“I’ve always been writing songs on my own,” explains Paul Kasner. “Friends help me bring it to life.” Yet for the first time, in May Kasner set out on his own with End of the Night. A hodge-podge of songs Kasner wrote in the past few years, his new solo album fits in nicely with Montreal’s indie-band music scene. It’s almost too easy a fit – with a production style oddly paired to Kasner’s sound, End of the Night falls short of the ear-catching uniqueness needed to make it stand out.
Kasner first picked up the guitar in high school, forming a band with a few friends. After over five years of playing and performing and countless band names, Kasner’s efforts ultimately led to the band Silk Screaming. The band has played at Pop Montreal for the last two years, and has opened for many Canadian and small American bands over the years, including California band We Are Scientists.
The transition to solo artist for Kasner stemmed “more out of frustration than anything else,” as band members successively dropped out and joined in over the years. After putting off his solo album’s release and allowing his personal compositions to pile up, Kasner finally put End of the Night online on May 1, in a soft release coinciding with his own birthday.
Kasner describes his music as “psychedelic-influence alt-rock.” His sound has been described by critics as “Sex Pistols meets Beach Boys,” a comparison Kasner deems fitting for his surf-punk pop sound. The songs on End of the Night read like a collection of various genres, reminiscent of musical history, including Hendrix-like guitar solos.
“It’s an amalgamation of my thoughts over the years,” Kasner says about End of the Night. “The central theme [is really in my] sound.” Citing The Dandy Warhols, Blur, Oasis, and the Velvet Underground as his influences, Kasner centres his music on simplicity and repetition. “When you find a combination of chords that really works,” he enthuses, “it induces you into a trance [and you] lose yourself in different parts.” Succinctly, Kasner is a firm believer in a ‘less is more’ philosophy, striving to emulate the greats he looks up to.
The lyrics on End of the Night reflect Kasner’s interest in simple, repetitive sounds. The album’s titular song includes such passages as “drive around/ head downtown […] have some more/ till you’re on the floor” and “off to a bar/ it’s not very far/ had some time to think/ now I need more drinks.” “Sympathy to the Man,” arguably the strongest track on End of the Night, is the best illustration of Kasner’s potential. The track has a down to earth, bare-bones acoustic sound that the rest of the album lacks.
Kasner’s professed belief in ‘less is more’ tends to get lost in End of the Night’s production. His effortless melodies and simplistic lyrics would best suit an acoustic sound, but Kasner opted instead for a fuzzy lo-fi finish. His proficiency on the guitar and the way his playing pairs seamlessly with soft singing tend to get lost in the intricate layers of sound effects he opted for.
By the time I finished listening to the whole album, Kasner’s songs had blended into a homogeneous whole. End of the Night makes for some laid-back easy listening, and this seems to be what Kasner was aiming for. But with no strong message running through it, Kasner’s work risks getting lost in the sea of indie albums.