. We try to create soundscapes—layers of depth and emotion that dig into different levels of the psyche. Statik and I are complete clashing opposites that try to meet at the same place, combining the female and masculine energies, the cognitive and the subliminal, the strength and the mystery."
Some Kind of Strange is named after the lyrics of the album's central track, "Inside." The themes of the lyrics center around one’s place in the universe, as well as one’s place within one's self. "They confront the thought that we create our own type of illusions and control our own paths in life," explains kaRIN. "Each decision we make will somehow affect the outcome as we sit on the outside and the inside of the human shell as both passenger and spectator. To me everything in life is strange, and it’s what you make of it. Art was always my escape in life. It was the one thing that was safe because I was in control, and it was the way to ultimately release my deepest emotions. In music, I feel truly blessed to be allowed this form of expression, and to be able to reach out to other people’s emotions, as well as my own innermost levels. It allows me to speak directly to the core and unleash feelings from the most primal to the most cerebral and in between.”
“I suppose I have always been driven to make music that I want to hear," says Collide programmer, noise maker, and producer Statik. "If I am working for other people, I just try to help bring their songs to another level, while adding my own sound. With Collide, it seems more difficult because we make all the decisions, and there’s a whole canvas to paint, and before a song is finished, the picture can change a dozen times.”
No strangers to the music industry, Statik has also worked with the likes of Tool, Powerman 5000, and Prince. He is also currently involved in the re-formation of Skinny Puppy. kaRIN has contributed vocals to Frontline Assembly and Plateau (cEvin Key’s side project).
Several guest musicians contribute to the music of Collide. Their latest self-released album Some Kind of Strange includes the talents of cEvin Key of Skinny Puppy as well as Danny Carey from Tool. “We see so many things in the music industry that are not in the artists favor—where it becomes all about business," says Statik. "It is our vision to help make that change while making music that we believe in, and to set a path for ourselves as well as other artists."
"Shimmer" is song number nine on Some Kind of Strange, which was created and recorded on a Mac. To record the music, Statik lists his impressive Mac set-up: Pro Tools MIX 3 running on a 733MHz Mac G4 and mounted in a Marathon Computer PowerRack G Series rack, 768MB of RAM, two 20-inch monitors, 140GB worth of SCSI drives, 160GB worth of ATA drives, 250GB worth of FireWire drives, and a 60GB USB drive. To work out the vocal parts, he used a 400MHz Mac G4 with Pro Tools LE, which is networked to a 400MHz G3, a 400MHz iMac, and a 233MHz beige G3 in their house. He also used an assortment of instruments, including an Akai S6000 sampler, a Studio Electronics SE-1, and an Alesis Andromeda, as well as varioius guitars and outboard effects.
