For the Ides of March, it was a fairly quiet night. I was sitting on a bar stool at the 4th Street Station in St. Paul, waiting to meet Nats Babel from the band Identical. As I looked around a blonde with short, spiky hair dressed in all black approached me. He smiled and introduced himself as the guy I was looking for.

His goatee was braided with a white bead adorning the bottom. He smiled as he informed me that the rest of his band was in their rehearsal space above the bar, waiting. I followed him outside into the chilly, night air. As he unlocked the main door to the practice spaces he declared that because Identical practices at this particular location, none of them are fat.

As he opened the security door, I saw what he meant; we began our trek up three flights of steep, worn gray steps. Babel escorted me to their space and flung open the door. “God, it’s hot in here,” he acknowledged, as he propped the door open and introduced me to the rest of the band.

Justin Kylochko, the lead vocalist, greeted me with a firm handshake and Bryan Koll, the guitarist, followed his lead. Jeremy “Phelony” Thorpe, the crowd motivator, nodded from a chair in a corner in the middle of the room. Clint Burton, the drummer, emerged from his kit to sit in the middle of the room. Babel plopped down in a dark corner next to the TV and turned down the volume on the set. It didn’t take long for the band to warm up to the interview.

They offered me a beer while they told stories of their show the previous weekend at the What’s Up Lounge in Mankato, Minnesota. Koll and Kylochko counted how many times Babel had puked in their van on their way back to St. Paul. Total count was at least six. They laughed it off, and asked if I had a copy of their new demo. Both Babel and Koll jumped up from their chairs to rummage through worn backpacks.

“Here.” Koll motioned to Babel as he handed him a stack of cassette tapes and miscellaneous items that were left in his van from last week’s road trip. Koll was the first to find the demo.

He handed it to me while Thorpe explained that Identical is “way better live. We have so much energy it’s hard to put that on a disc.”

Shrugging his shoulders Koll added, “We’re not really happy with the quality of that CD.” They alleged their live sound is a combination of euphoric and tantric. Identical is currently in the very early stages of working on a full length CD, and have a few new songs in the works.

So what is a live Identical show like? Koll laughed, “We’ve had a lot of injuries. We even have a list on our website of all of the ones that have happened at our shows.” At one show Thorpe split his eye open with his head stock, and he took a stage dive and smacked his eye. One of their fans had such a massive knee injury she needed to have surgery.

With stories of broken wrists and cracked heads, it seems no one is safe from injury. So what happens when one of them is hurt on stage or while performing? They keep going. They’re proud of their intense stage shows, and have been told that once they enter the stage area, each member seems to be lost in a self-induced trance. Babel said that he had been toying with the idea of spitting fire on stage. After a little bit of harassment from his mates, he admitted, “I’ve never burned my mouth, but it does sting.”

Identical loves to play live. Burton said they “don’t really have bad shows, even if one person is off for the night, the energy of the other member’s covers any imperfection.” They love playing the Red Sea in Minneapolis, but also listed the Urban Wildlife Club, the St. Croix Club and the What’s Up Lounge as favorites. They truly believe that every show is an awesome show, they just love being on stage. Their main goal is to get the crowd moving.

The name Identical itself is an oxymoron. They say they are hard to put into one sub-genre of metal music. Thorpe described their sound as, “F*cking RAAAAAAAAAA!” They don’t really want their audience to know what is coming next. Identical infuses everything from punk, to samples, to blast beats in their music. Their influences range from Huey Lewis to Iron Maiden to Barry Manilow (Koll has seen him live twice). They agree to disagree on musical tastes, but their diversity makes a major impact on the sound of the band.

Koll said it best: “I know it’s good music when I can’t sit still – when I get goose bumps.”

Not one member is ashamed of his musical taste. During the discussion, Babel argued that “the 80s had way better guitarists” comparing past and present talents. The messages in their songs consist of societal issues, automated soulless people, and the consequences of keeping fair-weather friends.

“Anything we have comes from the inside,” Koll said. They want their songs to speak for themselves.

For the most part, Identical has had positive feedback from their fans. Thorpe said they don’t mind hearing if someone thinks they suck, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but if you think we suck, tell us why.” They are open to constructive criticism, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their after parties.

Currently they are booking their own shows. Thorpe said they are “working to bring it to the next level.” They all agreed that working with one of the bigger booking agencies in the area is hard to do. They feel they can’t play with most of the bands they’d like to because they’re not on a particular agency roster. “There’s a lot of bands out there that we want to play with, but can’t because their booking agency won’t let them play with us.” The rest of the band agreed with his frustration.
Even so, it seems that the band isn’t doing too bad for themselves. In the past three years, they’ve played in Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Eventually they are looking to tour on a national level. Identical is not a typical metal band. With a variety of influences, styles and intense live shows, it’s not hard to see why they are the cause of such a buzz in the local music scene. Their purpose is to entertain the masses, and they certainly do a great job at it.

EP REVIEW
Although the recording quality is not the greatest, Identical’s sound
surpasses the quality. The songs are well-written with intricate beats and well-developed lyrics. Each song is its own entity, but clearly from the same band. If this is just a hint of the full-length CD, it will be worth the wait. This EP gets 4 horns out of 5.

www.identicalband.com

Filed under: Issue #1