The Artist: I am the unicorn head - "Eating Cornbread In Quarantine"

 I am the unicorn head

...are introducing themselves to the world with this indie/alternative infused effort detailing the mental struggles they went through during the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic. When English musician ‘Kid A’ felt isolated in the pandemic, he sought online collaborators on Reddit. An American musician (from Baltimore) delighting in the name ‘Dragon Lord Apocalypse’ replied, and this meeting of minds soon led to the formation of the band. Sharing files online to collaborate on worked so well that they already have a relatively large body of work. This debut release is meaningful to the band as it was the first song they completed together, and relates to the very events that led them forming in the first place. 

Their music is eclectic and covers numerous mutually appreciated genres including alternative, indie, prog, math rock, psychedelic, and garage rock. Although hard to define, listeners have likened the band to the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Modest Mouse, and Sparklehorse, among others. The band plans to release a series of singles, released every 6/8 weeks over the next year, culminating with a full album release (including these singles and other tracks). 

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Eating Cornbread in Quarantine

Was für ein Titel und der Bandname selbst auch sehr ungewöhnlich, da muss man ja einfach mal reinhören, dachte ich. So auch geschehen. Und was bekommt man? Math-Rock meets Pop würde ich sagen, auch ein wenig Post-punk vielleicht auch etwas 70er Jahre Rock. Also einen wirklich guten Genre Mix von den zwei Jungs. Eine eingängige Melodie öffnet gewissermaßen die Tür und fordert den Zuhörer auf einzutreten oder macht ihn zumindest neugierig weiter zuzuhören. Darauf folgen Vocalparts bei denen man mitsingen will, gut balancierte rhythmisch-melodische Strukturen, nicht zu kompliziert, sprich man bleibt eher auf der kommerziellen Seite und geht nicht ganz in den experimentellen Artrock über. Hin und wieder schimmern leicht 70er Jahre angehauchte Rocksound Elemente durch, was zum einen natürlich dem Sounddesign geschuldet ist, andererseits zweifellos am Arrangement bzw. dem Genre liegt. Die Zutat "Psychedelic" komplettiert respektive rundet den beachtenswerten Debutsong ab. Da die Band weitere Releases plant, bin ich hier schon aufs nächste Stück gespannt. 

Q&A

"I am the unicorn head" is...?

DLA - We are a two piece band from different countries that met on Reddit and decided to start a virtual band. Neither of us seem to be the charismatic type that wants attention on us but as artists with that creative itch to make something weird and cool it can be quite an internal conundrum. We decided to make a fictional Unicorn character our mascot to take the focus off of us as people and let us feel comfortable in releasing interesting music. 

KID A – As we can’t play live, or be in the same room together, for videos, photoshoots etc, we’ve had to think outside the box. We are both very pleased with the music we’ve been recording,and needed a way to get noticed outside the usual band dynamic and template. We wanted a very original band name, branding, image and songs. We think we have succeeded on that brief.

Who inspired you to make music in general?

DLA - I just love being creative. I like coming up with different ways of piecing together a song. My favourite way to write a song is to start with an interesting rhythm and build from there

Kid A – I am an obsessive music fan, and vinyl record collector. I draw influence from every great piece of music I’ve heard, whatever the genre. I have a burning desire to create interesting things (I make our videos and artwork as well). Working with Dragon Lord is great because we both seem to encourage each others’ sense of the surreal or bizarre.

...and especially to the song "Eating Cornbread in Quarantine"?

DLA -  With Eating Cornbread I wrote many different parts at different times during my obsessive odd time signature chapter of writing (which isn’t over). I realized I could piece them all together and had a wild mess of a song but I felt good about it. At the time that I completed my first demo of the song I was in quarantine. The song was instrumental then and I was in the middle of writing an album that focused on telling science fiction or supernatural stories. So I decided to do the opposite and write about what was literally going on around me with some influence from hanging out with my kids while they were home from school and all stuck inside. My wife also makes some delicious cornbread and the line became “Eating Cornbread in Quarantine” around the dinner table. The rest came easy. 

KID A – Each of our songs has evolved differently. Originally, we sent each other around five tracks we had been working on, and we would each develop the others’ initial song idea. That gave us an album’s worth of material very quickly. This particular song was originated by Dragon Lord, and I found it very interesting to work with. It was originally nearly 7 mins long, but I thought it was ‘hooky’ enough for a much shorter single. I cut the song up into various sections, deleted parts, stitched bits together, and then wrote my own guitar, and mellotron parts. The beauty of working this way is that we end up with a final result, we both like, and would never have come up with working separately, by ourselves.

When do you decide that a song is ready for a release?

DLA - First I have to come to terms with the fact that the song will never be perfect. There’s always something within a song I could improve on or develop more. But trusting that it’s a good song and understanding that the performance is just a snapshot in time of how I interpreted the song at that moment is all I can do to let it go and say done.

KID A – I also like to keep tinkering with a song, added extra instruments, samples, production effects etc. At some stage though, you have to release it into the wild, and let it make it’s own way in the world! The only criteria we have really, is that we must both like the track enough to want to release it, and that’s all that matters really.

What is your creative process like?

DLA - Usually I sit down and just play whatever comes to mind. I like to improvise and when I accidentally play something interesting I’ll press record and listen back in the car. I drive a lot for my job so it’s allowed me to listen back to my work and pick apart things that work and don’t work. Then I’ll put some drums to it and repeat the process until it feels right. With “I am the Unicorn Head” I am able to simplify the process because instead of doing everything myself like I’ve usually done I can make a demo and send it to Kid A (unicorn counterpart) and he helps develop it. When it becomes a process of collaboration it makes it a lot easier to have a wider perspective on how a song should turn out. When I’m doing it alone I get tunnel vision creatively and a lot of options of how to expand that sound never occur to me. 

KID A – I find that when I am inspired, ideas flood out of me in an uncontrollable way, that I can barely keep up with. However, conversely if I am not feeling inspired, I have had periods of over a year when I haven’t written any songs at all! Luckily for me, I find working with Dragon Lord a joy, because we like to always find something unusual or interesting to say, either musically or lyrically. That’s the kind of thing I am attracted to listen to myself, as an avid music fan.

What is the most useful talent you have?

DLA - All of my talent is pretty much music related. I’m pretty good at making a perfectly toasted marshmallow over a fire and I can run kind of fast. But other that that I play guitar, drums, piano, write, record, sing...all with varying degrees of competence. 

KID A – My biggest natural talent was as a footballer. I played semi-pro for a long time, and represented my region at all age groups, I used to score a lot of goals! My biggest love however, has always been music. I wouldn’t say I was the most gifted of musicians, but I like to think I am a good collaborator, who’s vision, and enthusiasm can help bring out the best in others.

If you could change anything in the past, what would it be?

DLA -That’s a loaded question. Who wouldn’t say something along the lines of kill baby Hitler? Maybe I can do you one better and just kick the first marine vertebrate to try to leave the water back into the sea.

KID A – I would change the result of the last UK election.The prime responsibility of government is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of it’s citizens. Our government has seen the pandemic as an opportunity to siphon off public funds to award billions of pounds worth of contracts to their friends, and party donors under the guise of ‘emergency measures’. They apply their full effort to avoiding scrutiny and accountability, while having overseen over one hundred thousand deaths, and counting. So many of those lives have been lost unnecessarily on the altar of unfettered greed!

How do you feel the Internet (especially Social Media platforms) has impacted the music business?

DLA - It’s a double edged sword...there’s a lot of ways to share your music and promote it but since it’s become so easy to release music it is a very saturated market. It is very difficult to get anyone to really listen to your music but it’s very easy to have it exposed to many. When I was growing up and someone handed me a demo I would put it in my CD player and sit and listen...and because it was something physical I could touch I would listen more often and with more attentiveness. Now it’s more of a clip of a song coming out of iPhone speakers while I’m also doing something else and I know that’s not just me.

KID A – If it wasn’t for the internet our band wouldn’t exist! I reached out for a singer on Reddit, and was fortunate enough to be contacted by Dragon Lord. I agree that there is a vast amount of music being released, but that makes you have to sharpen up your game to get noticed. I think we have a unique name, brand, image and music, and hope this sets us out from the norm. We are as far away from a ‘normal’ band as it’s possible to get. That probably ensures us a niche audience at best, but probably an audience of like-minded, interesting people. The sort of people who enjoy something original, rather than some generic, polished ,over produced major label chart fodder.

What’s next for you?

DLA - I am the Unicorn Head has been a fun project for me. I plan on continuing on this journey for awhile and see where it goes. I also play drums for a couple bands locally and I have another solo album in the works that I’m brainstorming. I stay busy musically...I think it’s a way to avoid existential dread.

KID A -  We have recorded a lot of songs, and have devised a release schedule. We will release five more singles (approx. six weeks apart), then gather these up with some new tracks to form our debut album, called ‘Future Dinosaurs’. In the short term, we are just hoping that our debut single manages to grab some attention, and finds as many listeners as possible!