The Secret Meeting Interview with kaRIN and Statik – September 2007
Circa September 2007 – Fazer Magazine

You can forget about bands like +44, Velvet Revolver and Audioslave. The real supergroup on everyone’s lips right now should be the The Secret Meeting. While I remain a bonafide Collide / Curve / Toni Halliday fanatic, there’s only one voice I’d consider close to Halliday’s, and that would kaRIN from Collide. When I found out kaRIN and Statik were collaborating with Dean from Curve on a musical project together – well let’s just say the earth moved a bit for me. kaRIN and Statik were kind enough to share a bit of time with me, and talk about how the Secret Meeting became a tangible CD release.

Dean photo – Photo: Chris Floyd • kaRIN and Statik photo – dearestgrudge

I’d like to start by providing readers with an overview of Collide, and how The Secret Meeting came together as a project. Can I get a condensed version of your works together so far?
kaRIN: Well lets see…Statik and I have been working on Collide for 15 years or so…which means a bunch of CDs and a live DVD. One day, I was surfing around and came across Dean’s solo page on Myspace no less. I knew who he was… so I thought… hey why not write him. He wrote me back right away and we decided we should try working on a song together, which then turned into a full release.

I’ve always found Collide a band that would appeal to fans of CURVE. Do you feel this is a fair assumption?
kaRIN: Yes, they definitely have similarities. Deep dark chemistry, cool sounds and smoky smooth female vocals. Although, they each stand apart, no reason why you would not like both.
Statik: Both being mostly electronic… and in working together (with Dean), I think we have a similar mindset when working on songs.

How did you work with Dean? Was everything done together in a studio? Or was it mostly done by file swapping between California and the UK?
kaRIN: Dean is a super cool, chill, loveable guy. Working together has been a great experience. It was all done through e-mail and file exchanging. You can tell that he is passionate about what he does and definitely does it for the right reasons.
Statik: There just wasn’t a need for us to be in a studio all together at the same time. Dean had his ideas and we just did our thing, slowly but surely. It allowed all of us the time we needed. Sometimes it just takes me a while to figure out what I don’t like or don’t like while I’m working on a song. The initial ideas come out fast, but I spend a lot of time editing and tweaking the song as a whole.

What’s next for Collide? Will there be more music coming?
kaRIN: Yes, we are currently in the studio working on the next CD.
Statik: We have a lot of songs started in various stages…and we’ve pretty much narrowed in on the ones that will make the final cut. Now it’s just all about getting in there and finalizing all of the vocals…and then of course my endless tweaking.

What do you both do to get inspired in between recordings?
kaRIN: I am driven by creating… so for me there is no in between time. I take in from life around me and escape through music. Singing is my escape…the rest of it is hard work though.
Statik: For me it’s about having downtime, with no music… getting out of the studio, and getting some fresh air.

Now that you have worked with Dean, is there anyone else on your wish list to collaborate with?
kaRIN: Yes… Massive Attack. I would really like to do a guest vocal with them… so if anyone knows them please pass the word on =).
Statik: I was just thinking about that the other day, as I had my ipod on shuffle… going through my library. I’ve been really lucky in that I’ve got to work with so many people who I admire already. I think Peter Gabriel would be interesting to work with… I would like to see Elizabeth Frazier come up with some vocal ideas… Brian May from Queen.

kaRIN, I understand that you are from Toronto. How did you wind up based out of the southern states? Did you record any music when you lived in Toronto?
kaRIN: I went south seeking heat. Although I love Toronto, I really do not like to be cold.
It renders me dysfunctional. I now live in Los Angeles – I really like it here and yes it’s warm. As far as music… I first got the music bug in High School… my boyfriend at the time had a friend who would play guitar… we were both totally and absolutely hooked. We then established
a group of friends who we hung around with and we would play and sing every single song we knew. It became a necessary release for me.

I noticed The Secret Meeting getting plugged on TOOL’s website. Have you done some work with TOOL?
Statik: I did programming on Undertow and Lateralus. All of the Tools guys are really talented and really nice… we really appreciate it when they give us a mention on their site. They actually brought me up on stage on one of their L.A. shows and I played keys/samples on Triad… that was fun.

When I first heard about this collaboration with Dean, I was really eager to hear the material. It seems a no-brainer that fans of CURVE and Collide would be all over this disc like white on rice. How has the response been so far?
kaRIN: Amazing really… Dean is now asking me where I am stashing the bad reviews. We are all very touched and honored that people are enjoying ‘Ultrashiver’.
Statik: We’re trying to get the word out there about The Secret Meeting. Response has been great, but I do think that the piracy problem has become worse than ever. I know it wasn’t long after it was released that it was up on numerous file-sharing sites. Am I supposed to feel good that someone liked the album so much that they wanted to give it away to the world. We only spent the last year working on it. You really can’t get me started on the whole file sharing thing… I just won’t shut up.

Typically, how do you both approach your music together? Music first, and then lyrics? Do you both like to tinker independently and bring your elements together in a studio?
kaRIN: We each do our own thing in our own studio’s and then we smash it all together. Statik is really the technical end… I am the touchy feely side.
Statik: I can only get so far until there are some concrete vocals in the song. So I do a framework and then wait until kaRIN gets vocals to a point and then I can see where the song is really going.

Will you attempt to do a live tour for The Secret Meeting?
kaRIN: We are unsure of our plans for it. Dean lives in the UK… so we’d have that to work out. Statik; And then there’s the small part of actually getting the money to do it.

Can you talk a bit about where you see the music industry right now? In particular, how you see releasing music might change in the years to come?
kaRIN: Ohhhhhhhhhhhh painful… we are trying to remain positive. It seems that as technology advances… the need to buy CDs is becoming less and less and since that is the medium that musicians survive from… it will become very challenging. Everyone needs to know that copying music is like stealing from the artist… if you like the artist and have downloaded their music for free and enjoy it… show support to the band… buy a T-shirt even.
Statik: I think it will get to the point of not even bothering to release an album. I don’t want to sound so dire, but I just can’t work on an album for a year just to have it put up everywhere for free. My conscious just won’t let me do it.

www.thesecretmeeting.net
www.myspace.com/thesecretmeeting
www.collide.net
www.myspace.com/collide